“I don’t think it’s a fitness issue”
If the LG Twins had Shin Min-jae this season, they had Moon Sung-joo last year. He started as a backup outfielder, but his accurate hitting helped him break through.
In the month of July, he showed a tremendous 3 for 7 batting average and quickly rose to the top of the batting order. If he continued to hit well until the end of the season, it was expected that he could compete for the batting title with Ki Um Jung-hoo by filling up regular at-bats.
However, his hitting dropped off in the fall. After batting 3-for-3 and 6-for-6 through August, he slumped to 1-for-4 and 9-for-9 in September, and he was unable to fill in his regular innings. He finished the season 3-for-3 with six home runs and 41 RBIs.
This season, his bat has also fallen off in the second half of the season. After batting 3-for-1 through July, Moon went just 2-for-5 in August and has struggled through three games in September, going 2-for-9 with two home runs and a 2-for-2 slugging percentage. Through four days, he is 3-for-2 with 111 hits, two home runs and 38 RBIs on the season, so it will be important to see if he can maintain his 3-for-3 batting average.
LG manager Yoon Kyung-yeop diagnosed Moon’s late-season slump in January at Arizona’s spring training camp, saying, “It was physically difficult for him to play a full-time season for the first time.”
But as the season progressed, he changed his mind. “I don’t think it’s a physical problem,” Yeom said.
“I thought that Moon Sung-ju had a fitness problem last year, so I paid a lot more attention to his fitness this year than the other players,” Yeom said of Moon’s fitness management. “I gave him a lot more rest than other outfielders such as Park Hae-min and Hong Chang-ki, and lowered his batting order so that he could maintain a batting average in the 3.32 range until the end of the season without any physical difficulties.”안전놀이터
In fact, Park Hae-min played 112 games in the leadoff spot, while Hong Chang-ki batted top of the order and had 517 plate appearances. Moon Sung-ju, on the other hand, played 105 games and had 429 at-bats. The lower order batsmen had fewer at-bats. That’s why he had to make more physical saves.
Nevertheless, Moon’s batting dulled over the summer. “First of all, I’m sure it’s not a physical problem,” Yeom said, hinting that there were other technical issues.
Will Moon’s September end in a slump like last year’s, or will he rebound? Moon had two hits with two grounders against KT on September 5, but went 0-for-4, dropping his batting average to 2-for-9.