“I’m not going to pull out.”
Hanwha head coach Choi Won-ho (50) expresses his sympathy for Noh Si-hwan (23), who hasn’t been in the best of form lately. “It’s the end of the season and I have to go to the national team. His pace has definitely dropped recently.
“I’m sure it’s hard for him, but it’s not a situation where he won’t play,” Choi Won-ho said ahead of his team’s 2023 KBO League regular season game against SSG at Daejeon’s Hanwha Life Eagles Park on Nov. 19.
“If it was really hard, he came to me first and said, ‘Why don’t you bat as a designated hitter,’ so I went out as a designated hitter yesterday,” he said, showing a bitter smile.
In 123 games this season, Noh has exploded for a .298 batting average, 30 home runs, 96 RBIs, a .388 on-base percentage, a .549 slugging percentage, and a .937 OPS. That’s MVP pace.
His last five games, however, have not been good. In five games from December 12-18, he’s just 2-for-16 with a .125 batting average. No home runs, no RBIs. His OPS is 0.388.
This can be attributed to a decline in fitness. There are about 20 games left in the season. It’s inevitable that any player will lose fitness. However, Noh has been playing all season as the team’s center fielder. He started every game.
On the 17th, they played a doubleheader against KT. They lost both games. Game 2 was the big one. They had to wait a whopping 204 minutes due to rain during the game. That’s three hours and 24 minutes.
The players were tired, the coaching staff was tired, and the fans were tired. The fans were too. On the 18th, there was an aftermath. Chae Eun-sung was pulled from the game. Noh Si-hwan was the designated hitter.
Coach Choi Won-ho said, “In yesterday’s game, Chae Eun-sung looked like she couldn’t play. She couldn’t move. The bat wasn’t even spinning. Noh Si-hwan came to me first and told me, so I sent him out as a designated hitter.”
He also said, “It’s unusual that Noh Si-hwan came and spoke first. For example, we played a doubleheader against Kiwoom in Gochuk on the 9th. I took one game as a designated hitter. Noh Si-hwan came up and said he would play third base in both games. He didn’t want to play. I stopped him,” he recalled.메이저놀이터
In 23 days, the Korean baseball team for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games will convene. I can’t help but pay attention to that. His pace has sagged, and it’s a complicated situation mentally. Still, he doesn’t want to take a break.
Even as a coach, I wish I could give him a break, but I can’t. He’s an integral part of the team. That’s why I feel even more sorry for him.