“I’m happy to be in Korea. I feel the love of the fans.”
The KBO’s top ace, Eric Peddy (30, NC), brought his family to the All-Star Game. His brother Kevin came up with the idea of burning his passport. We caught up with him after the All-Star Game on the 15th, and he told us he’d be traveling to Busan with his family on the 16th. He finished the break in good spirits and joined the team for training on the 17th.
“I’m happy to be in Korea. I feel the love of the fans. I want to be strong in the second half.” In the second half of the season, Pedi is on track to reach a conquerable milestone, but not for everyone: a 20-1 ERA for the first time in 26 years since Kim Hyun-wook in 1997.토토사이트
Lotte pitching coach Kim Hyun-wook went 20-2 with six saves and a 1.88 ERA in 70 games during the 1997 season. He accomplished this feat while pitching 157.2 innings as a reliever. Since then, there have been a handful of pitchers with 20 wins and a few with an ERA in the single digits (1.82), including Hyun-jin Ryu in 2010, but no one has ever had both.
Realistically, it’s very difficult for a starting pitcher to win 20 games and have a sub-1 ERA at the same time. If you get sick, your pitching balance will be off, your wins will be fewer and your ERA will be higher. If you’re sick, 20 wins is a dream.
The closest pitcher in recent memory to reach 20 wins and a 1:1 ERA was Daniel Rios (Doosan) in 2007 with 22 wins and a 2.07 ERA. At the time, Rios went 5-0 with 234.2 innings pitched in 33 games. He pitched seven innings per start, and he often pitched on four or five days’ rest, which is not uncommon for Doosan’s native 3-5 starters. However, Rios was later caught using a banned substance.
This year, Pedi will try to conquer both 20 wins and a 1.00 ERA. In 15 games in the first half, he went 12-2 with a 1.71 ERA. NC plays 66 games in the second half. If Peddy stays in the rotation, he can start 13 games. From there, he’ll need to add eight wins and maintain a one-run ERA.
It’s not an easy mission by any means. If you give up one or two big runs, it’s hard to keep your ERA under 1. We only had two games where we gave up more than three runs in the first half. But as your stamina drops and you play more games per team, you get analyzed and you get read. Even with Pedi, there are no guarantees.
Still, Pedi has been the most consistent pitcher in the KBO this season. For starters, he’s averaging 149 kilometers on his fastball according to Baseball-Reference. He mixes it up with a curve, slider, changeup, and sweeper. His command of his pitches is exquisite, and he’s clever in designing different pitches. He’s not just a power pitcher, so there’s a good chance he’ll keep his ERA around 1.00 until the end of the season.
The final variable is the NC offense. In the first half of the season, they had good run support. There wasn’t much pressure on them, as their chances of winning increased by just 2-3 runs, but it’s true that they need to continue to support their offense in the second half to get to 20 wins. The NC batting lineup was generally up and down in the first half. At this point, they are the favorites in the Golden Glove race.