The lowest-ranking candidates sprinted in the demonstration game. Is it an optical illusion effect of spring, or have they really changed?
The professional baseball Hanwha Eagles and Samsung Lions ranked first and second, respectively, in the 2023 demonstration game. Hanwha’s strengths are a solid bullpen (2.69 ERA in the bullpen, 2nd place) and a high batting average (0.292, 1st place). The starting lineup, which includes foreign pitcher Birch Smith and sophomore fastball pitcher Moon Dong-ju, has also been strengthened.
Samsung ran 8 consecutive wins before meeting Hanwha on the 27th. Ja-wook Koo (batting average 0.400), who was sluggish last year, the first year of a multi-year contract, has come back to life, and Jose Pirella (batting average 0.306, two homers) is also alive and well. Lee Seong-gyu (batting average, 0.364, 5 home runs), Kim Tae-hoon (batting average, 0.294, 3 home runs), and Kim Dong-yeop (batting average, 0.300, 1 home run) are many promising players. 메이저놀이터
But an exhibition game is just a demonstration game. There were quite a few teams that picked up their pace in the early spring and stayed at the bottom of the regular season. Immediately, Hanwha also finished at the bottom of the regular season even after winning first place in the demonstration game in 2021. Both teams are classified in the lower ranks in the ranking predictions of experts. In fact, Hanwha had a lot of outside recruits last winter, but only one large-scale reinforcement was Chae Eun-seong. Samsung had no external recruitment.