Managers in the Major League Baseball also care about the record

Many Koreans wrongly believe that managers in the Major Leagues don’t care much about the record. People think that the management style of Kim Seong-geun, manager of the Hanwha Eagles, is hardly seen in the Major Leagues, which is not the case.

Manager Clinton Merrick Hurdle of the Pittsburgh Pirates where Kang Jung-ho plays for is recognized as a manager who maps out “the most strategic plan” for the team as of the 2014 season. It can be seen from the starting lineup he brings out. Not a single day goes without lineup’s change. Even when the team is leading the game, the manager modifies the list of players for the game. Targeting at left-handed Jorge Alberto De La Rosa of the Colorado Rockies on Monday, he drew up the lineup of right handers, taking out Pedro Alvarez who hit the most homers of 21 and second baseman switch-hitter Neil Walker. Kang was neither on the starting lineup nor appointed as a substitute.

What’s interesting is that right-handed Kang is not strong against left-handers in the Leagues. While Kang has remarkably recorded the batting average of 0.300, nine homers and two RBIs against right-handed hitters, he had the batting average of 0.244, three homers and nine RBIs against left-handed ones. Given this, it doesn’t appear that Clinton Hurdle excluded Kang from the game where left-handed La Rosa took the mound. Rather, the manager wanted shortstop Jordy Mercer to maintain the sense of the game.

Kang, however, used to be strong against left-handed pitchers in Korean baseball league. In 2012, he recorded the batting average of 0.341, higher than his 0.314 in the same year. He also showed strong performance against left-handed pitchers with the batting average of 0.392 during the last season.

Last year before Kang joined the team, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ lineup recorded sixth place in homers and fifth place in the batting average in the entire Leagues while the team showed weak performance against left-handed pitchers. With the on-base plus slugging percentage or OPS against left-handed ones at 0.691, the team came 21st out of the 30 teams in the Leagues. One of the reasons the Pittsburgh Pirates chose Kang was that he is strong against left-handed pitchers. “It can be seen as a matter of different types. In the domestic league, there are few left-handed pitchers who threaten opposing hitters other than Yang Hyeon-jong (KIA) and Kim Gwang-hyeon (SK). On the other hand, there are many players with irregular pitching in the Major Leagues where players’ selection is decided with a certain strategy in ball quality and left-handed pitchers in the bullpen. This seems the reason Kang is having hard time adjusting in the Leagues,” commentator Song Jae-woo of the Major Leagues analyzed.