Kiwoom Heroes Lee Jung-hoo has officially declared his overseas expansion.
An official from Kiwoom said on the 19th, “Lee Jung-hoo has shown his will to advance overseas. The club applauds Lee Jung-hoo’s challenge. When work begins in January next year, we plan to decide (approval or not) through internal discussions.”
Kiwoom, which previously actively supported Kang Jeong-ho, Park Byeong-ho, and Kim Ha-sung’s advance into the major leagues, welcomes Lee’s challenge, so there seems to be no reason to withhold approval. If Lee Jeong-hoo wants to advance to the major leagues, he must follow the posting system. If Kiwoom decides to support Lee Jung-hoo’s will this time, it will happen in about a year.
Lee Jung-hoo is highly likely to step on the American soil with the best treatment ever from the KBO League. It is likely to surpass Ryu Hyun-jin in 2013 (6 years, $36 million) and Kim Ha-seong in 2021 (4 years, 28 million dollars).
You can refer to Masataka Yoshida, a Japanese outfielder who signed a five-year, $90 million contract with the Boston Red Sox this time. Considering the recent heightened evaluation of Asian beasts, Lee Jung-hoo could be the first Korean to win more than 50 million dollars next year.
Let’s take a look at the recent international prospect rankings of players from Korea, Japan, and Latin America by Fangraphs, a major league statistical analysis site. Lee Jung-hoo was ranked 5th out of 72 people evaluated. The top 스포츠토토 four are Murakami Munetaka (Yakult), Yamamoto Yoshinobu (Orix), Senga Godai (New York Mets, former Softbank), and Sasaki Loki (Chiba Lotte), all Japanese players.
This is a report by Lee Jung-hoo, introduced by Fangraphs.
“Like Beau Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Lee Jung-hoo has an important baseball pedigree in Korea. His father, Lee Jong-beom, was a five-tool superstar who recorded 84 stolen bases in one season and seven 20+ home run seasons. Lee Jung-hoo is much more mature than his father. He is the first player in KBO history to reach the top of the pro right after graduating from high school. Lee Jung-hoo, who joined the league at the age of 19, has an elite contact ratio and, more recently, a power hit. worked, but he became MVP with 23 home runs and 60 extra-base hits in 2022. He’s gotten far more walks than strikeouts in the last three years, but his strikeout rate is just 5% this year. Less than 8% of players are only Lee Jeong-hoo. Lee Jung-hoo shows one of the sweetest looking swings on the planet. The bat trajectory that hits a high-flying fastball is also very good. It is that the ground ball rate is close to 60% and it is weak against fast balls. It hit 109 balls over 93 miles and recorded a batting average of 0.226, an on-base percentage of 0.273, and a slugging percentage of 0.419. This is a risk factor in adapting to the major leagues. This is why it seems that there will be no change in the future value we evaluate. Lee Jung-hoo is a very interesting player because he started his KBO career at a young age and could become an ML free agent next year at the age of 25. Next year off He is considered one of the most popular players of the season.”
Fangraphs summarized Lee Jung-hoo’s characteristics as a natural talent inherited from his father, quick adaptability, sophisticated vision and smooth swing. It is also appropriate to point out that he is weak against fast balls.
The stage where Lee Jung-hoo can directly appeal to major league officials is the World Baseball Classic (WBC) next March. A large number of world-class players from the United States, Japan, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada participate. Korea will face Japan, Australia, China and the Czech Republic in Group B of the first round. If they make it to the quarterfinals, they can meet Cuba or the Netherlands, who are expected to finish first or second in Group A. You have to reach the semifinals to get in touch with players from the United States and the Dominican Republic.
It is unknown whether he will perform more explosively than this year in Kiwoom next year, but Fangraphs said, ‘Regardless of his performance in 2023, the future value of Lee Jung-hoo has been confirmed’. This means that the major league evaluation ended positively. All you have to do is digest full time without injury.