“Let’s not try to do too much” Lohas’ small promise

The bat of Jose Rojas (30, Doosan Bears) has finally come to life.

As of the 10th, Rojas is recording a batting average of 0.225, 10 homers and 33 RBIs. His batting average is still low, but the pessimism surrounding him not too long ago is fading away. On June 28 alone, his batting average was only 0.192. The story of being kicked out was constantly coming out, and the wait for Doosan coach Lee Seung-yeop seemed to be slowly coming to an end.

Since then, Rojas’ 9-game batting average has reached 0.429 (12 hits in 28 at-bats). It’s hard to see it as a short-term, and it’s not the result of luck. Significantly, the quality of at-bats improved. During this period, he was the only player in the league to record double digits with 10 walks. The contact rate was 90% and the strikeout rate per at-bat was only 5.3%.

What changed LOHAS? The average batted ball speed during this period was 136.8 km/h (based on Sports 2i), which is not much different from the record (138.3 km/h) before June 28. Instead, the batted ball angle, which had reached an average of 32 degrees before, fell to 14.8 degrees. It can be seen as a process in which batted balls that floated senselessly and were caught by fielders in the vast Jamsil Stadium in Seoul are adjusted to a productive level.

The change of batted ball is not a technical adjustment. Instead, as can be seen from the number of walks, his starting point improved rapidly. His pioneering plan is something that coach Lee Seung-yeop regretted from the beginning of the season. He tried to readjust it by sending him to the Futures (2nd team) team, but the results did not come out easily. I wanted to stabilize his mentality rather than adjusting his batting form, but it was not easy.

As more time passed, Lohas began to change as director Lee Seung-yeop intended. In an interview with this magazine, Rojas said, “(Recently) I have become very relaxed mentally. It seems to work well to put the focus on the mental rather than the technical.” 

The strength of Lee Young-soo, the hitting coach of the Future Team, who has been attached as his exclusive coach in the first team, is also great. Coach Lee, who was with Rojas when he went down to Future Steam, came up to the first team to help him when Rojas did not recover his skills even after returning to the first team. This attempt led to success. Rojas explained, “Coach Lee talks a lot about the mental aspect. ‘Let’s not try to do too much’ and ‘You can do it’. It’s a simple story, but it helped me a lot.” “I tried to hit every ball,” he reflected. It wasn’t easy to overcome this, but I’m working on it little by little.메이저놀이터

With Lohas awakening, Doosan is expected to finish the first half with the three foreigners at their peak. Ace Raul Alcantara, who has been active throughout the season, and Brandon Waddell, who has an average ERA of 0.90 in 3 games, have joined the starting lineup, and the starting lineup has been very stable. After Brandon joined on June 24, the average ERA of the Doosan starters was 1.99, unrivaled 1st place (2nd place Hanwha Eagles 3.00). 

Since June 29, when Lojas awakened, the team has scored 47 points in 9 games. It is also in second place after the KIA Tigers (52 points), which are also seeing the effect of returning injured players.

All that remains is to maintain the pace in the second half. Rojas laughed, saying, “This is baseball. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow right now,” without being optimistic or pessimistic. Still, thanks to LOHAS, coach Lee Seung-yeop ended the first half with a smile.