Hanwha’s new foreign hitter, Brian O’Grady, is unusual.
He exhibits the appearance of a typical bullying hitter. The problem is that even if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit too well. I know that it has the power to get over if hit, but the problem is that I can’t hit it too much.
It would be more problematic if Hanwha did not know that O’Grady was this type of hitter. If it was possible to be satisfied with a home run that went over one by one, the sluggish batting that continued from the demonstration game was a sufficiently expected problem. 메이저놀이터
The Hanwha Eagles recruited foreign hitter Brian O’Grady in December of last year. The terms of the contract are a total of $900,000, including an annual salary of $700,000 and an incentive of $200,000.
Born in 1992, an American national, O’Gredi is a power-hitter type right-handed left-handed outfielder who can expect more than 20 homers. He can cover all outfield positions, including center fielder.
In 2019, he played for the Cincinnati-affiliated Triple A club and finished verifying his power by hitting 28 homers in one season. He recorded 91 home runs and 95 stolen bases in 658 games in 7 seasons in the minor leagues, and also hit 4 home runs in 62 games in 3 seasons in the major leagues.
In 2022, he experienced Asian baseball by playing for Seibu in Japan with Birch Smith. He showed his long hitting power by hitting double-digit home runs (15) on the Japanese stage as well.
Hanwha general manager Son Hyuk said, “O’Grady is an outfielder who can play both left and right corners in defense as well as center field, and has power in attack.” I decided to sign him because I knew he was a good player.”
Next, general manager Son said, “I spent a full-time season at Seibu in Japan and gained the experience of being intensively checked by opposing pitchers in the center of the batting line, and I expect that experience will help me quickly adapt to the KBO league.” said.
What kind of hitter was O’Grady playing for Seibu?
His overall performance was a batting average of 0.213, on-base percentage of 0.312, slugging percentage of 0.384, and 14 home runs.
If you look at the batting average by strike zone, you can see that O’Grady is a typical intimidating hitter.
O’Grady’s batting average by strike zone. the right side is the body
Looking at the graphic, you can see that he has confidence in attacking the inside ball. He left a decent batting average of 0.306 for balls coming into the inside strike zone. Four homers also came from inside the strike zone.
He was also strong in the low strike zone. Ten homers were hit in all three courses. It can be said that he showed a very surprising concentration on the ball that fell erratically.
However, the weakness was also in the lower course. He could not properly cope with manned balls that fell into the ball zone. He struck out a whopping 34 times in three courses.
He is a hitter with a strong upper swing, but he has a fatal weakness when it comes to falling and attracting balls.
The performance by hitting direction also shows O’Grady’s tendency as it is.
O’Grady had a batting average of just 0.071 on thrust balls. The batted ball sent to the middle had a batting average of 0.212. However, the batting average of the hit ball soared to 0.438 (14 home runs).
It is a figure that shows that there was no mercy when caught in a swing that pulls. However, he showed a weakness for pushing and hitting balls to the middle.
The miss rate was also high at 13.83%.
It can be seen that O’Grady in Japan was a giant gun if it worked out well, and a blackmail gun if it didn’t work out. He’s a hitter who can strike out huge numbers if he doesn’t properly counter his contact skills, especially low-dropping manned pitches.
Just looking at this simple data shows that O’Grady is an inaccurate black-and-white hitter.
In Japan, Hanwha explained that it suffered from intensive checks. However, the concentration check is the same in Korea. It was obvious that he would never give a good ball, keep dropping the ball, and induce O’Grady’s swing.
If this was overlooked, Hanwha’s scouting could be said to have been a failure from the start. Of course, it can be said that Japanese pitchers are ahead of Korean pitchers in their ability to use breaking pitches, but this can be interpreted as looking at Korean pitchers too easily.
I don’t want to think that Hanwha would have recruited him without knowing this. It can be said that he was able to put up with O’Grady’s low batting average by knowingly recruiting him. Even if accuracy is low, if you have the ability to hit a single shot at any time, you can read the meaning that you will be judged as having done your part.
But the start is very bad.
His batting average is 0.114 in the demonstration game and 0.111 in the regular season. Did you think you could handle this level?
If it exceeds the expected level, it seems that Hanwha’s concerns will inevitably deepen.