By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Kia Tigers haven't won a championship since 1997 and a slow start this season all but assures the drought of ineptitude reaches Year 11.
At the center of the team's struggles is Choi Hee-seop, the colossal first baseman who was supposed to be the cornerstone in restoring the once-proud franchise back to respectability, but is now condemned for his impotence at the plate.
The Tigers, who finished last in 2007 for just the second time in franchise history, are currently 14 games out of first place with a 11-22 record and have their tortured fan base in Gwangju collectively groaning ``here we go again."
It wasn't supposed to be like this, not after an aggressive off-season had the Tigers thinking big.
Choi, who hit .337 after joining the team in midseason from the Tampa Bay Rays last year, was touted as a most valuable player candidate and Wilson Valdez, a Los Angeles Dodgers product, was expected to add speed and extra-base power.
Seo Jae-weong, another Rays castoff, and Jose Lima, a former 21-game winner for the Houston Astros, were penciled in as reliable options to put in front of strikeout artist Yoon Suk-min in the starting rotation. Flame-throwing relievers Lee Beom-seok and Han Ki-joo vowed to turn games into seven-inning affairs.
The optimism of spring failed to last for more than a quarter of the schedule. Patience was never a virtue for manager Cho Bum-hyun, who has already pulled the plugs on Lima and Valdez and is looking for their replacements.
Cho, a former catcher, would love to use both of the spots reserved for foreign players on pitchers, but Choi's miseries at the plate make it a complicated decision.
The 29-year-old is hitting .209 with four homeruns and 13 RBIs. Choi is third in the league with 29 strikeouts and his slugging average of .339 in the middle of the order is putting further strain on the Tigers' thin lineup.
Throughout his anonymous career in the United States, Choi still was credited for his good strike-zone judgment and ability to draw walks. However, his current on-base percentage of .270 suggests otherwise.
Choi's inability to hit inside pitching, which wrote his eulogy from Major League Baseball, continues to bother him in a lesser league in South Korea, where pitchers are quickly learning how to exploit his long swing.
``Choi has so many holes in his swing," said Samsung Lions manager Sun Dong-yol, considered among the country's greatest pitchers of all-time after a playing career mostly spent with the Tigers.
``Pitching to him is easy ― just avoid putting the ball right in the middle of the plate. He is not going to touch inside pitches and won't be sending outside pitches with authority either.
``His swing is long and his reaction is slow. He is failing to catch pitches around the mid-140s (kilometers per hour)," he said.
Choi, who says he is practicing ``harder than ever," admits that pitchers have him figured out and it's now his turn to readjust. However, he won't be making any drastic changes to his mechanics midseason, such as shortening his swing.
``When I joined the team last year, we were already in last place and playing for nothing," said Choi.
``Now, pitchers have better ideas about how to attack me, but I think I will get better as the season progresses," he said.
Watching Choi struggle to produce at Mudeung Stadium, where short fences make it clearly a hitter's park, it is hard to believe that he was once lauded as a prospect with a chance to become the best Chicago Cubs first baseman since Ernie Banks.
Major league scouts and baseball analysts, including stats guru Bill James, had drooled over Choi's potential in his younger days, praising his tremendous power and patience at the plate and projecting him as a 30-homerun, 90-RBI guy.
However, after struggling through sporadic playing time with the Cubs, Florida Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Rays before landing with the Tigers, Choi is now living proof of a famous ``Moneyball" passage ― ``Good hitters develop power. Power hitters don't become good hitters."