It's up to Ryu
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin, center, is being congratulated by his teemmates after a successful six-inning performance at a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 13. With a slew of injuries in the team, pressures are mounting on the 26-year-old’s shoulders. / AFP-Yonhap
Injuries throw Korean rookie into bigger role in Tinseltown
By Kim Tong-hyung
When he signed a six-year, $36 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the winter, Ryu Hyun-jin expressed a determination to prove he’s starter material in Major League Baseball. Now, the circumstances are requiring him to prove that quickly.
Heading into the season, the Dodgers seemed to have one of the deepest starting rotations in the majors, headlined by the Cy Young-caliber duo of Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke and backed by capable veterans Chad Billingsley and Chris Capuano. Ryu wasn’t expected to do the heavy lifting he did in his seven seasons with the Daejeon-based Hanwha Eagles, perennial whipping boys of Korean professional baseball.
However, a slew of injuries have left the Dodgers with a pitching crunch. The team recently announced that Billingsley is headed for a season-ending Tommy John surgery for a torn shoulder ligament. Greinke is out until June after he broke his collarbone in a brawl with San Diego Padres’ outfielder Carlos Quentin earlier this month. Capuano is hobbled as well.
So the once-mighty Dodgers rotation is suddenly reduced to Kershaw and a number of unproven options. It’s critical for the team that Ryu steps up to the occasion because Boston Red Sox wash-up Josh Beckett and ailing veteran Ted Lilly can’t be described as reliable.
The Dodgers have been playing erratically lately, losing six consecutive games before winning the last two. Despite having a heart-of-the-order anchored by Adrian Gonzalez and Matt Kemp, they have been experiencing trouble generating runs, and the pitching crisis has heightened the sense of alarm.
After four starts, Ryu is 2-1 for the season with an earned-run-average of 4.01. Perhaps, his best performance of the season was his win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 13, when he struck out nine in six innings to contribute to a 7-5 victory, while getting his first three major league hits on the plate.
His worst performance came on the very next start, when he gave up five runs on eight hits over six innings in a 7-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
In seven seasons with KBO’s Hanwha Eagles, Ryu went 98-52 with an era of 2.80 and led the league in strikeouts several times.
As arguably Korean baseball’s best starter in the past decade, Ryu led the domestic league several times in wins and strike outs, thanks to his effective fastball-changeup combination.
However, Ryu’s fastball probably isn’t an above-average pitch at the major league level, considering the superior bat speed and plate coverage of the hitters. While his changeup seems good enough to be relevant, a changeup without the threat of a fastball isn’t much of a threat at all.
It remains to be seen whether Ryu can successfully retool himself as it seems certain that he won’t be missing bats in America as frequently as he did in Korea.