Park‘s weak pitching threatens Eagles‘ playoff hope

By Kang Seung-woo

On the back of the signings of former Major League pitcher Park Chan-ho and slugger Kim Tae-kyun, the Hanwha Eagles are emerging as the favorite to make a deep run into October this season.

However, unexpected poor performances on the mound are seen as a factor to determine the postseason fate of the Daejeon-based club, as Park and American hurler Brian Bass struggled to fit the description of former U.S. big-league players.

The Eagles, which have missed the playoffs since 2007, wrapped up the preseason on Sunday after finishing third with a 5-2-4 record and manager Han Dai-hwa came up with a five-man starting rotation that included Park and Bass.

One thing tarnishing the Eagles’ preseason achievement is that the hurlers from Major League Baseball (MLB) combined for three losses out of four.

The 38-year-old Park, to whom the Eagles signed a one-year contract, hoping he still has something left in his tank, was not who they thought he was.

The right hander, who has a career record of 124-98 with a 4.36 ERA in his stint with seven Major League clubs between 1994 and 2010, started in two games and surrendered 12 runs in 8 1/3 innings with a 12.96 ERA. In addition, his opponents’ batting average was .410 and walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP), a measure of a pitcher’s ability to prevent batters from reaching base, was 2.16. Kia Tigers’ Yoon Suk-min, who led the league in WHIP last season, posted a 1.05.

Bass, a former teammate of Park at the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2010, logged two losses in as many appearances with an 8.59 ERA. His batting average against and WHIP were .457 and 2.32, respectively.

Despite growing concerns swirling around him, Park was satisfied with his outings in which he tested local players as well as his pitching.

“Although he showed poor performances in exhibition games, I believe he will contribute to the team with his wealth of experience while playing in the MLB,” the Eagles manager said after picking him for the rotation.

It is a silver lining for the three-year manager that three other starters — Ryu Hyun-jin, Yang Hoon and An Seung-min — were impressive, allowing combined seven runs — six earned — over 31 2/3 innings with a 1.73 ERA.

Especially, Ryu, a left-handed fireballer, made it clear that he has completely recovered from injury, yielding just one run over 11 innings in two outings.

In offense, Kim Tae-kyun, who returned from the Japanese league, went 10-for-25 for a .400 in 10 games, while producing two home runs and eight hits to draw favorable predictions that he will be able to produce 30 homers and 100 RBIs from baseball commentators.