▲ (left) Seunghwan Oh and (right) catcher Kim Eung-min


Seung-Hwan Oh (38, Samsung Lions) threw a fastball over 150km/h for the first time after returning to Korea.

After playing six seasons in major leagues in Japan and the United States, Oh Seung-hwan, who is equipped with a variety of changing balls, is throwing up a unique stone ball to regain the'End of the King'.

On the 26th, Seung-Hwan Oh made his first inning at the end of the 10th extended 6-6, in a visiting match against the professional baseball Lotte Giants at the Sajik Stadium in Busan, blocking 1 inning with no loss.

Despite the effects of the age of his late 30s and the void caused by the elbow sculptural surgery and suspension of business trips, Seung-Hwan Oh still boasted a powerful pitch.

Now, Seung-Hwan Oh is not a pitcher who plays with only a fastball.

Until 2013, Seung-Hwan Oh's direct-to-use ratio was close to 90%.

However, after Seung-Hwan Oh entered Japan in 2014, he increased the slider ratio and mounted a fork ball.

After entering the major league with lots of hitters, the rate of change was higher.

According to Japanese baseball data, Seung-Hwan Oh lowered the percentage of his direct hitting rate to 70.79% in 2014, the first year he spent at Hanshin Tigers, and instead increased the percentage of sliders to 21.64%.

In 2015, the second season in Japan, the direct hitting rate was further reduced to 69.14%.

The slider ratio has also been lowered to 19.98% and the forkball shooting rate has been significantly increased to 7.07%.

Seung-Hwan Oh won the salvation king of the Japan Central League for two consecutive seasons in 2014 and 2015.

As he entered the major leagues in 2016, Seung-Hwan Oh increased the percentage of players who used to change.

In 2016, analyzed by Brooks Baseball in the United States, Oh Seung-hwan's ball use rate was 60.5% for the fastball, 31.4% for the slider, 7.10% for the changeup, and 0.77% for the curve.

In 2017, he threw 61.75% fastball, 29.03% slider, 6.89% changeup, and 2.23% curve.

Seung-Hwan Oh raised the curve utilization rate in 2018 to 8.18%.

I lowered the direct hitting rate to 51.27%, mixed the curves frequently, and dazzled the batter.

Last year, Seung-Hwan Oh dropped the direct hitting rate to 44.07%.

Slider (37.14%), curve (12.98%), change-up (5.82%), etc., the rate of change has exceeded the fastball.

While playing 7 innings (1 win, 3 saves, 2 hold average ERA of 2.57) in the KBO League in 2020, Oh Seung-hwan's ball distribution is 58.7% for the fastball, 22.9% for the slider, 11.9% for the forkball, 3.7% for the curve, and 2.8% for the two-seam fastball. .

Seung-hwan Oh, who is confident in the way he speaks, is returning to Korea and pays attention to restoring his arrest.

In the major leagues, Seung-Oh Oh's average fastball redemption has fallen.

In 2016, the average redemption rate for fastballs was 151 km/h (93.53 miles) per hour, and in 2017, the average speed was 150 km/h (93.38 miles) per hour.

However, in 2018, the average fastball restraint fell to 148 km/h (92.15 miles) per hour, and it fell to 147 km/h (91.35 miles) per hour in 2019 when I felt elbow pain.

The average redemption rate for Oh Seung-hwan's fastball this year is 146 km/h.

However, the more you play, the higher the redemption is.

Seung-hwan Oh confidently said, “I was confident that after removing the elbow piece, I would be better after surgery. The restraint will be better than in 2019.”

(Photo = Yonhap News)