Lotte Giants players walk off the field with a disappointed look on their faces after losing 5-7 in the baseball game between Lotte
Giants and Kiwoom Heroes in the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul, South Korea, on May 28.
The Lotte Giants
Started this season with the full support of their parent group. But the end was just as humble. Lotte failed to make the postseason
again this year, making it the sixth consecutive year the team has not been invited to the fall stage.
The Giants went 0-7 against the LG Twins on Tuesday at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. With a 66-73 record, Lotte remains in seventh
place and is out of the postseason regardless of the rest of the season’s schedule.
With five games remaining, Lotte cannot finish higher than sixth place even if they win all of their remaining games.
After missing the postseason for four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016, Lotte made it to the fall stage once in 2017 with a
third-place finish, but from 2018 to this year, they failed to make it again for six straight years, further cementing their image as an underdog.
This is a huge disappointment considering their early season momentum.
Former coach Larry Sutton leaves the team mid-season.
Ahead of this season, Lotte signed ace Park Se-woong to a long-term contract worth up to 9 billion won for five years. The team
also spared no expense in signing outside free agents.
They brought in catcher Yoo Kang-nam from LG for four years and 8 billion won, and infielder Noh Jin-hyuk from the NC Dinos
for four years and 5 billion won. 카지노사이트랭크 They also signed starting pitcher Han Hyun-hee from the Kiwoom Heroes on a 3+1 year, 4 billion won contract.
In addition to this, Lotte also added a number of players who had a lot of experience but were unable to establish themselves in
their clubs, including Ahn Kwon-soo, Kim Sang-soo, Shin Jeong-rak, Yoon Myung-joon, and Lee Jung-hoon, to bolster weak positions.
Lotte’s investment seemed to pay off early on in the season, as they surged to the top of the standings.
A nine-game winning streak from late April to early May earned them the nickname “momentum baseball. Lotte’s April record was
18-6, good for first place. By the beginning of June, they were in the top half of the standings and looking good for fall baseball.
However, the team’s performance plummeted after a series of injuries. Foreign players Charlie Barnes, Dan Streeley, and Zach Rex fell into a slump.
By the end of June, discord among the coaching staff was evident and a complete coaching change was made, but the results did not change.
Lotte brought in Aaron Wilkerson and Niko Goodrum as replacement foreign players for the second half of the season, but it didn’t have much effect.
Lotte dropped to sixth place after losing to the Gwangju Kia Tigers on July 28 and hasn’t finished in the top five since.
The Lotte squad hangs their heads in shame.
In the process, manager Larry Sutton, who had led the team since mid-2021, voluntarily resigned. It was ostensibly for health reasons, but it was actually a dismissal.
Lee Jong-woon
A former Lotte coach, was promoted to acting head coach. Lotte went 11-9 in September, returning to a 5% monthly win rate for
the first time in four months since May (13-9), but the losses in between were too much and the team ended up missing out on the Fall Feast again this year.
Although the season is not yet completely over, Lotte is a favorite to finish in seventh place this year.
This has led some to believe that Lotte’s dark days have returned. In the past, Lotte went through a dark period from 2001 to 2007 with a record of 8-8-8-8-5-7-7.
After Jerry Royster took over in 2008, the dark age ended, but from 2018 to this year, the company has been ranked 7-10-7-8-8-7, suggesting a second dark age.
It has been pointed out that the reason why Lotte has repeatedly failed every year is not only because of the problems on the field,
but also because of the front office’s failure to properly support the players. In order to avoid repeating the same mistakes, Lotte
needs to overhaul not only the field but also the front office. 고스톱