SSG move well ahead for winning rate of 70%

Leading pro-baseball team SSG confirmed their top position for the 1st in the first half of the year. By winning their game against the 2nd ranked Kiwoom on Tuesday with a score of 7-3, SSG widened their gap between the number of winning games versus losing games to 3.5 matches. After opening the season well with a tie record of 10 successive wins in maximum number of consecutive winnings, SSG never lost their top place.

The present winning rate of SSG is 0.683 as of Tuesday nearing the dream winning rate of 70 percent. In pro-baseball games, only OB (0.700) and Samsung (0.706) closed the season with 70 percent winning rate in 1982, the first year of its pro-baseball years and in 1985, respectively. Both records were all achieved under the six-club system. Until last season, the best winning rate for the past 10 years was recorded by Doosan in 2016 of 0.650.

As the games pile up, managing winning rate becomes more and more difficult. However, SSG recently won five consecutive games pulling up their pace to nine wins one loss this month. The winning rate, which fell as low as 0.636 last month, has been raised to a higher level than before.

There is also good news. Moon Seung-won who fell behind last year from his Ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) surgery ran his recovery match against Samsung on Sunday. Moon as the starting resource will be promoted as the bullpen pitcher for the time being to strengthen the fundamentals of the team. Park Jong-hoon who had an elbow surgery at a similar time as Moon is expected to join the team in the second half of the year.

SSG have recently scouted the new foreign pitcher Shawn Morimando and the batter Juan Lagares. While the existing foreign hitter and first base man Kevin Cron was performing sluggish, the pseudo rookie Jeon Eui-san improved significantly in his skills and the team now has a new alternative of foreign outfielder. SSG are expected to have breathing room other than their outfield management. Juan Lagares who is joining SSG from the New York Mets and won the National League Gold Glove Award as outfielder in 2014.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com