The hottest pitch among pitchers in the KBO League recently is the ‘sweeper’. It is a type of deformity slider, so named because it sweeps across home plate horizontally.
The ‘trend’ of sweepers started with Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels). In the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March this year, he played for the Japanese national team and induced the winning strikeout against Mike Trout of the U.S. national team, and the ball he threw was the sweeper.
Ohtani uses the sweeper as his main weapon in the big leagues and is on a winning streak this year as well.
Even in the KBO League,메이저놀이터 there are pitchers who use the sweeper freely. It is Eric Peddy (30), the ace of the NC Dinos.
Pedy, who entered the KBO league for the first time this year, is commanding the league with a sweeper as his main weapon along with a two-seam fastball in the late 140 km/h range.
Peddy, who has played 44 innings in 7 games so far on the 14th, is showing off his overwhelming skills with an average ERA of 1.02 with 5 wins and 1 loss. The number of wins is tied for the lead with Adam Plutko (LG Twins), the average ERA is by far the lead, and detailed indicators such as on-base per inning rate (0.95) and hit rate (0.195) are also excellent.
Peddy was also satisfied, saying that the newly added ‘Sweeper’ was working well.
He said, “This is a pitch I learned ahead of this season. The curve I was throwing had a strong tendency to bend laterally, but it became easier to deal with the batter by throwing the sweeper in the middle of the cutter and curve.” He smiled and said, “There are many cases where I posted or struck out.”
Los Angeles Angels Shohei Ohtani. ⓒ AFP=News1
Domestic pitchers who watched Ohtani’s sweeper on the TV screen were impressed by actually watching Peddy’s. Even Ahn Woo-jin (Kiwoom Heroes), one of the best pitchers in the league, after seeing Pedi’s sweeper, said, “It moves like a horse. Next time we meet, I want to ask how he throws it.”
Peddy also heard of An Woo-jin’s ‘interest’. He said happily, “If I have a chance to meet you next time, I will share my throwing method. Any player, not just Ahn Woo-jin, can tell me.”
Wouldn’t it be burdensome to pass on the ‘secret’ to an ace of another team, not the same team? But Peddie shook his head.
He said, “I also learned sweeper grip and throwing from Shelby Miller (LA Dodgers), who belonged to another team.” “As a baseball player, it is not difficult to share knowledge about baseball. If we develop each other, the sport of baseball becomes more fun.” There will be a competitive advantage,” he said.
He is even more tolerant of his teammates, as he is willing to inform other team players. He said that he had already passed on the sweeper to young pitchers in the team, such as Shin Min-hyuk and Lim Jeong-ho. Of course, it is up to the learner to learn enough to use in practice.
“I have a lot of colleagues who are passionate about learning new things,” said Peddy. “I feel comfortable letting the players know because I can always meet them. For a pitcher, adding one pitch is very important.”
Peddy, who is ‘bombing’ the KBO league with a sweeper as his main weapon, had a little regret last month. He was nominated for the monthly MVP in April, but was not awarded because he was pushed by Na Kyun-ahn (Lotte).
In fact, looking at his record alone, it was surprising that Peddy, who had a monthly earned run average of 0.47, did not receive it. Peddie also said that he felt somewhat disappointed after expecting the award.
NC Dinos Pedi. (provided by NC)
He laughed, saying, “I was looking forward to it, but I was disappointed to hear that I failed to win the award,” but said, “But I am more motivated because I think I have enough competitiveness.
However, in the KT Wiz game on the 9th, Kang Baek-ho and Anthony Alford hit home runs, breaking the record for ‘no-frills home run’ and 0-point ERA.
Peddie said, “I thought that the average ERA in the 0-point range would go up someday because it is a crazy record that goes up even with 1 run in 9 innings.” I promised,” he said.
I have already set my personal goal in the KBO League this season. “Of course, the team’s victory is the most important thing, but if I’m going to be greedy, I want to be first in innings, strikeouts, and ERA,” said Peddy.