Is there more competition for talent?
Somehow, things have turned out that way. After 3 days, Samsung is in 8th place with 49 wins, 64 losses and 1 draw (0.434 winning percentage), Kiwoom is in 9th place with 51 wins, 70 losses and 3 draws (0.421 winning percentage), and Hanwha is in last place with 44 wins, 61 losses and 6 draws (0.419). Their win-loss margins are -15, -19, and -17, respectively. In terms of goal differential, 9th-place Kiwoom is farther from the lead than 10th-place Hanwha. This is because Kiwoom has played 13 more games than Hanwha.메이저놀이터
At this point, the three teams are separated by two games. Two or three consecutive wins and two or three consecutive losses could flip the standings. The realistic goal for these teams is to break away. They are already far behind KIA and NC in fourth place.
Samsung and Hanwha are in a hurry. Kiwoom is in a season where they are playing with virtually no pressure to perform due to the trade of Choi Won-tae (LG). Samsung and Hanwha started the season with top-five aspirations, but the latter faltered in the second half due to a string of injuries and a weak bullpen, and the former’s batting limitations.
Samsung is steeped in tradition, but it’s been a dark period since the move to Samsung Lions Park. Since their 2015 Korean Series runner-up finish, they’ve only made the postseason once (in 2021), but they’ve never finished in last place. A last-place finish this season would rewrite the club’s black history.
Hanwha, which is used to eating last place, will want to avoid it this year. The team signed three outside free agents (Chae Eun-sung, Lee Tae-yang, and Oh Sun-jin) and went the win-now route instead of rebuilding. The change of manager at the beginning of the season was also driven by a desperate need to perform. In such a situation, finishing last is bound to feel different than finishing last in previous years.
Kiwoom, who have effectively abandoned the season, are no strangers to finishing last. As a club, Kiwoom is tied to many sponsors. Finishing last would not have a good impact. They have less pressure than Samsung and Hanwha. However, they’ve played a lot more games than Samsung and Hanwha, so they’re actually more likely to finish last than Samsung and Hanwha. In terms of strength alone, they are the weakest of the three teams.
This is another reason to enjoy the final month of the regular season. It’s also a positive that if the three teams naturally split up and maintain their four-way win ratio, it will provide a healthy dose of tension for the other seven teams.
If there are not one, not two, but three teams in the chili pepper brigade, there is a good chance that it will somehow affect the race for the lead and the race for fourth and fifth place. Right now, Kiwoom swept a home three-game series against second-place KT last weekend, and Hanwha took both games of a weekend series from first-place LG. The teams at the top of the standings are on back-to-back losing streaks.
The last team to finish at the bottom of the quartet was NC in 2018. The team’s rapid decline from the start of the season led to the resignation of its first head coach, but the team finished the season with 58 wins, 85 losses, and 1 draw for a winning percentage of 0.406. NC returned to the postseason in 2019 and won its first overall title in 2020. There is a view that the 2018 season-ending split was the starting point. At the time, NC’s run of form kept the mid-table race tight until the very end.