“If you look at this season alone, he is a ‘Class A’ long hitter.”
Hanwha Eagles infielder Noh Si-hwan (23) is the brightest player this season. He takes the overwhelming lead in this section with his 30th home run of the season. Over the past four seasons, Noh Si-hwan’s career home run hit only 37 home runs, but this year, he hit 30 home runs before the season was even over. This is the birth of a new slugger.
Hanwha coach Choi Won-ho, who met with reporters before the away game against Kiwoom Heroes held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 10th, said, “If you look at Noh Si-hwan’s performance this season, he is a ‘special A-level’ long hitter. He added, “We are close to reaching 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, which are representative figures for a long hitter.” As of the 10th, Noh Si-hwan is recording 30 home runs and 96 RBI.
Choi Jeong (SSG Landers), a representative long hitter in the KBO League, hit 35 home runs in 2021 and recorded 100 RBI when he became the home run king. Another long hitter Park Byung-ho (KT Wiz) also posted 98 RBIs when he became the home run king with 35 home runs in 2022. Looking at this season’s performance alone, it can be said that Noh Si-hwan stands tall as the league’s representative long hitter, standing shoulder to shoulder with them.
It wasn’t just an explosion of potential. He changed his mindset, and attempted to change some of his batting stance accordingly. “He changed his batting style. Until then, he had been passive hitting, trying not to strike out. My signature is to have a strong and refreshing swing, but since I struck out a lot, I changed to a hit-and-run batting stance. He looked back and said, “He also left behind the hitting points.”
But he soon changed his mind. Noh Si-hwan said, “But when I thought about my goal in baseball life, I wanted to become a ‘home run hitter.’ To develop into a home run hitter, you have to strike out a lot, but I was afraid of that. I thought I needed to change my style completely, so during the off-season, I practiced a swing that brought the hitting point forward to create long hits. “I think it’s good that it’s going well,” he explained.안전놀이터
It was a risky challenge. Noh Si-hwan performed in 115 games last year, recording a batting average of 0.281 and 6 home runs. However, even at that time, he maintained a batting average of .300, but when he changed his batting stance a little, he hit a batting average of .200 at the end of the second half, ultimately failing to maintain a .300 batting average.
Still, he chose to change. Noh Si-hwan said, “At that time, he felt many things. He thought that he shouldn’t change his batting stance carelessly. So, rather than drastically changing his batting stance, he focused on hitting points.”
“It was a challenge where I didn’t know what the outcome would be, but even if I had failed, I don’t think I would have regretted it. Because my goal was to be a home run hitter. I was confident that I could attempt change. I felt like I would regret it if I continued my baseball career like this. I’m big and strong, but being a hitter who only gets hits has no merit. “I wanted to become a home run hitter, whether it was porridge or rice.”
Noh Si-hwan’s firm mind and execution ability finally brought him to the first home run title in his life. If he, who is only in his 5th year since his debut, wins this season’s home run king, he will be the first home run king in his 20s in 6 years since Choi Jeong (29 years old at the time) in 2017.