HANWHA MANAGER CHOI WON-HO “IF YOU CAN HIT, THERE’S NO PLACE IN THE STARTING LINEUP”

Hanwha Eagles head coach Choi Won-ho is predicting fierce internal competition for the remainder of the season.Choi made the announcement ahead of the team’s first game of a doubleheader (DH) against the Kiwoom Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Sept. 9.”For players with short careers, there’s no end to their downward spiral, so I think we should have multiple players in the lineup rather than just one,” Choi said.”I don’t think it’s very helpful to keep sending them out (to play) when they’re not feeling well,” he said, “so they should take a break and find their feet, or if it gets too long, they should go down to the second team.”Foreign batsman Nick Williams, who has been in and out of the lineup recently, made his first start in nearly two weeks against Kiwoom the day before.Choi believes that Williams, who has been struggling with his batting, has regained some of his batting touch after pinch-hitting in the three-game series against SSG Landers from May 5-7.”I thought he was seeing the ball and making contact better when he was pinch-hitting, so I put him in the lineup yesterday,” Choi said.Seizing the opportunity, Williams lived up to the hype, hitting a solo shot to lead off the fourth inning and then a game-winning solo arch two batters later in the 12th inning of extra innings.Williams also started the first DH of the day in right field, batting second.The batting order for the first game of DH was Moon Hyun-bin (second base), Williams (right field), Noh Si-hwan (third base), Chae Eun-sung (designated hitter), Kim Tae-yeon (first base), Choi In-ho (left field), Oh Sun-jin (shortstop), Choi Jae-hoon (catcher), and Jang Jin-hyuk (center field).”After every game, we look at the batting data from the previous day’s game and categorize the players with good batting and bad batting,” Choi said. “We put the good ones in (the lineup) and leave the bad ones out. For the mediocre ones, we use data to judge them,” he explained.”The good ones are out, the bad ones are in, and that’s the way it should be. There is no place for spit,” he said.”I think we have to choose between scoring more goals and conceding fewer goals in the remaining games,” he said during the six-game losing streak last month, adding that he would play a player with a slightly better defense under 스포츠토토 the same conditions.

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