Foreign hitters account for a large portion of a team’s offense. They usually watch an attack before bringing the batter. Therefore, it is more common for Ramos to be in the batting order than No. 7. Regardless of his pitching performance, Ramos’ drop to No. 7 meant his recent performance and batting performance were not good. “This is different from last year’s video,” Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop also said before the game. “We have to wait and see more than 30 games and 100 at-bats for foreign hitters,” smiling.
Ramos was the opening second batter. Expectations are high that he will become a player who meets the “strong theory of second batter.” Since then, he has played as the second batter after six games. However, his batting performance was not so good. While leadoff Jung Soo-bin often gets on base, Ramos was sluggish and his team’s batting was rather choppy. He put Heo Kyung-min, who has a good sense of humor, on top of this, and placed Ramos as the third batter, the result did not change much. In the end, the team was placed in the lower batting order, not the second or third, for the first time in this season.
First of all, the batting lineup itself was not a bad thing. As good players such as Heo Kyung-min and Kang Seung-ho were in the lineup, there were no problems building the batting order from 1st to 6th. There must have been some hope that Ramos would take some pressure off and take his swing. However, he failed to show cool performance in the game on Saturday. He had one hit and two strikeouts from four times at bat. In the fifth inning, when his team was leading 3-0, the batter made an error going to the second base as he failed to catch Go Myeong-jun’s ball at once. All three runs in the fifth inning were not attributable to Ramos, but he was showing that his performance is currently faltering both in ball and number.
There was a time when you didn’t have to worry too much about the offense, especially contact capabilities of foreign players. This was thanks to Jose Miguel Fernandez, who played for Doosan for four years from 2019 to 2022. Fernandez recorded the batting average of 0.344 in 2019, 0.340 in 2020, and 0.315 in 2021. Although he was stigmatized as the king of double plays due to his lack of defensive help and slow footwork, his contact was fine. He had 197 hits in 2019 and 199 in 2020, and his slugging percentage was considerable, offsetting his shortcomings.
However, when Fernandez’s shortcomings began to stand out more in 2021, and the weight of strengths and weaknesses reversed enough to meet the limits of his patience in 2022, he ultimately decided to find a new foreign hitter ahead of the 2023 season. That’s how Jose Rojas joined the team. However, Rojas also did not meet Doosan’s expectations 100%. He continued to improve in the second half, but his batting average fell to 0.253 in 122 games. Then Doosan sought another alternative, and this time Ramos was chosen.
When joining the KT Wiz in 2022, Ramos received attention as an all-around player with many advantages. In addition to his contact, switch-heater strengths, and gap power, scouts at KBO League often gave him a high evaluation. After being kicked out due to injury, Ramos played well in Triple-A last year, and Doosan also decided to recruit him based on his previous reputation and performance last year. However, he has yet to perform well enough. It is worrisome that he has not displayed as solid performance in defense as well. Doosan does not have much leeway to give Ramos a designated hitter at a time when Yang Eui-ji and Kim Jae-hwan have to share designated hitter slots. 토토사이트먹튀
He certainly has a lot of players. It’s not that KBO League scouts gave favorable reviews, and last year’s Triple-A performance was good for nothing. If a certain point is overcome, a balanced record can be expected. However, we cannot wait forever. Doosan is also busy going forward. Although domestic players’ batting itself is showing signs of improvement, there will surely be a time when foreign batters’ power is needed.
Only when Ramos, who had a batting average of .100 or .195 and an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of 0.548 in the first 10 games, has a strong performance to prevent further downgrade. One should not think of his predecessor, who had a batting average of 0.333, one homer, and an OPS of 1.600 in the first two games of Triple-A after signing a minor league contract with the New York Yankees this year.