KIA Tigers, the leading professional baseball team, has taken out a card to replace foreign players. It is a winning move to solidify its No. 1 position and win the Korean Series.
The KBO announced waivers between foreign pitchers Aldred and Crow on Tuesday. Crow had undergone surgery in May due to an elbow injury. Kia has released both Aldred and Crow, who were recruited as “alternative foreign players” to fill Crow’s injury gap.
Crowe pitched in nine games for Kia, and recorded 3-1 with an ERA of 4.53. Aldred seems to have decided that his performance in recent months was not good enough to win the regular season title and to become the top of the Korean Series. Kia is known to be close to signing Eric Lauer, who is known to be the first starting pitcher with a total of 36 wins in the Major League. 안전놀이터
With Aldred’s release, top teams can have mixed feelings. Aldred’s performance was extreme against certain teams.
Aldred was a natural enemy to LG. He had one win, no loss and zero ERA in two games against LG. He had three hits, 15 strikeouts and two runs (non- earned run) in 12 ⅔ innings. At his first showdown on June 20, he pitched well with two hits, six strikeouts and two runs (non- earned run) in six innings, and on July 11, he had one hit, nine strikeouts and no run in six ⅔ innings. LG’s batting lineup, which is full of left-handed hitters, failed to target Aldred’s ball at all.
Aldred pitched well against KT in one game, allowing no run in five scoreless innings. “It’s a ball that left-handed hitters can’t easily hit. The ball was good,” KT manager Lee Kang-chul said of Aldred.
However, Aldred was weak against Doosan and Samsung. Notably, it was fatal for Doosan, which has many right-handed hitters. In two games against Doosan, he lost two games and posted an earned run average of 15.95. During seven ⅓ innings, he allowed 14 hits and 13 runs.
His first appearance in the KIA uniform was against Doosan, which allowed six hits and six runs in three innings. He allowed only one run until the third inning, but he also pitched in the fourth inning without managing the number of pitches in his first appearance and gave up five more runs. It was his last game against Doosan on July 30, and he became a losing pitcher with eight hits and seven runs in four ⅓ innings.
Aldred was also weak against Samsung. He pitched in two games and had no win or loss, but his ERA was high at 8.22. He allowed seven earned runs in seven ⅔ innings. He allowed four runs in four ⅔ innings on July 3 and three runs in three innings on July 18.
KIA has four games left each against LG and KT. It has six games left against Samsung. On the other hand, it has only one game left against Doosan. With Aldred’s release, LG avoided a natural enemy pitcher, and Samsung could no longer face a pitcher with good intentions. If Aldred had not been released, he would have been more likely to take the mound against Samsung at the weekend.