Hanwha has a strong MVP and Rookie of the Year candidate. Noh Si-hwan (23) and Moon Dong-ju (20) are raising hopes of becoming the seventh team in KBO history to win the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards together.
Noh, who hit his first career three-homer game against Suwon KT on Sept. 9, has played in all 94 games this season and is batting .393 with 26 home runs, 71 RBIs, a .569 on-base percentage and a .962 OPS in 371 at-bats (114-for-371). He leads the official titles in home runs, RBIs, and on-base percentage. He is also tied for first in OPS with Choi (SSG).
He will miss at least two weeks due to his selection to the Korean National Baseball Team for the Hangzhou Asian Games next month, but if he keeps up his momentum and maximizes his RBIs, he will likely finish first in home runs and runs batted in. So far, the KBO has a 60.7 percent (17-of-28) chance of winning the MVP award for hitters who lead the league in home runs and RBIs. On the pitching side, it’s a two-horse race with strong MVP candidate Eric Peddy (NC).
Moon Dong-ju is also the frontrunner in the Rookie of the Year race. Moon, who is in his second year as a used rookie after not pitching more than 30 innings last year (28⅔), is 6-7 with a 3.39 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 19 games (98⅓ innings) this year.
It’s unfortunate that he has more losses than wins, as his bullpen has failed to protect him on three occasions, but he’s the best rookie pitcher in every category except wins. Moon Dong-ju also has an innings limit with the Asian Games. Fellow rookie Yoon Young-cheol (KIA), who has seven wins, has a lot of momentum, but Moon has the edge in pitching quality and buzz.
If both players win the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards, it will be the seventh time in KBO history that the same team has won both awards. Previously, HaeTae (Kim Sung-han and Lee Soon-chul) in 1985, Samsung (Kim Sung-rae and Yang Jun-hyuk) in 1993, Hanwha (Ryu Hyun-jin and Ryu Hyun-jin) in 2006, Doosan (Daniel Rios and Lim Tae-hoon) in 2007, Nexen (Park Byung-ho and Seo Gun-chang) in 2012, and KT (Mel Rojas Jr. and So Hyung-jun) in 2020 swept the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards.
However, despite the play of Roh Si-hwan and Moon Dong-joo, Hanwha has struggled in the second half of the season. They are 4-11-1 (.267) in the second half of 16 games, good for ninth place. At the end of the first half, they had postseason hopes in eighth place, 2.5 games behind fifth-place Lotte, but now the gap to fifth-place Doosan has grown to eight games. Instead, the gap between them and 10th-place Kiwoom has narrowed to two games, meaning they have to worry about falling to the bottom of the table. The downward spiral continues with a record of 1 win, 8 losses, and 1 draw in their last 10 games.
The second half has seen a significant drop in both bats, as the team ranks 9th in ERA (5.63) and 10th in batting average (.227). Even foreign pitchers who have been pitching well in their fourth and fifth starts have been up and down, with only Moon Dong-ju (3G ERA 2.93) remaining steady. The bullpen is also struggling to get over the hump. At the plate, Noh Si-hwan has seven home runs, but no one else besides Kim Tae-yeon (.310) has a triple-digit batting average. With no clear power upside for the rest of the season, it’s hard to see how they can revive their top-five hopes.메이저사이트
In the past, teams that have won both the MVP and Rookie of the Year have done well. Samsung in 1993, Hanwha in 2006, and Doosan in 2007 finished as Korean Series runners-up, and KT in 2020 finished second in the regular season. In 1985, HaeTae didn’t play fall baseball because Samsung won the postwar unified championship, but they were third in overall winning percentage (.523). In 2012, No. 6 Kiwoom was the only team to miss fall baseball with a winning percentage below 5% (.469). At this rate, Hanwha may become the lowest-ranked team to produce both an MVP and Rookie of the Year. Through 10 days, the eighth-ranked Hanhwa has a 4.227 winning percentage.
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