Doosan’s fall to 9th place last season started with the collapse of the foreign pitching staff. Ariel Miranda, who shone as MVP in the 2021 season, suffered from shoulder pain and only pitched 7.2 innings. Robert Stark consistently filled the rotation, but fell short of expectations. Brandon Waddell, who replaced Miranda, was no different. The sum of these three last season’s WAR (contribution to victory over substitutes, stats standard) was 1.86. bottom of the league Not even one foreign pitcher was able to do so.
The role of the returning Raul Alcantara (31) and the new face Dylan Pyle (27) are significant. If they do not play an active role as a one-two punch for foreign selection, it is difficult to expect Doosan’s performance this season.
Alcantara and Pyle, who joined the field training in Sydney, Australia, made their debut as bullpen pitchers on the 4th. Not only the pitching coaches, but also coach Lee Seung-yeop, head coach Kim Han-soo, and hitting coach Goji Goto came out to watch. It means that the interest and expectations are just as great. 카지노
Alcantara and Dylan threw 25 each at 50-60% of their total pitches that day. Yang Eui-ji received the ball from Alcantara, and Jang Seung-hyun received the ball from Dylan. It’s like the start of the season has just started, but the evaluation is positive. Both have been in great shape during the offseason.
Alcantara spent two years in Japan until last year. Compared to winning 20 wins in the KBO League in 2020, it was not a satisfactory result. He posted a 3.96 ERA in 63 games out of the bullpen. But he wasn’t without success. Alcantara is showing confidence in the KBO stage after 3 years, saying that he sharpened his splitter, one of his main weapons, in Japan for 2 years.
The splitter is one of the driving forces that made Alcantara a 20-win pitcher. In the 2019 season, Alcantara only recorded 11 wins and 11 losses with an average ERA of 4.01 at KT. He also failed to renew his contract. However, after moving to Doosan, Alcantara became a completely different pitcher when a splitter was newly installed. He lowered his ERA to 2.54, and his strikeout rate nearly doubled from 100 to 184.
Dylan is off to a good start too. It is evaluated that the ball is good as expected, and the pitch is also better than expected. Regarding the KBO official ball he touched for the first time, Dylan said, “The ball is chewy,” and said that the power of the long-term curve would double. A Doosan official said, “The fact that he has a good sense of fingertips and can deal with batters by changing the angle of his arms depending on the situation is also a positive part.”
So far, Doosan has been a team that has no worries about foreign pitchers. From Dustin Nippert to Josh Lindblom, Alcantara and Miranda, the best pitchers led the Doosan mound as if running in succession. That is why the sluggish performance of foreign pitchers last year was even more embarrassing. Attention is focusing on whether Doosan’s foreign pitching staff, newly formed with Alcantara and Dylan, will be able to recover its former glory.