What's wrong with Hanwha's first choice…"I love it. Your form is pretty, too." The enemy compliments me again. I'm already wary of the opening game
What's wrong with Hanwha's first choice…"I love it. Your form is pretty, too." The enemy compliments me again. I'm already wary of the opening game
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Other teams are increasingly wary of Cody Ponce, the new first starter of the Hanwha Eagles in professional baseball. Among them, the team that Ponce fears the most is the KT Wiz, who will face Ponce's debut game in the opening game.바카라사이트
KT manager Lee Kang-chul met with reporters at an exhibition game against the Doosan Bears at Suwon KT Wiz Park on the 17th and expressed his alertness toward Hanwha's new ace Ponce.
"I think the ball is the best. I saw it yesterday and it was really good," manager Lee Kang-chul said, exclaiming, "The form was so pretty and there was no hit yesterday as well. I think Ryu Hyun-jin is the weakest in the starting rotation of the Hanwha Eagles."
Ponce, who hails from the U.S., is a top-rated foreign pitcher who signed a contract with Hanwha for a total of 1 million U.S. dollars in December last year. He joined the "Eagle Corps" with the assessment that his fastballs that shoot from 198 centimeters tall are powerful, and that he is capable of controlling all kinds of pitches, including average speed of 150 kilometers per hour.
In 2020 and 2021, Ponce played in the Major League for the Pittsburgh Pirates, recording one win, seven losses and 48 strikeouts in 55 ⅓ innings (five starts). He also had an Asian baseball career, and he played for the Nippon-Ham Fighters from 2022 to 2023 and the Rakuten Golden Eagles last year for three seasons in the Japanese pro baseball league. His overall performance in the three seasons was 10 wins and 16 losses and an ERA of 4.54.
Hanwha said at the time of Ponce's recruitment, "We expect Ponce to quickly adapt to the KBO League based on his Asian baseball experience and lead the team's starting pitchers as foreign pitchers along with Ryan Weiss, who has already renewed his contract."
Ponce displayed impressive performance at exhibition games with two wins and an earned run average of 0.10 in two games. He showed strong performance by pitching four innings of three hits, two walks and four strikeouts against the Incheon SSG Landers on Wednesday, and raised expectations by posting perfect pitching with no hit, three outs and six strikeouts in five innings against the Changwon NC Dinos on Wednesday. He displayed powerful pitching by garnering 10 strikeouts during nine innings.
Hanwha will play the opening game of the 2025 season against KT in Suwon on the 22nd, and although there has been no official announcement of the Hanwha team yet, Ponce is likely to be the starter of the opening game unless something major happens. This is why head coach Lee Kang-chul has already expressed caution.
However, he has no intention of giving up the opening game to Hanwha. KT also plans to bring out Enmanuel de Heissus as a strong foreign pitcher in the opening game. "We are good at starting the opening game, too. It was really good to see Heissus pitching," manager Lee Kang-chul said, signaling a genuine match.
Heysus, a KBO league veteran, met Hanwha last year as a member of Kiwoom and had a comprehensive performance of 2 wins and 1 loss with a 3.00 ERA in five games.