Lotte Giants No. 1 hitter Ahn Kwon-soo is playing up to the expectations of the command tower.
Coach Larry Sutton highly praised Ahn Kwon-soo as a player who is qualified to be the number one hitter because of his good contact skills and ability to carry out operations.
Ahn Kwon-soo immediately lived up to Sutton’s expectations. In the second game of the season against SSG Landers held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 6th, he started as a center fielder and first batter, and was active from his first at-bat in the first inning.
He hit a double in the middle right against SSG starter Moon Seung-won. An Chi-hong then hit a fly ball from center fielder, and when center fielder Kim Kang-min had a hard time catching it due to the weather, Ahn Kwon-soo ran to third base.
In the next at-bat, Rex stepped back with a ground ball in front of the second baseman, but Ahn Kwon-soo quickly passed the home. It is not an exaggeration to say that it was one point made by Ahn Kwon-soo’s feet from the double.
Although Kwon-soo Ahn’s record was erased as a no game was declared due to rain at the end of the 3rd inning, Sutton showed the standard of the number 1 batter that Sutton wanted.
Manager Sutton said, “He is a player who makes good contact with pitches entering the strike zone. And he has a good approach whether he’s pitching left or right. He’s also good on base. He is a player who is fully qualified to be the number one hitter,” he praised.
Sutton continued, “He is a player who can hit and run, bunt, and steal. He is the type of player Lotte needs that has never existed before. He is also very good at defense.”
Ahn Kwon-soo is recording a batting average of .308 and an on-base percentage of .357 in three games this season. It shows why director Sutton uses Ahn Kwon-soo.
Ahn Kwon-soo is a third-generation Korean-Japanese baseball player. After graduating from Waseda University in Japan, he played baseball in the Japanese Independent League and Unemployment League, then participated in the 2020 KBO Rookie Draft Tryout held in August 2019 and auditioned to achieve his dream of becoming a professional in the “grandfather’s country”. 안전놀이터
Ahn Kwon-su, who was nominated by Doosan with the 99th overall pick in the 10th round of the rookie draft, became a Lotte man while playing for Doosan. Doosan suddenly excluded Ahn Kwon-soo from the list of reserved players in December last year. The Lotte club reached out to him.
According to the Military Service Act for Koreans in Japan, Ahn Kwon-soo can play in the KBO League up to this year. Lotte seems to be able to spend a year without worrying about hitting once.