Lee Jung-hoo (26) is the most comforting player in San Francisco’s off-season, which has not been as hot as expected. San Francisco, whose team’s offense has slumped to the lowest level in the league last year, was thirsty for a left-handed outfielder capable of playing center field, and after predicting Lee Jung-hoo as the right person to quench his thirst, he wore a gearing uniform through fierce competition.
Initially, local media expected Lee to pay around 60 million U.S. dollars for four years. He is attractive when young, who can fully utilize his outstanding skills and heyday, but he certainly poses a risk in that he is an unknown player who has yet to play a single game in the Major League. However, San Francisco, which is confident of its success after watching Lee Jung-hoo for a long time, has made a huge investment of 113 million dollars for six years to show his confidence.
Local interest is also explosive as he has invested and is a relatively difficult player to predict what kind of performance he will achieve. It is even more so because he is also the club’s top investment player to date. It is rapidly spreading its recognition. While being selected as the team’s leading leadoff for the opening game, he feels like he is already being treated as a star.
The San Francisco Chronicle, a leading local media outlet, selected 15 players to pay attention to in 2024 in the Bay Area including San Francisco and Oakland on the 14th (Korea time). With players, coaches, front office and people from all walks of life, Lee Jung-hoo was the only new player selected among San Francisco’s players. This shows local expectations for Lee Jung-hoo.
The San Francisco Chronicle said, “We don’t know what kind of performance San Francisco’s new center fielder, dubbed the ‘grandchild of the wind,’ will bring,” but predicted that Lee will be excited about his ability as a defensive player with athletic ability and vitality and a traditional hitter with excellent ability to hit the ball. Expectations are that Lee will provide skills that San Francisco’s batters have not been able to display in recent years.
In fact, San Francisco’s outfielders suffered from poor batting average last year. The highest batting average ever was Austin Slater, who was 0.270. Slater, however, was more like a backup player than a solid key player. The actual number of at-bats that he played was far from the standard at-bats. All the rest of the players only had batting average in the early 20s. Mike Yastremsky, who had high expectations, had a batting average of 0.233 and Jak Pederson 0.235.
Yastremsky (112), Pederson (111), and Slater (110) were the only players who exceeded 100 in terms of adjusted score productivity (wRC+), which is the average of the league. Moreover, they all scored negative in defense. It was no exaggeration to say that none of the players showed good offensive skills while playing in center field defense above the league average. This is a good example of why San Francisco was banking on Lee Jung-hoo, who boasts offense, defense, and even an average flagship.
Such expectations can also be seen in computer statistical projections. As Lee has no experience in Major League Baseball, it is difficult to predict his performance in this year’s statistical projections. Nevertheless, most projections give a very generous evaluation. The Major League’s official website (MLB.com ) on Wednesday praised Lee Jung-hoo, saying that the team picked the outfield as the most advanced spot in San Francisco this year, and that Lee Jung-hoo will be at the center of it. With the addition of Lee Jung-hoo, the outfielders of San Francisco, which ranked 28th in terms of contribution to victory (WAR) compared to last year’s replacement, are expected to jump vertically to 11th place. 마카오토토주소
Projection by MLB.com predicts that Lee Jung-hoo will achieve an on-base percentage of 0.354 and an adjusted score productivity (wRC+) of 116 in 2024. He added that he expects a WAR of 3.2. Last year, the San Francisco Giants had a lot of thoughts, utilizing a total of 10 outfielders, but the combined WAR of the 10 outfielders was only 0.4. The team was overwhelmingly last in the Major League. However, the addition of Lee Jung-hoo, who has a WAR of 3.2, is expected to make up for it all at once.