Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop met with reporters on the first day of training in preparation for the wild card game at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 30th and said, “I will use Balazovic as a bullpen in autumn baseball.”
“I think Balazovic’s main weapon is a fastball, so he has the power to press it with his strength. I don’t like to get hit a lot when controlling ball control, but I had to take two strikes first because many balls rushed to the center along with my poor ball control, so I had to take two strikes and hit many long balls,” Lee said. “Pitching coach, battery coach, and power analyst will prepare well in consideration of that.”
As for the timing of Balazovic’s introduction, he replied, “I will think about whether I will go directly behind the starting pitcher or even further behind.”
Balazovic entered the KBO League on July 4 as a substitute foreign pitcher for Doosan for a total of $250,000 (about 300 million won). Doosan announced waivers for ace Raul Alcantara, who was suffering from sluggishness and injuries at the time, and selected tall fireballer Balazovic, who has 18 major league games experience, as a substitute. Alcantara’s down payment and annual salary totaled $1.3 million (about 1.7 billion won) and decided to invest an additional $250,000.
Balazovic is expected to throw fastballs up to 156 kilometers at 196 centimeters tall. A baseball source even predicted that he could become the next Dustin Nippert. Doosan also gave a high evaluation, saying that his fastballs with high RBIs are powerful. He is also good at putting breaking balls, such as splitters, curves, and sliders in the strike zone.
Contrary to expectations, Balazovic wandered around with a 4.26 ERA with two wins, six losses and one hold in 12 games. His first four games since his debut were smooth, with two wins, one loss and a 2.35 ERA, but he ended his career with a win, starting with a four-run loss in four innings against the Lotte Giants in Jamsil on Aug. 14.
Starting from August 14, Balazovic has displayed serious performance as a starter in the last seven games, with five losses and an earned run average of 5.73. Notably, he was shaken by two losses and an earned run average of 7.00 in four games in September, the height of his competition among the teams, causing inconvenience to his team. A mercenary player played 33 innings in seven games, playing an average of 4.7 innings per game. As early substitution was repeated, overloading of the bullpen was inevitable.
In the final game of the season against NC held at Changwon NC Park on the 28th, Balazovic left one inning with two hits, two strikeouts and one run (non-earned). Coach Lee Seung-yeop decided to leave the position to Balazovic, who has a 6.63 ERA in September after a long struggle. 메이저놀이터
Doosan will play in the first round of the wild card game against fifth place in the regular season at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Oct. 2. “I’m thinking of Kwak as the starting pitcher for the first round,” Lee said.