Han Yu-seom's batting was squeaky early in this season. He had seven RBIs including two homers in a game against the Doosan Bears in Incheon on Tuesday, but his batting average before the game was around 10 percent. Compared to his overall batting average of 0.272 so far last year, his batting average was significant.
In the field, the automatic ball-strike system (ABS) was mentioned as one of the reasons for his poor performance. A club official said, "Yusum tends to lower his body when hitting, but he doesn't seem to fit well with ABS, which has a large difference in top and bottom."
ABS is being applied to the KBO League this year. ABS, dubbed "robot referee," has different strike zones depending on the batter's height. The height of a player is 56.35 percent and the height of the lower part is 27.64 percent. If a player is 1m80 centimeters tall, the top part is 101.43 centimeters, the bottom part is 49.75 centimeters, and the top and bottom parts are 107.7 centimeters and 52.52 centimeters, respectively. Correction according to the hitting posture is not applied.
This is where batters are confused. According to Han's profile, Han Yu-seom is 1m90 centimeters tall, which is not much different from Koo Ja-wook (Samsung Lions, 1m89 centimeters). ABS zones are set similarly. However, the two players have different heating points. Unlike Koo Ja-wook, who hits with his waist straightened, Han Yu-seom bends his knees. For Han Yu-seom, who has a relatively low batting posture, the upper part of the strike zone is inevitably felt high
A team's batting coach said, "Like Han Yu-seom, players who are tall and bow down when hitting (horsehair posture) can be disadvantageous under the ABS system."
Kim Ji-chan and Kim Seong-yoon (Samsung Lions), who are the shortest duo at 1m63cm in height, are in a similar situation. A source from Team B asked back, "Kim Ji-chan's batting posture is lower even though the two players are the same height, but isn't ABS the same?" A source from Team C said, "Even among the players, there are talks about ABS zones. There are many complaints."
At the 2024 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) media briefing session on changes in rules and rules held on the 7th, reporters were asked how to apply ABS if the batter's batting posture is different. "I thought about whether to apply it by hitting posture," said the assistant manager of KBO's first team in Korea, who was a presenter, after saying that the Major League Baseball (MLB) also measures its height and derives a ratio. However, it operates under the same system as MLB because more errors can occur and be abused.
Under the ABS system, the left-right standard of the strike zone is extended by 2 centimeters from the home plate (43.18 centimeters) to the right and left. Even if it is different from the intention, the confusion among batters is increasing. A batter from team C said, "There are some ABS zones in different stadiums. You have to look at the strike zone from top to bottom. It is not easy because many situations overlap."
BY: 토토사이트