Jo Dont Know. Jo MUST GO!!!

Another Kia Tigers post. If are somebody who doesn't like baseball, stop reading now. I'm gonna get into some little things that are only interesting to us baseball fans.

Jo Beom Hyun, the coach of the Kia Tigers is not a baseball guy. He has always been a below average coach who makes a lot of questionable little calls. Now he's making some BIG mistakes and it's pretty obvious to me that he's alienating players and fans alike. He's gotta go. Kia still has most of the season left and they could easily recover from a bad start to the season under a new coach that the players like. Why do I think the players don't like him? Many reasons.

First I have to mention the braindead move he just made last week. There is no question that the Tigers' closer situation hasn't been very steady. I've blogged about Han Ki Joo before. He's one of the big salaries I said the Tigers should have dumped at the start of the season. He's young and he throws really hard. He used to throw so hard people couldn't hit him. Now he just throws so hard and so straight that he actually makes it easier for opposing batters to hit homeruns. And they do. I'm just guessing but I think maybe his celebrity has been too hard for him to handle at such an early age. He almost cost Korea the gold medal at the Olympics. He got labelled as a choker after really bad performances vs. the U.S., Taipei and Japan there. And he's continued to blow as many saves as he gets. So aparently Jo decided that rather than stop calling him into the game at all, he'll let Han blow the game in the 7th or 8th innings and replace him with someone else who could be the closer.

So you go down the list of pitchers on the team. Lopez who was a closer for the Toronto Blue Jays and got 14 saves in the majors. He's been used on Kia as a starting pitcher but Kia has a 6-man rotation, another really dumb idea that NEVER works. Yoon Suk Min, Yang Hyun Jong, Guttormson, Seo Jae Eung, Lopez, Kwag Jong Cheol or Lee Dae Jin. Both Kwag and Lee have looked very hittable although Kwag DID get one win, but either would be fine for just one inning. Cut the rotation down to 5 so that your best starting pitchers can pitch more often and use Kwag or Lee as a fireman. Since Han Ki Joo and Son Young Min will blow a lot of close games in the late innings there won't be as many opportunities for a closer to save a game so you don't want to waste a really good pitcher here. Or use Lopez and put Kwag or Lee in the #5 slot.

OR trade Han and get another pitcher who can go one inning without fucking the game up.

Here's a better idea: Kim Young Soo. This has been a guy that Jo has used strictly to make himself look like a coach. He has been brought in repeatedly in the late innings to face one or two batters. His record against those batters has been fantastic and every time he's pulled I am upset. Not just that he's pulled but for all the time wasted bringing out two new pitchers. Can't we just leave him in for THREE batters instead? He's been striking guys out and getting guys out with regularity. A good baseball guy would consider that. Jo is NOT a good baseball guy.

* See if you can figure just what the hell Jo is trying to do with this guy. Here's his record this year so far: Apr. 4- 1 batter 1 strikeout; Apr. 7- 1 batter, 1 walk; Apr. 8- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 9- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 15- 1 batter, 1 hit (and because Son Young Min followed him and gave up a walk and a hit the run scored and Kim took the loss); Apr. 18- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 21- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 22- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 23- 1 batter- 1 strikeout; Apr. 24- 2 batters, 2 outs, 1 strikeout; Apr. 28- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 30- 1 batter, 1 out; May 3- 1 batter, 1 strikeout. So overall he's made 13 appearances, faced 14 batters, got 12 outs, 1 walk, 1 hit, 4 strikouts, and one loss he didn't deserve. You figure that out and it's 4 2/3 innings of one-hit ball with 4 K's. ANOTHER pitcher Jo is wasting. And he's come off the mound more than once shaking his head. You can bet a lot of the players and fans like me who are noticing this are shaking heads too. It's like he's just playing around.

ORRR why not let your starters pitch? Jo is nothing if not predictable. It doesn't matter how well a starter is doing he'll be yanked after 7 innings. He could have a no-hitter going and a pitch count of 80 and Jo will pull him. The only guy who Jo has allowed to stay in the game for 9 innings is Kia's best pitcher, Yoon Suk Min. On April 11th he pitched 9 innings and had a 1-1 tie going till his defence cost him a win. Again!

So what did Jo do? None of the above. In fact one might believe that Jo is TRYING to LOSE when you wonder what the hell he could have possibly been thinking to choose Yoon Suk Min as the new closer. The only thing I can guess is that Jo remembered that shitty games Han pitched in the Olympics. Who came in to get the win for Korea when Han blew a lead vs. the U.S.? Yoon Suk Min. Then in a game vs Japan Yoon Suk Min was brought in as a reliever when Korea was behind 2-0 and pitched a few innings while Korea got 5 runs to make it 5-2. Even though Han Ki Joo came in and gave up a run in THAT game Yoon and Korea ended up winning 5-3. Or maybe he was thinking of the game vs. Chinese Taipei in which Korea was ahead 8-2 when Han Ki Joo came in. He inherited some runners from starting pitcher, Bong, and they all scored. Then Han gave up two of his own next inning. He left after pitching 2.1 innings and changing an 8-2 game to an 8-8 game. Luckily for Han Korea scored after he got yanked for Kwon in the 7th. Kwon got two outs then Yoon Suk Min came in to get the last 5 outs and the save. Han Ki Joo got the win. Yoon did some relief pitching in the recent World Baseball Classic too. He got holds vs. Venezuela and Japan. Maybe Jo thinks that Yoon wasn't brought to the Olympics and the W.B.C. as a reliever. Or maybe he's thinking of his first two years with the Tigers when he was used successfully as a reliever and a closer. But, hello? He's evolved into arguably the best Korean STARTING pitcher period! He got 2 wins in the Olympics and had a 2.34 E.R.A. He got two wins in the W.B.C. with an incredible 1.13 E.R.A. and 13 strikeouts in 16 innings. He's a proven starter. The best on the team. The only guy Jo trusts to pitch a complete game. A national hero. Now Jo has busted him back to his rookie days. The absolute WORST choice to be the closer especially on a team that doesn't figure to get many save opportunities. In essence Jo has just wasted the best pitcher on his team. A stupid move that NObody's happy about.

What else does he do to piss off fans and players? He is in love with the bunt and the walk. Hitters are constantly frustrated when they have to waste an at bat hoping for the pitcher to miss the strike zone and staring at pitches they could be bashing for hits. Or when the coach takes the bat out of their hands, (almost always unnecessarily), by telling them to sacrifice bunt. Kia walks more than any other team. It's not so much that the hitters are selective, I think it's because the coach is selective. He tells the hitters to "take" a lot. I could be wrong but I think I see a lot of Kia hitters taking. It really has produced a lot of walks. Kia probably leads the league in that stat. But they just never seem to hit the guys home. I can't remember the last time I saw a Kia Tiger swing at the first pitch. When I was a ball player I LOVED the first pitch because it was usually a strike. Pitchers like to work ahead in the count so they often start batters with a strike. I think a lot of Kia batters are being told to wait until the pitcher throws at least one strike. Again there's no way of knowing for sure but I can recognize signs of frustrated players and I'm seeing them on Kia.

Bunting. Probably once a game Jo calls a bunt when he shouldn't. I think the best example of how he screws things up this way would be April 21st. The score was 4-3 in the 5th inning. NOT a defensive, pitchers duel sort of game. There was no reason to expect the run scoring to stop. But in the 5th Kia's lead off hitter got on and out comes Na Ji Weon sacrifice bunting. The message Jo was sending to Na Ji Weon was that not only did he not believe Na Ji Weon could hit the ball, he didn't think he could hit a sac fly, ground ball, work a walk, or even bunt for a base hit. Just give up a good hitter early in the game. Also there are other things that could happen that result in better situations than you'd get with the bunt like a passed ball, wild pitch, batter hit by pitch, balk, error, walk, stolen base, botched pick-off attempt, or the HIT and RUN: another thing Jo don't know. He's eliminating all of these good things from happening. STUPID! Also he's sending a message to the OTHER hitters that he doesn't expect THEM to score any more runs in the next 5 innings, (2 at bats each at least), so he wants to manufacture one run now. Players know these little things and they DON'T like it when a coach does shit like this. So what happened? Na Ji Weon bunted right to the pitcher who threw to second to start the 1-4-3 double play. Then in the 7th inning with the score 4-3 Na Ji Weon comes up again with the leadoff guy aboard and no outs. A situation in which I might have forgiven Jo for calling the sac bunt but still was happy to see Na swinging away. What happened? 2-run home run, Kia takes the lead 5-4. Han Ki Joo managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in THAT game too and the Tigers lost it but who knows what would have happened if Jo would just stop trying to LOOK like a coach and start letting his players play? A sacrifice bunt is something that should be used in emergencies only. It's WAY overused by Jo.

Another way he tries to tinker and make it APPEAR as though he knows what he's doing when he really doesn't is playing the infield and the outfield shallow and player positioning in general. He doesn't know when or how to do this. The best example would be opening day, which I have already written about in my Kia Tigers Season Opener post. May have cost Yoon a win. And if I'm not mistaken I think Lee Yong Gyu, the team MVP, was playing shallow when he shouldn't have been and had to run back to the wall to get a fly ball and jumped into it thereby breaking his ankle. Who knows how much of a difference HE would have made so far? A couple more things Jo Don't Know: It's a lot easier for fielders to run forward and catch a blooper over the infielder's heads than it is to run backwards and get a blooper over the outfielders' heads. Also the former when missed results in a single, the latter almost always a double or triple. You play the outfield in to guard against a single when a deep ball, even if caught, will score a run. Jo pulls the infield in A LOT aparently on a whim and it has cost the team.

And as mentioned before he NEVER calls the hit and run and this team is built for it. I am pretty sure Jo doesn't even RECOGNIZE the hit and run. Again April 21st against Doosan, probably his worst game, Jo proved this. Guttormson wasn't pitching a gem by any means but there was a situation early on when the Bears had a runner on first and one out and Guttormson induced a perfect double play ball. BUT the guy on first was running and by the time Lee Hyun Gon got the ball and tagged second base the Doosan player was already there - safe. AND Lee Hyun Gon was just thrown off enough by the sliding player that he threw the ball over the head of 6'5 Choi Hee Seop - batter on 2nd advances to 3rd, batter on 1st advances to 2nd. THAT'S what the hit and run can do! Suddenly play stops and the two assistant pitching coaches are walking out to the mound to check on Guttormson after he had just made the perfect pitch! It never entered the coaches head that it was just well-timed aggressive base running by the other team that caused all of that. Later in the game aggressive baserunning got Doosan the win. Other teams kill Kia with the hit and run but Jo don't know.

I think Doosan has a great team this year and will likely win it all. Barring any debilitating injuries. But Kia has a good shot at second if they get rid of Jo. I think so anyway. As it is they have really great starting pitching. Probably the best in the league from top to bottom. Early in the year they had Lee Beom Seok closing. That's almost as bad as Yoon closing. Lee was excellent last year. What they did with him I don't know. Probably in his wisdom Jo sent him to the minors. If Jo wasn't so in love with his crappy bull pen Kia would be where they should: in second place. With rookie An Chi Hong doing well and newcomer Kim Sang Hyun's clutch hitting it looks like Jo has made some good moves so his coaching days with Kia might be extended. Also Choi Hee Seop is playing a LOT better than last season. When Lee Yong Gyu comes back Kia will be a stacked team. They are probably going to start winning and making Jo look a whole lot better than he's been. Right now he's coaching the second best team in the league into 5th place. I think Kia will win in spite of and not because of Jo. And probably that'll keep him employed. But I still think they'd do better without him.