Agent managing ahead of ML love call? Adamant NC, “Boras managing? No such thing”…Pedi threw a lot
The NC Dinos’ super ace, Pedi, is unable to pitch in what could be the team’s last fall baseball game. The club is taking full control of the situation, not the ‘super agent’, but the accumulated fatigue seems to be unavoidable.
NC announced Shin Min-hyuk as the starting pitcher for Game 5 of the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ postseason playoffs against KT Wiz at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on Friday. For KT, it’s Wes Benjamin, as expected.
The two teams are tied at 2-2 for a spot in the Korean Series. NC won Games 1 and 2 to gain momentum, but dropped Games 3 and 4 to fall short. 먹튀검증 The team’s stamina and focus dwindled as they pushed hard for the wild card. The momentum shifted in favor of KT as they dropped the third and fourth games. Pedi was the one who could lift this depressed mood and turn the tide.
However, Pedi’s start in Game 5 was canceled. After the fourth game of the playoffs, Kang In-hwa said, “Pedi’s physical condition hasn’t recovered to 100%. Shin Min-hyuk’s condition is not bad either,” and “I will check his condition tomorrow (April 4) morning and decide.” He did not confirm whether Pedi would start or not.
In the end, Shin Min-hyuk was announced as the starting pitcher for Game 5
It’s possible that the decision was made early on. Pedi’s fatigue level was higher than expected and didn’t improve with five days of rest.
In the regular season, Pedi was a special ace in the KBO. Until last year, his experience in the starting rotation of a major league club was enough to dominate the league. In 30 regular-season games, he posted a 20-6 record with an ERA of 40 in 180⅓ innings and 209 strikeouts.
He led the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts, completing the Triple Crown. He is the fourth player in history to accomplish this feat and the seventh in terms of number of times. Sun Dong-yeol won the Triple Crown four times, in 1986 and 1989-1991. This was followed by Hanwha’s Ryu Hyun-jin in 2006 and Kia’s Yoon Seok-min in 2011. It took Pedi 12 years to complete the feat.
He is also the fifth player in history to record 20 wins and 200 strikeouts
Sammi Jang Myung-bu (30 wins, 220 strikeouts) was the first to achieve the feat in 1983. He was followed by Lotte’s Choi Dong-won (27 wins, 223 strikeouts) in 1984, Samsung’s Kim Si-jin (25 wins, 201 strikeouts) in 1985, and Haetae’s Sun Dong-yeol (24 wins, 214 strikeouts) in 1986. Pedi became the first foreigner to reach 20 wins and 200 strikeouts in the 21st century, 37 years after Sun Dong-yeol.
However, in his last appearance of the regular season on March 16 against the Gwangju Kia, he was hit hard in the right forearm. He focused on his recovery. Pedi skipped both the wild-card game and the semi-playoffs. He had been dominant all season, so fatigue was bound to set in. Already surpassed the most innings of his career. He was ready to start Game 3 of the semifinals, but was delayed due to symptoms of right elbow impingement syndrome. The team ended the semifinals in three games, giving Pedi plenty of time to rest.
Finally, after about two weeks of rest,
He started Game 1 of the playoffs on March 30. He showed even more power than in the regular season. His two-seam fastball (37), which topped out at 155 mph, dug into every corner of the strike zone, and his main weapon, the sweeper (49), was sharp. Peddie kept KT batters on their toes and finished with six innings of three-hit ball (one home run) on 98 pitches with 12 strikeouts and one walk. The 12 strikeouts were the most in a single game in playoff history.
He then took five days off, and it looked like he might be able to return to the mound. But he couldn’t fully recover from the fatigue he had already accumulated. In the regular season and postseason, he threw a combined 186⅓ innings (180⅓ regular season + 6 postseason innings) and 3002 pitches (2904 regular season + 98 postseason). He has never thrown so many pitches in his career.
With just one game remaining in the KBO’s biggest stage, the Korean Series. It’s a winner-take-all, lose-lose situation. However, NC didn’t push Pedi’s pitching schedule too hard. The team and Pedi have not made any last-ditch efforts.
Major League Baseball’s interest in Pedi is growing
MLB.com cites Merrill Kelly (SK, 2015-2018), who led the Arizona Diamondbacks to the World Series this year, as an example: “Kelly came up through the KBO ranks and became a key part of Arizona’s National League championship run. Pedi is also back in the big leagues, and we’re betting on him to be in the starting lineup.”
With the success of the reverse export already in place, it’s inevitable that major league teams will take notice of Pedi’s standout performance. As such, there is a possibility that his physical condition could be managed by his agency rather than the team. Peddy’s agency is the Boras Corporation, run by “super-agent” Scott Boras.
NC had used Boras’ Jeff Manship as a foreign player in 2017. However, when Manship suffered an elbow injury in the middle of the season, his rehabilitation schedule was managed by Boras Corporation. NC struggled to manage Manship’s rehabilitation schedule at the time. Manship opened the season with a dominant seven-game winning streak before being sidelined for two months in May due to elbow pain. He left Korea after a year with a relatively mediocre record of 12-4 with a 3.67 ERA in 21 games.
However, Pedi’s situation is completely different
NC head coach Lim Sun-nam said, “Pedi hasn’t had any additional examinations. He needs to manage the fatigue that has accumulated in his elbows and shoulders over the course of the season.” When asked about the agency’s involvement, Lim said, “Not at all. There is no such thing. I don’t want to hear that anymore, it’s not happening,” he said firmly. He was adamant that the club is in full control of Pedi’s condition and that he is currently not 100%.
Without Pedi, NC will have to rely on Shin Min-hyuk, the Cinderella of this year’s postseason, to carry the team to the Korean Series. Shin Min-hyuk pitched 5⅔ innings of four-hit ball with one walk and three strikeouts in Game 1 of the semifinals against SSG on March 22 to set the stage for the win. He won the PO Game 2 against KT on the 31st with 6⅓ innings of 1-hit ball, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts, and no runs. His fastball tops out at 144 mph, but he has good command and a combination of a cutter and changeup that he learned from Pedi, which he used to dominate the postseason.