For years, and San Francisco giants Strong fluctuations in the pursuit of the star to build.
And they put forward.
They were shortened in Price Harper Lottery in February 2019 Harun judge Return to the Gulf region in December 2022, then finally got their man in the winter Carlos Korea Only to capture the agreement after a material failed. A year later, they came empty again in their pursuit Autani.
If the first month of the 2025 season is any sign, then the winds of change may be on us.
Perhaps, the “Wind’s grandson” can provide a solution.
Unable to land on a coherent compassion they were characterized by a year ago, the giants gambled on a player with a different kind of attack profile. Just three days after Ohtani announced his decision to go to Los Angeles, San Francisco installed him Jong Ho LeeThe Korean MVP MVP is more known for its elite communication skills than pop music in the painting.
He moved to me from the rights of Korean baseball. His father, Jong, was a day for me – nicknamed “Ibn Al -Reeh” – KBO legend. This created large shoes to fill me for me, who broke into KBO in 18 years. He did not make mistakes because of the noble expectations. He struck.
The title of “the grandson of the wind” is stuck.
“In the past, I would like to say that there is little pressure in it,” said to me last week through his translator, Justin Han. “I am used to that now.”
He did not back away from the title. that it How he presented himself To the giants after that A six -year contract signed, 113 million dollars Last December, he became the folded in Korea in the history of MLB.
He made Lee’s approach to connecting to most of the nine numbers. In his best season when he was 23 years old in 2022, Lee was 349 and fired 23 homes for Kiwoom heroes. But it reached its average less than 10 Homer in each season, and although no one doubted his discipline or skills in the bats, there are questions about his ability to reach power and catch the big league.
These questions still remain after its first summary season.
Players and coaches in San Francisco who saw me in 2024 saw his ability to lead the baseball game, but he struggled to constantly transfer this skill to the games. He reached 262, but he was wandering only.
Bob Melfin, the director of the giants, believes that Lee, whose expected statistics were much better than the actual numbers he produced last year, was “somewhat ungalistic”. But for 37 games last year, where Lee produced only six times from outside the base, it seemed as if the giants might be paid.
With 16 versions outside the base during 25 games in 2025, it no longer appears this way.
I have the face of the return of the giants this season. The team is 17-9, tied in the second largest victories in the national league, while I have linked to the progress of the main league in the marital and ranks in the top ten in both the multiplication and wins over the replacement.
“He is the player of the best five players in the league, in my opinion,” the giant football player Tyler Fitzgerald Tell Fox SPORTS last week.
Two weeks ago, he gave me an energy offer in a multi -homer effort at the Yanki Stadium. The prosperous star of the series ended the series with three runs on homes, and while it is worth reference to those that are still the only three in this season, the performance in New York presented an example of an increase in the strength that he was able to generate in its second season.
“If a ball is having fun, he will be able to drive it,” Melfin said. “He saw him leading her everywhere.”
However, it is still the prominent communication skills in Lee that separates it. One in the bats left Fitzgerald in particular.
On April 17, I sat at the first eight roles. He appeared on the ninth to face Veles Flez in South Bawze Jose Alvarado. The Savior did the outer corner with a quick ball 100.3 miles per hour. Cut the stadium to the middle to hit the base.
It was only one of two strikes Alvarado surrendered to a mixture of Lear throughout the season; for me He has both of them Among them.
“He is crazy,” said Fitzgerald. “It is not human.”
“He sees the ball very early,” added Milvin. “It’s great.”
I have lee.
It is the only left hit that includes several strikes from the south on stadiums of at least 99 miles per hour, and it is the only left with at least three times at least 99 miles per hour, regardless of the delivery of the bombing.
There were two individuals against Alvarado, in addition to Another blow A week ago, when Lee operated a quick ball 99.7 mph on the outer edge of the Reds Ace Hunter Grene. This is despite the fact that Lee saw only one degree 99 miles per hour last season and he was not used to facing this type of speed while playing in KBO.
Lee’s success helped stimulate the success of the giants, start a auspicious start for the POSER POSEY era and electricity is a ready -made mass base to reach the star. Fitzgerald believes the presence of Bossi and the experience of young people working last year, had an impact on the hot start.
None of these young people walked more leap than me.
In Oracle Park, the humiliation about the Korean feeling is clear. There are already two different groups of fans of the Lee – The Jung Hoo Crew, which was organized by the team, and Hoo Lee Gans, which was organized by 51 fans (in honor of its number 51) in Fire’s wig.
He tells me that he is “very grateful” for support. The 26 -year -old, who is still adapting to life in the major league championships, does not seem to be careful, just as he did not when he was followed in the footsteps of his father in Korea.
A year of experience helps.
He told me: “It is a difference, now I know what will happen tomorrow.” “I know what the next day will go [look] He loves. ”
Lee has already seven additional husbands, two additional two, and one another Homer and the number of RBis in 50 appearances of the painting less than last season. It occupies average beating.
Among the players who have at least 150 games last season, Lee ranked outside the top 300 in the alloy; This year, ranks 11th.
“It is related to the barrel,” he said to me. “What I feel that this season is happening is that many of the stadiums that hit it will go to the left midfield, the right medium, and go to the gap. It only strikes the barrel.”
After watching the video from last season, Lee felt that the jugs were often aggressive in the area against him. He sought to respond more aggressively in 2025.
It often swings this year, especially in the first stadium. With already elite communication skills, it appears to be ready to swing and miss several times (he still has one of the lowest air rates in MLB) if that means capturing some other barrels. It is not more difficult this year – in fact, the average speed of bats In fact, the slower than it was in 2024 – But he finds the sweet spot of the bats, and pulling the ball in the air more frequently and removes the problem areas in its most likely to be afflicted in a small sample last season.
One of the important reasons for his production of production is his new ability to cover the outer edge of the painting, as it is clear from those bats against Alvarado and Green. Last year, at my attempts to adapt to high speed some changes in a swing. Upon entering the 2025 season, he sought to restore more than made him a special hit in Korea.
He already has an open position, but he opened it more, approached more towards the painting, creating more distance between his feet and moved a little deeper in the box. only Three people are qualified This year stands near the painting of the Lee, and only eight have a more open position. He wanted to put himself in a better position to deal with diving and cutters that have moved away from him.
He told me: “When I played in KBO, this is when I played like this.” “I brought the same mechanism, and I feel it was working.”
Last year, he had a. 222 and 0.27 dumping rate on stadiums on the outer third of the plate. These numbers increased to. 346 and 462, respectively, early this year.
He moved from a much lower rate than the average last season to 70 % of the average league during the early part of this year. It is the seventh most valuable in MLB by FWAR and strikes more than 300 against fast balls, breaking balls and outfits.
Even if he does not maintain his exciting exciting numbers-a possibility of looking at his solid price of pedestrians-his skills in the elite from bats to the ball, the ability to catch quickly and hit all different types of stadium, neutral divisions, and defend over the average, on the rules on the high floor and draw an image of a distinctive skill.
After years of stars on the star stars, the giants may have found a star in one of the retirees who rarely explode.
“Look at the numbers at the present time, and they are real,” Melfin said.
Rawan Cavnerr He is a MLB writer for Fox Sports. La Dodgers, La Clippers and Dallas Cowboys have already been covered. Rawan was born at LSU University in California, and he grew up in Texas, then returned to the West Coast in 2014. Rowankavner.
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