Na Gyun-an (25, Lotte), whose potential is exploding in the 4th year of pitching conversion, has also broken through the 150km plateau. There is no limit to the growth of Na Kyun-an, who has been reborn as the Lotte ace.
On the 17th, Na Gyun-an started against Hanwha in Daejeon, and played a good fight with 4 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts and 1 run in 6⅓ innings. He went down in a 1-1 tie situation and did not record a victory, but he found stability by making up for the sluggishness of the previous two games in May (9 innings and 9 runs).
From the first inning, Na Gyun-an, who started with a three-way strikeout with a fastball that kicked Roh Si-hwan low to the body, allowed a run in the second inning, but was responsible for the Lotte mound until the seventh inning with one company without additional runs.
Na Gyun-an’s unique left and right corner work was brilliant enough that 4 out of 8 strikeouts were looking strikeouts. Roh Si-hwan메이저놀이터, who emerged as the best hitter in the league this season, froze in the 5th inning on an outside forkball that passed through the strike zone as the deciding ball after Na Kyun-an’s three consecutive fastballs. In addition to his main weapon, the forkball, he also struck out three fastballs as a deciding ball.
On this day, Kyun-an Na threw a total of 95 balls, and he freely used four types of pitches—fastball (37), forkball (36), curve (18), and cutter (4)—to wherever he wanted, counted, and used it as a deciding ball.
Most of all, it was fast and powerful enough to reach a maximum of 151 km and an average of 146 km based on Trackman. It is based on Trackman, which measures speed faster than the KBO official PTS, but it is meaningful that it exceeded the maximum speed of 150 km. The highest speed this season was formed at 147-148 km, but it broke through to 150 km, which is the symbol of a fastball pitcher.
[OSEN=Daejeon, Correspondent Choi Kyu-Han] Lotte starter Na Kyun-Ahn is throwing the ball vigorously. 2023.05.17 / dreamer@osen.co.kr
Even based on PTS, Na Kyun-an’s average fastball speed is 141.5 km in 2021, 141.7 km in 2022, and 142.5 km this year, drawing a continuous upward graph. He was evaluated as a pitcher with a good pitch compared to his velocity, but now his velocity itself has become quite fast.
As is well known, Na Gyun-an is a promising catcher who was nominated by Lotte in the 3rd overall in the 2nd 1st round in 2017. During the 2020 spring camp, he underwent surgery for a fractured bone in his left wrist and was rehabilitated. At the recommendation of Lotte general manager Seong Min-gyu, he started throwing the ball, and every year he is growing differently. This year, his fourth year as a pitcher, he leaped to become a league-top starting pitcher.
He won the Monthly MVP by playing an active role in 5 games (33⅔ innings), 4 wins, an undefeated ERA of 1.34, and 29 strikeouts in the opening month of April. The first two games in May were stagnant, but rebounded by spraying a maximum of 151 km in the third game. Up to this day, 8 games (49 innings), 4 wins, 1 loss, 2.76 strikeouts, 52 wins, tied for 3rd place, tied for 4th innings, 6th place in strikeouts, and 9th place in ERA. Although the ball has become faster, the pitching is still the same with the least walks per 9 innings ranked 6th (2.02).