"I couldn't do it even though I wanted to do it 6 times." Young tigers pushed back Choi Hyung-woo, who couldn't 'finish', will Samsung be able to do it

*This content was translated by AI.

Samsung Lions' Choi Hyung-woo (43) once again set the final line of batting order.

Choi Hyung-woo recently met with reporters after the 2026 Samsung Spring Camp training held at Akama Ball Park in Onnason, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and said, "I don't care about batting order. Even if I wanted to hit in the 6th batting order before, I went up (the batting order) again. I can't do it my way," he said with an awkward smile.

This year, Samsung was evaluated as having the strongest lineup in the league with the addition of Choi Hyung-woo. Even without Choi Hyung-woo, Samsung's batting lineup was the strongest last year in the team's home run ranking (161) and the team's OPS (0.780 on-base plus slugging percentage). Manager Yeom Kyung-yeop, who led the LG Twins to an integrated championship last year, also said at this year's New Year's greeting, "Samsung is the best prepared." The four starters are not bad, and the batting is better than ours."

From Kim Ji-chan (25) and Kim Sung-yoon (27), who are fast and have good contact skills, Koo Ja-wook (33) and Lewin Diaz (30) who have sophistication and one shot at the table setter, Kim Young-woong (23) and Lee Jae-hyun (23), who have 20 home run potential, there was no batting order to rest from No. 1 to No. 6. If Kang Min-ho (41) of a double-digit home run and Lee Sung-kyu (33), who has one shot, sometimes join, Samsung's batting lineup cannot ignore the lower batting line.

On top of that, Choi Hyung-woo, the designated hitter of last year's Golden Glove Award, was added, so the opposing teams were boundaries. Choi Hyung-woo also marked a batting average of 0.307 (144 hits in 469 at-bats) with 24 home runs, 86 RBIs and 74 points and an on-base percentage of 0.399 slugging percentage last year in 133 regular season games. The OPS, which combines on-base percentage and slugging percentage, was 0.928, ranking fifth in the league.

Attention is also focusing on which batting order Choi Hyung-woo will be among the prominent juniors. For now, Choi Hyung-woo, who has both sophistication and power, is likely to support Koo Ja-wook-Diaz. Kim Young-woong with a career batting average of 0.243 and Lee Jae-hyun with a career batting average of 0.251 fall short of Choi Hyung-woo in sophistication. However, with the growth of Kim Young-woong and Lee Jae-hyun, there is a good chance that Choi Hyung-woo will be pushed out of the clean-up. Therefore, Choi Hyung-woo's batting order Maginot Line is also No. 7.

Choi Hyung-woo said, "It's good to go to the batting order I want, but it's never been done just because I say it. I think batting order doesn't have to just go below number 7. If you go below number 7, you honestly have to retire. As long as it's not below that, I don't care which batting order it is," he laughed.

His clean-up escape scenario has already failed once. During his time with the KIA Tigers, Choi Hyung-woo hoped to play as the sixth batter when Na Sung-bum (37) joined. At the time, he said, "Now junior players have to experience the central lineup. It has been explained that it is a good direction for the team to settle down as juniors experience rather than me continuously running as the fourth batter and leaving."

Despite the good intention of pushing himself out with his skills, the young tigers eventually failed to get Choi Hyung-woo out of the clean-up batting order. Only Kim Do-young (23), the 2024 KBO MVP, pushed him out one stroke, and he eventually left KIA as the Tigers' No. 4 hitter.

However, Choi Hyung-woo looks forward to it once again. Kim Young-woong was chosen as the successor of Kim Young-woong. Kim Young-woong, who was selected as the third overall pick in the second round of the 2022 KBO Rookie Draft after graduating from the water deposit box, hit 53 home runs in his fourth year as a professional. Last year, he set a tie for the most RBIs in a single season after 22 homers in the regular season, raising expectations.

However, it was infinitely short of Legend, who had a career batting average of 0.310 in the KBO, double-digit home runs for 18 consecutive years, and the most RBIs in the KBO. Choi Hyung-woo said, "If you are an A-class player, you must hit a batting average of .300 and 30 home runs unconditionally. (Kim)Hero is still incredibly young and has great potential for development. I think it depends on how you make up your mind," he stressed.

He not only presented standards, but he also claimed to be a growth helper. I knew how difficult it was to approach the senior first, so I decided to speak backwards first. Choi Hyung-woo said, "I'm also very shy. I'm almost 20 years apart from a young player now. Twenty years is as old as my father, but no matter how comfortable I am, it is not easy," he understood.

"(Kim) Young-woong can also change. All you have to do is be greedy. If you say you're satisfied with your current grades, there's actually no progress. "I think it would be better to change your style a little more," he said. "I'm talking to (Kim) hero these days. In the future, I'm going to look at the hero a little bit from the side when he hits," he said with a smile.

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*This content was translated by AI.