‘Rookie of the Year No. 1’ Moon Dong-ju’s innings limit, 120 innings → end of season at the end of August…PS Can he rest even if he competes?

Hanwha pitcher Moon Dong-ju is expected to end his season early at the end of August due to innings restrictions in the second half. Under current Hanwha management guidelines, his last pitch will be for the national team at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September. What if Hanhwa makes a late-season push for the postseason in October?토스카지노

Moon Dong-ju pitched in 16 games (83 innings) in the first half, finishing with a 6-6 record and a 3.47 ERA. On the 12th, he pitched a perfect game until the seventh inning against LG in Jamsil and earned the win with 7⅓ innings of one-run ball. He will take two weeks off, including the All-Star break, before making his first start of the second half.

For the second-year starter, innings limits have been mentioned since the beginning of the season. In his rookie year last year, Moon threw a total of 42 innings (28⅔ in Game 1 and 13⅓ in Game 2) due to two injuries. This year, he is capped at 120 innings (plus 10).

Manager Choi Won-ho said of Moon Dong-ju in the last game of the first half against LG, “He’ll go out for about seven games in the second half. If you average about five innings, that’s about 35 innings. (The seven appearances) will end in the last week of August. I’ll finish in 115 innings, maximum 120 innings.”

“I think he’ll pitch about 10 innings in the Asian Games, and if he pitches one game in the preliminary round, one game in the semifinals and one game in the final, it’ll be about 15 innings,” Choi said.

If Moon throws 120 innings by the end of August, there will be about three weeks left before the Asian Games. “In about three weeks, he can adjust his condition like a pitcher who just finished the season and is going straight to the Korean Series,” Choi explained. “The first week is catching, the second week is pitching, and the third week is pitching two to three innings to prepare for the Asian Games.

The innings limit could be a factor in the Rookie of the Year race if Moon ends his season early at the end of August. Moon’s 2.00 WAR in the first half ranks 12th among pitchers and fifth among Korean pitchers. He is first among players who are eligible for the rookie of the year, including the Yankees.

With an average fastball velocity of over 150 kilometres, including a record-breaking 160.1 kilometres by a Korean pitcher in April, Moon is the favourite to win the Rookie of the Year award.

However, with innings restrictions and a ‘zero’ September-October outing due to his participation in the Asian Games, the Rookie of the Year race could become interesting depending on how his rivals perform at the end of the season.

Moon is currently the third starter in the Hanwha starting rotation behind the one-two punch of Peña and Sanchez. If Moon is sidelined from September onwards, the homegrown starters will rotate between Jang Min-jae, Han Seung-hyuk, Kim Seo-hyun and Kim Min-woo (who is nursing a shoulder injury).

“We will use two of the three (Han Seung-hyuk, Jang Min-jae and Kim Seo-hyun) for the fourth and fifth spots,” Choi said.