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a shaky heading for Sutton
The Lotte club said on the 28th, "Coach Sutton expressed his gratitude for his health after the KT Wiz match on the 27th," adding, "The club decided to respect Sutton's will after consideration."
Sutton took the helm of Lotte in May 2021. Lotte replaced Huh Moon-hoe, who remained at the bottom with 12 wins and 18 losses at the time, and entrusted Sutton to manage the team. Sutton reorganized his team's strength and gave hope to Lotte fans by fighting for the semifinals in the second half. Eventually, autumn baseball was frustrated, but Sutton recorded a 50% winning rate with 53 wins, 8 draws and 53 losses since taking office. 스포츠토토핫
Lotte showed confidence in Sutton, who recorded good results. It guaranteed a term of office until 2023 by increasing one year from the previous contract period. The days of confusion over rumors of discord between Sung Min-kyu and director Huh Moon-hoe have ended and a new era has opened.
As general manager Sung Min-kyu and manager Sutton joined forces, they changed to a new look from Sajik Baseball Stadium. The infield of Sajik Baseball Stadium was pulled 2.884m behind the previous one. As a result, the distance from home play to the center fence has widened from 118m to 121m. In addition, the highest fence in Korea at 4.8m also soared to 6m. At once, Sajik Baseball Stadium changed from a batter-friendly stadium to a pitcher-friendly stadium.
Through this, Lotte dreamed of suppressing home runs. And he tried to stabilize the mound. One more condition was needed to realize this plan. The outfielders' defense had to be backed up. The wider outfield and the elevated fence had to be turned into a "Lotte side."
To this end, Lotte broke up with "franchise star" Son Ah-seop, who has been weak in defense since his professional debut ahead of the 2022 season. Instead, he recruited DJ Peters, who was considered to have a wide range of defense in the center field. Rather than Son Ah-seop's hit, he chose Peters, who can prevent the opponent's hit.
At this time, Lotte's direction was clear. Based on the pitcher-friendly stadium and outstanding outfield defense capabilities, the plan was to lead the growth of young players such as Kim Jin-wook, Na Kyun-an, and Choi Joon-yong to create a strong team.
However, contrary to the assessment, Peters' defense was not excellent. Peters' defense range was narrow to cover the changed Sajik Baseball Stadium. Rather, Peters' adventurous defense often posed a danger. His ERA was 0.986 in center field and 0.958 in right field. In the end, Peters, who had been sluggish in hitting, was kicked out in July last year.
Lotte chose Jack Rex as the next foreign fielder. Rex was a player with both sophisticated batting and excellent power. However, he was an outfielder with far less defense than Peters. Due to his narrow defense range, he played only one game as a center fielder in both the major and minor leagues.
Nevertheless, Lotte recruited Rex. Sutton then used Rex as a center fielder. Rex played center field in the second half of the 2022 season in 23 games and 160 innings. Lotte's strong outfield defense at the beginning of the season disappeared like a mirage. Rather, outfield defense has emerged as the best weakness.
The wide and high Sajik Baseball Stadium gave Lotte the bottom of the team's home run (84) in the 2022 season. However, the poor outfield defense returned to Lotte with poison. In the end, Lotte continued to fall in the second half of the 2022 season, ranking 9th (4.47) in ERA and ending in 8th place.
Sutton continued to accompany Rex in the 2023 season despite his failure. Instead, he took a move to supplement it by recruiting outfielder Ahn Kwon-soo, who has a wide range of defense. However, the composition of the outfield fluctuated greatly due to Ahn Kwon-soo's injury and the advancement of young prospects such as Kim Min-seok and Yoon Dong-hee. Kim Min-seok and Yoon Dong-hee showed their potential at-bat, but showed a lack of experience in outfield defense. Lotte's outfield defense began to falter again in the 2023 season.
In the end, Lotte fell from first place in early May of the 2023 season to seventh place at the end of August. In the 2023 season, he is ranked 9th with 0.56 home runs per game, but his team's ERA is only 8th (4.35). In the end, Sutton's health also turned red. Sutton had no choice but to step down. Of course, there are many other reasons for Sutton's departure. Numerous incidents have cornered Sutton.
However, the unclear direction exposed in the outfield composition made Sutton's baseball colorless and odorless. As a result, there is nothing clear left in Sutton's baseball even though he stepped down as a manager. It is also compared to Hanwha manager Carlos Subero. Coach Subero was replaced early this season after finishing at the bottom for the second consecutive year, but was supported by Hanwha fans. The reason was the clear direction of 'rebuilding'. And he left Noh Si-hwan and Moon Dong-ju.
However, Sutton failed to complete Lotte's "outdoor innovation." Rather, he was shaken without knowing what to do. Sutton, who lost his direction, remained a "failed command tower" that failed to color Lotte.
