“After the Bone Head play came out, the overall pace seemed to have fallen.”
The 2022 season was harsh for Doosan Bears infielder Ahn Jae-seok (21). He aimed to become the starting shortstop, but his performance fell short of expectations with a batting average of 0.213, 3 homers, 17 RBIs, 4 stolen bases and an OPS of 0.575 in 99 games.
Compared to his professional debut season in 2021, with a batting average of 0.255, 2 homers, 14 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.662 in 96 games, neither the sophistication of his hitting nor his sense of stability in defense showed significant improvement.
The problem Ahn Jae-seok diagnosed himself with was ‘excessive greed’. As he picked up his pace too quickly from the beginning of the season, his overall condition dropped sharply from the middle.
Ahn Jae-seok, whom I met at the Sydney spring camp in Australia, said, “I put it on too high in the beginning, so in the second half, I ran out of strength and felt a lot of pressure. I think it was because I was ahead of my motivation.” He explained the preparation process.
In the 2022 season, there were also painful memories that I wanted to forget. In a home game against SSG Landers on May 18, a fatal bonehead play in the bottom of the 11th inning allowed the team to lose.
In the bottom of the 11th inning, with the team tied 2-2, Doosan’s Jo Su-haeng (29) hit a ball that landed in front of the left fielder in the bottom of the 11th inning, but Ahn Jae-seok,안전놀이터 the runner on first base, decided that the game was over and did not continue baserunning to second base.
SSG did not miss this gap and the inning ended when shortstop Park Seong-han (26) tagged out second base runner Su-bin (33), stepped on second base, and forced out first base runner Ahn Jae-seok. From Doosan’s point of view, after missing the situation in which they could have won the finale, they lost 2-5 and suffered more than one defeat.
Ahn Jae-seok said, “(The SSG game on May 18, 2022) had an impact. During the spring camp running training, the game came up for a while, but it seems that my confidence has declined since then. We have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.” Coach Eun and the seniors joke about the game at that time,” he laughed shyly.
“I just finished my debut season. I’m a rookie, but I was excited to play in the first team stage of professional baseball and in the environment, even if I couldn’t play well, I was excited, but in my second year, I was too motivated to think that I had to do well.” I’m thinking of swinging it aggressively like I did in the first year.”
The part Ahn Jae-seok pays special attention to is defense. Under the guidance of first-team defensive coach Cho Seong-hwan (47), he is concentrating on improving his sense of stability by digesting intensive training in the spring camp.
Ahn Jae-seok himself said, “I will focus more on defense for the rest of the spring camp,” and is determined to work hard to build a defense that matches Doosan’s unique net defense.
In the case of hitting, he diligently turns the bat so that a simple swing can come out like Kiwoom Lee Jung-hoo (25). Lee Seung-yeop (47), the new head coach, has also emphasized to the batting team coaching staff that Ahn Jae-seok’s swing must be refined.
Ahn Jae-seok said, “(Lee) Jung-hoo’s swing is probably the wannabe of all batters. I have the desire to hit like Jung-hoo, but I don’t think I can hit the same because everyone’s body is different.” I’m trying to find something that suits me while watching ”. I’ll try my best to get more than 100 hits this year and play in many games.”