Kim Tae-hyung, who returned to the field a year after leaving the Doosan managerial ranks to take the reins at Lotte, was able to lead the team to a third-place finish in the 2015 regular season and a Korean Series title in his first season as manager, in large part because he was able to capitalize on a number of team and league variables at the time.

First of all, Samsung, which had been locked into the Korean Series, was forced to play with half a team, losing three key pitchers due to the offshore gambling scandal that erupted just before fall baseball, and NC, which was second in the regular season, was unable to shake off its third-year rookie status in the postseason, as the winner of the playoffs was likely to be crowned the champion that year.

Manager Kim Tae-hyung used left-handed free agent Jang Won-jun, a gift to the team, as a mainstay in the regular season and utilized him fully in fall baseball. Jang won three games in four appearances that fall. In addition, foreign pitcher Dustin Niepert, who was sidelined by injuries during the regular season, returned as a special ace in the postseason.

But behind the scenes, an even bigger engine was building that would propel the team in the mid- to long-term. It was a season that saw the blossoming of the "triple-threat" young beasts that other clubs envied. The trio of Heo Kyung-min, Jung Soo-bin and Park Geon-woo, who were all born in 1990 and were only 25 years old at the time, led the way with 145 hits in the season, followed by Heo Kyung-min with 128. Park saw relatively little playing time due to the presence of Kim Hyun-soo (b. 1988) and Min Byung-heon (b. 1987), but he began to hit his stride with a .342 batting average with 54 hits and an OPS of 0.912. This was also the time when Kim Jae-hwan (b. 1988) and Choi Joo-hwan (b. 1988), another "20-something underwater resource," were waiting their turn, while Kim Jae-ho, a 30-year-old shortstop born in 1985, and Oh Jae-won, a second baseman, anchored the center field line. It was the beginning of a synergistic combination of Kim Tae-hyung's hard-hitting drives, the "cosmic energy" directed at Doosan, and the soil laid by the club. Doosan continued its golden era for five to six years with the foundation laid that year. 카지노사이트

All eyes now turn to Lotte for the 2024 season. Like Doosan in 2015, Lotte's roster and Kim's style of managing the team will be key to watching. Their homegrown starting lineup, led by Park Se-woong and Na Kyun-an, looks to be no slouch compared to the 2015 Doosan homegrown lineup. The success of the new Lotte will be determined by the performance of Kim's beasts, and two names that stand out are 2003-born Yoon Dong-hee and 2004-born Kim Min-seok. Yoon has already established himself as a first-team player with 111 hits this season and Kim has 102. Add to that the power-hitting Go Seung-min, a 2000-born "military beast," and you have a resource in Kim's sights. Han Dong-hee, who was born in 1999 and has been dubbed the "post Lee Dae-ho," will need to complete his military service after failing to make the team for this year's Hangzhou Asian Games.

While Lotte is still working on re-signing Jeon Jun-woo and Ahn Chi-hong, both of whom are in their second year of free agency, they also have some calculable experienced beasts, including Noh Jin-hyuk, who was born in 1989 and signed ahead of this season. But dramatic shifts in a team's strategy often come from younger players. Such has been the case for Kim Tae-hyung's Doosan teams since 2015.

The Doosan of 2015 and Lotte of 2024 in Kim Tae-hyung's managerial career look more alike than different, and more alike than different. It seems likely that the key to Lotte's transformation over the next season or two will be summarized by the development of their younger players.

Even before the season started, Lotte was considered a "top-five contender" by some pundits. They were even fighting for the lead as recently as May. The "field" is there to build something and make it big.