Never too early to panic

In the ruthless what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of professional baseball, players are frequently demoted to the minor leagues over the course of a season. In moves perhaps unique to the Korea Baseball Organization, coaches often join slumping players on the way down to the second-tier competition. It’s not unusual to see teams swapping their big club coaches with those from their Futures League.

Rarer, even by South Korean standards, is a demotion of a coach just nine games into a season.

That’s what the Nexen Heroes did when they sent their pitching coach, Choi Sang-deok, to the minors along with two pitchers, Oh Jae-young and Lee Jung-hoon.

Manager Yeom Kyung-yup made the surprise announcement hours before the game.

“Coach Choi has been working hard, but he hasn’t quite fulfilled my expectations as a manager,” Yeom told reporters.

“He and I had a long conversation about this move, and he fully understood.”

Yeom added that bench coach Lee Kang-cheol, a former All-Star pitcher, will double as the team’s pitching coach for the time being.

The Heroes had suffered a 13-9 loss on Tuesday and had a team ERA of 5.51 before Wednesday’s game, eighth among nine KBO teams.

They had given up 14 homers and 44 walks, both the highest totals in the league.

Their top two starters, Brandon Knight and Andy Van Hekken, are off to their usual solid starts. 

Knight doesn’t have a win-loss record after two starts but has a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings.

Van Hekken is 1-1 with a 3.18 ERA, with 10 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings.

Take away their ERAs, and the rest of the staff had an unsightly 8.85 ERA.

The shakeup appeared to have an immediate impact, as the Heroes beat the Tigers 10-7 to improve to an even 5-5 for the season.

Team captain Lee Taek-keun, who belted two homers in the victory, said senior players had a players-only meeting in the clubhouse before the game to discuss the state of the team.

“We said it was our responsibility that coach Choi was sent down to the minors,” Lee said. “We were determined to win tonight. We had a terrible game yesterday (Tuesday), and hopefully this win will turn things around for us.”

The Heroes made their first postseason in 2013 and came within one victory of reaching the second round.

They blew a 2-0 series lead against the Doosan Bears in the best-of-five opening series and were knocked out in five games, losing the decisive Game 5 in extra innings.

For this season, many experts have picked the Heroes to go even deeper in the postseason.

Foreign starters bag victories

With the nine clubs in the Korea Baseball Organization having played seven to 10 games through Wednesday, foreign pitchers have accounted for more than half of all victories by starters.

Starting pitchers for the nine clubs have won 26 games through Wednesday, and 15 of them were by foreign hurlers.

This year, there are 19 pitchers from overseas in the KBO: two apiece for eight clubs and three for the expansion NC Dinos, which are allowed to carry one more foreign player than the rest of the league for this season.

Of those 19, 18 are starters, the exception being the Kia Tigers closer, Jairo Ascencio.

Two of those 18 have yet to make an appearance: J.D. Martin for the Samsung Lions is injured, and Everett Teaford of the LG Twins signed at the end of last month and is getting ready for his first game here.

The 16 who have pitched are already making an impact.

Moon Sung-hyun of the Nexen Heroes was credited with the win in the team’s 10-7 victory over the Kia Tigers.

It was the first win by a South Korean starter for Nexen in 10 games this season. The Heroes had been so unhappy about their pitchers’ performance that their pitching coach, Choi Sang-deok, was demoted to the minors.

The Dinos have three wins from their starters, with the two American pitchers, Thad Weber and Eric Hacker, combining for all three.

The last-place Hanwha Eagles have two wins by their starters: one each by Andrew Albers and Caleb Clay.

The Lions, missing Martin, have Rick van den Hurk as the lone import on the mound, and he has one of his club’s two starting wins.

The SK Wyverns and the Kia Tigers have been exceptions.

Two South Korean starters for SK, Kim Kwang-hyun and Chei Byung-yong, have combined for three of the teams five wins by starters.

Kia has three wins from three South Korean starters, and two by Dennis Houlton, the first-year American pitcher.

Houlton has been far more effective than his South Korean teammates, though, with a 2-0 record and a 0.69 ERA with 10 strikeouts in 13 innings. (Yonhap)