Li Haoyu. (File photo)
[Sports Center/Comprehensive Report] The Tigers missed the playoffs this year, and the issue entering the off-season will be to review next year's core lineup. Tiger Media's "Bless You Boys" wrote an article that with a large number of new players this season, many position candidates have actually been determined, and the 23-year-old Taiwanese weirdo Li Haoyu is almost guaranteed to start the season in the major leagues next year.
"Bless You Boys" gave Li Haoyu the "Taiwan Tiger" at the beginning of the article. Tiger), "Please allow us to call him this, we are still thinking of a better name." He then pointed out that Li Haoyu was promoted to the major leagues very early due to injuries at the beginning of the season, but was demoted after experiencing a low point. "Now fans have a better understanding of Li Haoyu's fiery and extremely competitive personality. You can imagine that he was very dissatisfied at the time. Fortunately, he kept this experience in mind. After returning to the major leagues, he was more prepared mentally."
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US media pointed out that after Li Haoyu was called back to the major leagues, he posted a wRC+ of 151 in the rest of June and stayed there until the end of the season. His wRC+ in July was also as high as 132, and in August and September it was 118 and 113 respectively. Although the outbreak in June and July was indeed a little lucky. Favored, but Li Haoyu's performance in the last two months was still quite stable, showing signs of gradually adapting to the major leagues and maintaining a firepower higher than the league average; and his average bat velocity in the second half of the season also reached 91.1 miles, and he often made contributions at critical moments, which is gratifying for a young player.
In addition, Li Haoyu's strikeout rate of 23.9% and walk rate of 8.2% are also at the league average level. Although the swing rate is a bit higher, these data also include the time when he has not adapted to the major leagues at the beginning of the season. Although his weighted on-base rate of 0.325 is higher than the expected weighted on-base rate of 0.302, it shows His actual performance may be slightly corrected and returned, but for a 23-year-old rookie, this performance is already quite good, and Li Haoyu should continue to improve and reduce his strikeout rate. Although there is no guarantee, it does not seem to be difficult to believe that Li Haoyu will do his best to get better.
Fielding is the biggest issue that Li Haoyu currently has to deal with. The author of "Bless You Boys" said that he watched Li Haoyu many games when he played in the Tiger Farm system, and was a little surprised by Li Haoyu's struggles in the second and third base defensive zones. Li Haoyu is naturally not a high-quality defender, but the types of mistakes he made this season are not common in the minor leagues; Li Haoyu's passing touch is indeed not the softest, but the author believes that with the accumulation of time and experience, Li Haoyu's defensive evaluation at second and third base will be closer to the average level.
"Bless You Boys" concluded that Li Haoyu may not be a player who can start 155 games next year, but he is by no means a pure left- and right-shooting martial arts player. If Li Haoyu wants to become a truly threatening power hitter, he needs to add more pulling ability. However, he has already shown average long-hitting ability and may improve in the future. Unless there is a disastrous performance in spring training, Li Haoyu will be on the roster for next year's opening game, and may also have a lot of time as the starting third baseman. However, this depends on whether the farm giant Anderson (Max Anderson) is ready to guard second base for the Tigers, and whether Peck (John Peck) can develop more in hitting and establish himself at shortstop.
