Who is strongest among trio?

Baseball is said to be the game of pitcher. Yet, opposite opinion is very strong.

Retired manager Kim Young-Duk, a veteran in the pennant race, emphasizes that in the regular season of 132 games, batting is rather important. Short battles like the Korean Series need pitchers more, he claims.

Actually, Kim engineered Samsung or Hanwha to overwhelm Haitai, undisputed Korean series champions, during the pennant races at least thanks to the batting power of his players.

This year also, the three powers – Hyundai, Doosan and Samsung – are leading the race owing to the mighty power of the cleanup trio.

Hyundai, which has a cleanup trio of only Koreans among eight teams this season, is continuing to take the lead, engineered by Park Jae-Hong, Shim Jae-Hak and Park Kyung-Wan.

The Hyundai troop is demonstrating a fantastic right-left combination by the cleanup trio -- right-hander Park Jae-Hong who joined 30-30 club twice, lefthander Shim Jae-Hak and right-hander Park Kyung-wan.

By record, Doosan¡¯s ¡°Woodongsu¡± trio composed of Tyron Woods, Kim Dong-Ju and Shim Jong-Su is the strongest. Even though the three are all right-handers, they combined to record 0.322 batting average with a total of 289 hits, 65 homers and 206 RBI.

Lagging behind Doosan comparatively in terms of destructive power, Samsung has a trio who gives the heaviest pressure on pitchers – Lee Seung-Yub, Franco and Smith.

Slow starter Lee, coming out of a slump, took the leadership in the home run race with 27 and seasoned Franco who made an All-Star team of the Major League is an accurate batter making pitchers difficult to find where to pitch. Smith who is suffering from rumors that he may be traded is in a slump these days, but Kim Ki-Tae is supporting him from behind, showing a fight spirit after shaving his head.

Hanwha, although ranked at seventh place among the eight, is proud of its ¡°dynamite batting lineup,¡¯¡¯ as far as the destruction power of cleanup trio is concerned.

The season¡¯s sensation Song Ji-Man moved to the third and the two imported players,

Rohrmeier and Davis, are blasting home runs every day. It is also their pride that home run king of the past Chang Jong-Hun is placed at the sixth.