`Don`t Covet the Titles of Wins and Saves`

After earning a save with the outstanding performance for two scoreless innings, LG Shin Yoon-Ho was asked, ``you have pitched for two or three innings almost every two game. Aren`t you tired of such a frequent outing?`` Shin answered, ``it`s not a big deal. I`m able to pitch like that even everyday.``

Shin Yoon-Ho pitched in this season much more than he had pitched during his 7-year lifetime. While he had thrown 110 and 1/3 innings in 53 games since his professional debut in 1994, Shin pitched 123 and 2/3 innings in 57 games this year.

The suddenly increased pitching innings might be a burden on him, but Shin revealed his know-how to maintain his power, saying that ``there`s no problem so far.`` ``Nowadays, I have tried to pitch as simple as possible at set-up motion without a wind-up, even in the situation of no runner. The velocity declines a bit, but it is a way of saving the power.`` Moreover, his restless power bases on the healthy shoulder, which has been used only intermittently for last seven years.

The new guardian of LG, Shin Yoon-Ho recorded 13 wins, 4 losses and 13 saves, and 2.98 ERA this year, sharing the first place in wins and ranking the second place in saves (25 save points), winning percentage (0.765), and ERA (2.98). This is a remarkable result enough to seek for a quadruple crown in pitching categories.

Among these categories, Shin has been most interested in wins and saves. Through the Korean professional baseball history, there were only two players who grabbed both titles of wins and saves. Those are Hanhwa`s Song Jin-Woo (19 wins, 8 losses and 17 saves) in 1992, and Koo Dae-Sung (18 wins, 3 losses and 24 saves) who then played in Hanhwa in 1996. Alternating freely between a starter and a reliever, they could win the titles in wins and saves thanks to 11 relief victories and 16 relief victories respectively.

Shin also has a high chance to be a double crown winner. Since Shin usually takes the mound in a closely contested situation, he has a relatively high probability to win the game. Moreover, he, as a fireman, can pitch more frequently than the starters who have to pitch every five day. It is obvious that LG will send Shin to the mound at every opportunity in remaining 24 games in order to advance to the semi-playoffs.

Kim Sang-Soo ssoo@donga.com