“Vagabond” Shim Jae-hak

Doosan’s “Shim Cannon” 31 year-old Shim Jae-hak now wears the Tigers’ uniform.

Doosan made a one-for-two deal to send left handed outfielder Shim to Kia in return for 28 year-old sidearm pitcher Park Jin-chul and 29 year-old left handed first baseman Hwang Yun-sung on December 10.

Shim is a power hitter who batted cleanup for the national team when he was only a freshman at Korea University. However after he joined the professional league, he failed to receive the wholehearted confidence from his team because of his inconsistent performance.

As Shim has only moved to national capital region teams which have big stadium, hitting over 20 homeruns in only two years (2001,2002) has failed to develop his slugging image.

Shim Jae-hak had his best year in 2001 when he was traded to Doosan for Shim Jung-soo to lead the team to a winning season. He ranked second in batting average with 0.344 and 24 homeruns and 88 RBIs.

However he just hit 0.245 last year, losing almost 100 points of his batting average, and this year, he spent more time warming the bench as he hit 0.236 with 5 homeruns and 27 RBIs, suffering an extreme slump.

Kia is his fourth team, including time with Hyundai (2002) and Doosan (2001), since he made his debut in 1995 with LG. However, Kia stands firm in its position that this decision is a win-win trade. Kia acquired Shim Jae-hak, who is known as the best right fielder along with Shim Jung-soo, to form the best outfield in the league composed of Lee Jong-bum, Park Jae-hong and Shim Jae-hak. Also, Kia has balanced the batting lineup by adding an additional left handed hitter to a lineup in which only Jang Sung-ho is a left handed hitter.

Doosan is also seen as making a good trade to reinforce its starting pitcher and acquiring a back-up first baseman.

Manager Kim Kyung-moon of Doosan, who made banner for changes of generations, said, “I am sorry for Shim Jae-hak. But the time has passed when players play only because of their reputations. I think this gives the players a strong message.”

Along with this, Doosan exchanged Lotte pitcher Moon Dong-hwan, a player rewarded to them for losing FA Jung Soo-keun, for Hanhwa back-up catcher Chae Sang-byung.

Hwan-Soo Zang zangpabo@donga.com