“Who Says I Can’t Pitch?”

He has an annual salary of 740 million won, and his record for the year is seven wins and 14 losses with a 5.00 ERA. Anyone would say that this player was certainly not on his game this season. Let me see, he has an annual salary of 740 million won but only won seven games this season, so this would mean he made more than 100 million won per win.

This is the story of Jung Min-tae, Korean baseball’s “most expensive and most inefficient player” of the season. However, he is ever more determined to come back during the postseason and has vowed to revamp his glory.

During an interview, he said, “After the regular season was over, I trained hard and regained my confidence for the Korean Series. I have finished balancing my pitches, and I am also in good condition. I’ll do my best to lead my team to victory.”

Jung performed poorly during the season’s pennant race and thus has a terrible record against Samsung. He started four games against Samsung but only won once, lost another, and allowed a 6.75 ERA. He also allowed four homers during the games he pitched.

However, Jung Min-tae, traditionally known as the “Postseason Man,” always finds a way to recover his form during this time of the season. He has pitched in a total of 11 Korean Series games and has accumulated six wins, one loss, and an astonishing 1.85 ERA. During the 1998 season, he won two games and defended the mound with a 0.51 ERA. He continued his outstanding pitching during last year’s postseason, winning three games and coming off the mound with a 1.69 ERA and his second Korean Series MVP award.

Jung Min-tae is now pitching in his sixth Korean series. The reason why Hyundai’s head coach Kim Jae-bak added Jung to the starting rotation was because he highly valued the veteran’s extensive experience and his strong Korean Series record.

Jung said, “I’m happy that I’ll be playing Samsung. It would be good both for the development of professional baseball and for our team because we wanted to play the Lions in the Korean Series. I promise to deliver an exciting game.”

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com