Choo Shin-soo hits his third homer of the season

At an away game with the Houston Astros, Texas Rangers Choo Shin-soo hit a two-run home run (his 3rd of the season) that flew over the left field wall in the second inning when his team was winning 2-0. In May, Choo made seven hits in six games, two of which were homers and the rest were doubles, making all of them extra-base hits. Of these, five hits flew to the left or to the center, which shows that he is making strong hits regardless of the course of the ball. His performance in May only shows OPS of 0.978, demonstrating his top-level talent.

In April, he was an outfielder with weak hit, hardly flying the balls to the outfield. The problem was his left elbow. Choo used to be a batter who is very good at inside-out swing in which his left rear elbow slightly brushes his body with his right front arm kept straight when he is swinging his bat. This type of his swing enables the body, not an arm, to make enough turning force for hitting the ball with strong impact.

Since 2014 when he had a surgery to remove a piece of bone on the left elbow, however, he made frequent outside-in swings, which pitching coaches usually describe that the bat is spinning. Although his pain was gone, Choo still had to suffer the aftereffects of the injury.

“It is easy to see that some hitters do not recover their batting position even after they recovered from the injury,” said Lee Jong-yeol, sports commentator of Seoul Broadcasting System, adding, “They may have developed new habits of avoiding painful areas to use while they were being treated at the rehabilitation center or their batting posture could have been changed while they instinctively tried to protect injured areas.”

kini@donga.com