San Francisco has produced a total of six Rookie of the Year award winners. They include Willie Mays in 1951, Orlando Cepeda in 1958, Willie McCorvey in 1959, Gary Matthews in 1973, John Montefusco in 1975, and Buster Posey in 2010, but there has been no news since then for the 13th year. "San Francisco has not produced any Rookie of the Year award since Posey in 2010, but it is well positioned to end the drought soon," Guardado said. "We sent 12 promising players to the big leagues last season, and many of them will remain rookies in 2024," citing Lee Jung-hoo as likely candidates for Rookie of the Year along with left-handed starting pitcher Kyle Harrison 22 and shortstop Marco Luciano 22.

It is not the first time that Lee Jung-hoo has been selected as a candidate for the Rookie of the Year award next year. CBS Sports along with Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers selected him as a wild card for the Rookie of the Year on April 14, even before applying for posting. CBS Sports said at the time, "Lee Jung-hoo, a fast-footed center fielder with the highest level of contact ability, recorded a batting average of 0.340 and an on-base percentage of 0.407 and a slugging percentage of 0.491 in the KBO League. His former teammate Kim Ha-sung 28, San Diego Padres showed that a KBO League batter can transfer to the Major League and thus perform better than average. If Lee can make a smooth landing, he will be nominated for the Rookie of the Year award thanks to his diverse supplementary skills."

As Lee has been highly evaluated for his contact ability, his 2024 season performance is not bad. According to "Stimmer," a program on the U.S. baseball statistics site FanGraph, Lee's 2024 record is expected to exceed the league average with a batting average of 0.291, 12 homers, 57 RBIs, 83 runs and nine steals, an on-base percentage of 0.354, a slugging percentage of 0.431 and wRC+ 100 league average of 116. Although it is a successful debut season even if his performance is reported as expected, it is uncertain whether he will become the Rookie of the Year. There are two main reasons.

First, awards such as Major League Rookie of the Year and Silver Slugger were generally favorable to players who hit many home runs. Among the 21st century rookie award winners, only five out of 46 players won with 15 or fewer home runs. In 2020, when the season was shortened to 60 games due to COVID-19, the number will be reduced to four except for Kyle Lewis, the American League Rookie of the Year.

Second, candidates for this year's National League Rookie of the Year award are outstanding. The most promising candidate is Yamamoto, who signed a mega contract worth 325 million U.S. dollars for 12 years and held an official press conference to join the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday. CBS Sports, which previously nominated Lee Jung-hoo for the Rookie of the Year award, said to Yamamoto, "He should come the favorite to win the ROY Award in whichever league he join this winter."

In addition to Yamamoto, the National League next year has attracted a large number of promising players who are highly regarded in the entire Major League. Five of the top 10 prospects in MLB.COM are eligible for the 2024 Rookie of the Year award. They include Jackson Churio 19, Milwaukee Brewers/outfielder, Paul Skenis 21, Pittsburgh Pirates/right-handed pitcher, Dylan Crews 21, Washington Nationals/outfielder, and Jaxson Merrill 20, San Diego Padres/striker, who is considered to be a player who will be called up immediately if Kim Ha-sung or Jake Cronenworth is traded to 10th-ranked Jordan Lawler 21, Arizona Diamondbacks/striker. Also, some Asian professional league players have a more conservative view on the concept of "second-hand rookie," which Lee Jung-hoo must overcome.

Lee Jung-hoo, who does not have a long hit, can win the Rookie of the Year award because he shows good performance in other areas including high batting average, on-base percentage and stolen bases. A case in point is Ichiro Suzuki in 2001. He went straight to the Big League in 2001 and won the Rookie of the Year and MVP at the same time with Gold Glove defense, posting a batting average of 0.350 242 hits from 692 times at bat, eight homers, 69 RBIs, 127 runs and 56 steals, and an on-base percentage of 0.381 with an on-base percentage of 0.457 OPS on-base plus slugging percentage of 0.838.

It is hard to expect the same performance as Ichiro from Lee Jung-hoo, who is rated as average in defense and base running in the league. However, there were four more players over the past 23 years who proved that Lee could win the Rookie of the Year award only with his contact ability. A case in point is Chris Coghlan, the winner of the National League Rookie of the Year award from then-Florida Marlins currently Miami Marlins in 2009. In many ways, the rookie season is identical to Lee Jung-hoo in that he made his debut in the same outfielder, and that he mainly played as the leadoff pitcher. Coghlan, who made his debut in the big league in May 2009, had a poor contact with .245 during 56 games in the first half, but had 30 walks and 41 strikeouts, leaving room for rebound in the second half.

Coghlan also showed an explosive batting performance with a batting average of 0.372 and an OPS of 0.966 in 72 games in the second half of the year. In addition, while playing evenly against left and right hands, he beat out prominent candidates such as J.A. Happ then Philadelphia Phillies, Tommy Hanson then Atlanta Braves, and Andrew McCutchen then Pittsburgh Pirates with 22 steals, beating out outstanding candidates such as J.A. Happ then Philadelphia Phillies, and J.A. Happ then Pittsburgh Pirates.

Of course, as candidates for the 2024 Rookie of the Year award are outstanding, Lee's chances of winning the award will increase if he consistently performs well from the beginning of the season like Dustin Pedroia, who won the 2007 American League Rookie of the Year award. Unlike revising his batting form to adapt to the ball early this year, Lee said he would push ahead with the existing batting form that gave him the title of batting champion and MVP last year.  토토사이트

Lee Jung-hoo, who returned to Korea after signing a six-year, $113 million contract with San Francisco on the 19th, said in an interview with reporters, "First of all, I will try without changing my batting form. I will try it and make changes accordingly," adding, "At that time in 2017, when I received the Rookie of the Year award, I played the season without thinking that I would win the Rookie of the Year award. I will do my best every day again this time, and the Rookie of the Year is a matter to think about when I go there."