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The local media in the United States made an interesting analysis on the fact that Vince Velasquez (34 years old), the “killer” for fall baseball introduced by the Lotte Giants of the KBO League in the middle of the 2025 season, rejoined the Major League Baseball team. The investigation was focused on the reasons why pitchers who achieved excellent results in Triple A had almost “disastrous” results on the pitching plate in Korea.
On the 7th (Korean time), “Sports Mokery”, a sports media based in Chicago, USA, analyzed the prospects and expectations of Velasquez, who recently formed a minor league alliance with the Chicago Cubs and is trying to re-enter the Major League Baseball, and mentioned the 2025 KBO League period.
The media noticed that Velasquez’s report card in 2025 is extremely inconsistent. Before joining Rakuten, Velasquez played in 18 games (18 starts) with the Triple A team of the Cleveland Cavaliers, showing a stable pitching status with an earned run average (ERA) of 3.42 in 81.2 innings. His pitching power remained unabated, with a total of 95 strikeouts.
But after Velasquez joined the Rakuten team, the results were very dismal. He participated in 11 games (7 starts) and achieved the worst results with 1 win and 4 losses and an ERA of 8.23 in 35 innings. The batting average reached .324 and the WHIP allowed per inning was 1.86. In other words, nearly 2 baserunners are sent out per inning. “Sports Mocury” also said that “it achieved disastrous results in Rakuten.”
The media pointed out that the reason for South Korea’s economic downturn is the environment. The report read: “Because 35 innings is a small number of specimens, it is difficult to judge the accurate situation in Korea,” “Maybe he encountered difficulties in adapting to a new type of ball, or there are other environmental reasons. But the most important thing is to fully digest the 2025 season and prove his health.”
According to the report, Velasquez’s pitching and ball control in Triple A in the United States were likely to be drastically shaken by the encounter with the Korean official ball, which has different thread height and rebound coefficient. In addition, it is speculated that league-specific environmental changes such as ABS (Automatic Pitch Determination System) implemented in the KBO League may be a bigger obstacle than expected for him as a Major League Baseball veteran.
Therefore, Velasquez’s rebound possibility was unexpectedly highly praised locally. Like Chris Flexon (32 years old, Doosan Bears), who returned to Major League Baseball after playing for the Doosan Bears in the past and is on the road to success, Velasquez has shown promise as a “dark horse” on the Cubs’ pitching bench if he is in good health. In fact, Flexon played for the Cubs in the 2025 season and achieved 5 wins and 1 loss with an average ERA of 3.09 in 21 games (one start). The batting average was 0.232 and the WHIP was only 1.15.
“Sports Mocury” said, “Although expectations are low, Velasquez’s return to health will be a cost-effective bargaining chip to fill the void in the Cubs’ backup pitching or starting lineup,” and ended the article with a positive outlook for his 2026 season.
For Lotte fans, it remains to be seen whether Velasquez, who has become a memory that they want to erase, can prove that the “KBO’s cruel history” on the American stage is just caused by the environment.
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*This content is generated by AI translation.
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