The Hanwha Eagles have been plagued all season by poor performances from their foreign hitters. The two foreign hitters, Brian O’Grady and Nick Williams, combined for 42 hits in 225 at-bats with a batting average of 1.187, four home runs, and 22 RBIs. Including incentives, O’Grady signed for a total of $900,000 and Williams for $450,000. O’Grady, arguably the worst foreign hitter of all time, was released in May, and Williams, who replaced him, hasn’t even made a start recently.
But there’s another team that has failed even more miserably than Hanwha. 온라인바카라The SoftBank Hawks, the “big boys” of Nippon Professional Baseball. On May 5, the Hawks were swept at home by the Chiba Lotte Marines, 1-7. They scored one run in the bottom of the ninth inning to avoid a sweep.
Courtney Hawkins, who started the game as the No. 7-designated hitter, went 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts. She grounded out to third base in the second inning and popped out to shortstop in the fifth before returning to strike out swinging in the seventh and ninth.
In his first appearance since Aug. 30 against the Orix Buffaloes, Hawkins went 9-for-10 with no walks and four strikeouts in three games. Manager Hiroshi Fujimoto said that Hawkins was not adjusting well and suggested that he would be sent to the second team.
Despaigne, who joined the team during the season. He is batting 8-for-1 without a home run. Photo via SoftBank Hawks social media
No foreign bats have been able to step up and play well this season.
Freddy Galvis, who was expected to be the center fielder, is batting 1-for-5 (5-for-33) with no home runs and one RBI in 19 games. Galvis, who has played in 1102 career major league games, signed a two-year, $7.4 million deal for 2022-2023. His average annual salary is around $4.94 million. He struggled last season as well. He batted just 1-for-19 (111 at-bats) with two home runs and 11 RBIs.
Willians Astudillo batted just 1-for-6 (44-for-64) with one home run and three RBIs in 20 games. His salary for the year is $1.35 million.
After struggling with foreign hitters, SoftBank brought back Alfred Despaigne in June. Despaigne was not re-signed after last season, as he had fallen out of favor after being SoftBank’s leading hitter.
The expectations turned out to be a big disappointment. The 37-year-old Cuban international is 8-for-1 with no home runs in 17 games.
SoftBank players in training. Photo credit: SoftBank Hawks Social Media
Together, the four foreign hitters are 14-for-123 with one home run and four RBIs. It’s a disaster of epic proportions.
Compared to Softbank, Hanwha looks good.