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"Did you have five 20-homer guys when you won the championship?" The standard for a "powerhouse" in the minds of the championship press corps, and this year we don't have a single one.

"When Doosan (Bears) won the championship, did they have five 20-homer hitters? (Kim) Jae-hwan, (Kim) Hyun-soo, (Yang) Willie..."

Six consecutive years of fall baseball failure. Hope blooms in the midst of frustration.

Manager Kim Tae-hyung sees the Lotte Giants' problem as a lack of long balls. "Did Lotte have a 20-homer hitter this year?" he asked during the final camp.

There are only eight hitters in the entire league with more than 20 home runs this season. While home runs have been on the decline across the league since the switch to balls, this year's numbers are even lower. Only Noh Si-hwan (31) has more than 30 homers.

Kim chuckled bitterly when I told him that Jeon Jun-woo, the team's top hitter, had 17. That's why he took up batting instruction himself. Although he wasn't a big hitter in his playing days, Kim's one-on-one lessons have a reputation for being effective.

He also emphasized the need for a natural slugger. "Kim Jae-hwan and Kook Hae-sung were different from the first time I saw them," he explained. Kim Jae-hwan is the player who realized that potential, and Kook Hae-sung is the player who unfortunately only had potential.

What will Lotte's cleanup trio look like next season? "When we won the championship at Doosan, we had about five 20-homer hitters," Kim recalls.

He managed Doosan for eight years from 2015 to 2022. The team was known for its offense and defense, but it also stood out for its "winning DNA" of hitting hard at every turn.

In his debut season, the team won the Korean Series. At the time, there were only two 20-homer hitters, Kim Hyun-soo (28) and Yang Yang-ji (20), but there were six double-digit home run hitters, including Oh Jae-il Min Byung-heon Romero and Oh Jae-won.

In 2016, there will be five 20-homer hitters, led by Kim Jae-hwan (37), with Oh Jae-il, Evans, Yang Ji, and Park Geun-woo. Kim Jae-hwan, Evans, Oh Jae-il, and Park Geon-woo also hit 20 home runs in 2017.

In 2018, besides Kim Jae-hwan (44), Oh Jae-il, Choi Joo-hwan, Yang Ji, and Kim Jae-ho, Oh Jae-won, Park Geon-woo, and Heo Kyung-min all hit 20 or more home runs, giving the number of double-digit home run hitters to eight.

From 2019 onward, the numbers dropped sharply. In 2019, only Oh Jae-il (21), Kim Jae-hwan (30) and Fernandez (21) in 2020, Yang Seok-hwan (28) and Kim Jae-hwan (27) in 2021, and Kim Jae-hwan (23) and Yang Seok-hwan (20) in 2022. Only 4-5-3-3 have hit double-digit home runs in the same period. The steady free-agent exodus underscores the weakness of Doosan's foundation. Doosan showed flashes of championship-caliber talent in 2019, but has since fallen short in the Korean Series. 무지개토토 주소

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