Doosan Bears starter Brandon Waddell pitches against the Samsung Lions during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on May 1, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Doosan Bears left-hander Brandon Waddell is pitching in his third season in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), but this is the first time he has been with the Seoul-based club from spring training onward. In each of the past two years, Waddell stepped in as a midseason replacement, pitching only in 11 games in 2022 and 18 in 2023.
Those 29 starts represent roughly a full season’s worth of work. And Waddell had a 16-6 record with a 2.92 ERA, which would be excellent numbers within a single year. And instead of waiting for someone else to falter and replacing him with Waddell, the Bears decided to have Waddell in their rotation from Day 1 this year.
And the move has paid off. Prior to his start Wednesday against the Kiwoom Heroes, Waddell had a sparkling 1.61 ERA with a 3-2 record in five starts covering 28 innings. He has struck out 30 and only walked four.
In an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Waddell credited his focus on consistency for his early-season success.
Doosan Bears starter Brandon Waddell poses for a photo after an interview with Yonhap News Agency at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on May 7, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
“I don’t think I really changed preparation very much,” Waddell said of getting ready for his first full season in Korea. “You know, just try and get more consistent, make my pitches more consistent movement-wise and also have my delivery more consistent. I think if you boil down pitching, that’s what it is. If you can be consistent, it helps you a lot with your command and knowing what you’re going to get out of your hands.”
Waddell would be second in the league in ERA if he had pitched enough innings to qualify. He missed about three weeks with a lower back injury and returned to the hill last Wednesday. He opened the season with consecutive scoreless outings and has yet to surrender more than two earned runs in any game this year.
Waddell’s other peripheral numbers have improved from the past two seasons. His strikeout rate is up from 23.4 percent to 26.1 percent, while his walk rate has been cut in half from 7 percent to 3.5 percent. He has always been able to keep the ball in the park, with only nine homers surrendered over the past two seasons. This year, Waddell has yet to serve up a long ball.
Having added a new pitch last year, Waddell said he tried to polish the pitches he already had for this season, instead of adding another weapon to his arsenal.
“Last year, I added the sweeper, and it was very inconsistent last year,” Waddell said of the popular pitch that has a more dramatic horizontal break than a conventional slider. “I also worked on the changeup a lot, trying to get that more consistent. So even though this year I didn’t really add a new pitch theoretically, I was just making some changes to get more consistency.”
Doosan Bears starter Brandon Waddell pitches against the Samsung Lions during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on May 1, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
Waddell said since most of his pitches have vertical breaks, he wanted something that broke horizontally — “east-west,” in his own words — to make life harder for opposing hitters.
“For me, the easiest thing to do was a sweeper. Naturally getting around a ball — curveballs, cutters, sliders — it’s easier for me,” he said. “Just messed around with some grips and talked to a lot of guys in the offseason, and just a lot of repetitions.”
Waddell said he would like nothing more than to keep his early momentum going. And the Bears will need every bit of that, with their other foreign starter, Raul Alcantara, sidelined with elbow issues.
The Dominican right-hander has traveled to the United States to get his elbow checked out, and the Bears manager Lee Seung-yuop hinted last week that the team won’t wait around forever for the former 20-game winner.
Waddell will likely serve as the Bears’ lone foreign starter for the foreseeable future, but he said he doesn’t feel added pressure.
“Obviously, I want to be out there. It’s my responsibility for this team to be out there, and you know, that doesn’t sit lightly with me,” he said. “I think that carries a lot of weight, and I take a lot of pride in being able to be out there. So injuries are always tough. There’s a lot of things that are out of your control, and I just try and focus on getting back out.”
(Yonhap)
