The sluggish performance of the WBC (World Baseball Classic) national team led to omnidirectional criticism of Korean baseball. Even amateur baseball and professional prospects unrelated to the WBC sparked fire. There was another inertial point out that there was a lack of training and that there was no basic skill by focusing only on small skills. It sounded like a complaint from the era of ancient civilization that ‘kids these days have no manners’.
The KBO League on the 6th seemed to show that this kind of comment was just prejudice. This day was the 5th starting day, when young pitchers poured out. However, there were not many games that flowed into a slugfest. Rather, a large number of pitchers who made us look forward to the future appeared and made eye contact. The highest fastball speeds were all over 150 km/h. It is a signal that the ‘age of redemption revolution’ has arrived in the KBO league.안전놀이터
The player with the best score was Doosan Kim Dong-ju. He is a 3rd year professional young gun wearing a Doosan uniform with the 10th overall pick in the 1st round of the 2021 draft. He is a player who seized the opportunity while Dylan Pyle was away due to an injury sustained by a hit to the head. Kim Dong-joo blocked 6 innings that day with only 92 pitches. He gave up no runs and struck out seven. The highest speed of the fastball was 150 km per hour.
It also set a record that will remain in the history of Doosan. He is the eighth Doosan pitcher to record both a quality start and a starter win in his first start in his debut. The protagonist of the last record before Kim Dong-ju was Hong Woo-tae, the current Ulsan Technical High School BC coach in 1994. That was 29 years ago.
At the Gocheok Dome, Kim Dong-ju’s motives for joining the pros had a head-to-head competition. Kiwoom Jang Jae-young, who became a professional baseball player with the first nomination in 2021, and Kang Hyo-jong of LG faced off. Kang Hyo-jong became the winning pitcher after 5 innings with 4 hits, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts and no runs. Kang Hyo-jong also showed growth in fastball restraints. The highest speed was 152 km, and the average speed was 146 km.
Although he became a losing pitcher with 3 runs in 4 innings, Jang Jae-young pitched a completely different pitch than in the past. Now it doesn’t collapse with a single walk. He didn’t even give up restraint just because he got his first pitch. On the 6th, Jang Jae-young’s highest fastball speed was 155 km per hour, and the average reached 150 km.
In Daegu, Moon Dong-ju showed his true value in his second year as a pro. At Samsung Lions Park, the KBO League’s representative hitter-friendly pitch, he pitched 5 innings, 1 hit and no runs. What stands out more is the fastball restraint. The highest speed was 159 km/h. There was only one walk.
In Samsung, rookie Lee Ho-seong, who came out as the second pitcher, shone. Lee Ho-seong got on the mound from the 3rd inning when the score was 0-5 and recorded 3 scoreless innings. Although his fastball restraint was not great, he overcame the crisis with stable control and a variety of breaking balls.