“Come out strong…”
KT Wiz manager Lee Kang-cheol announced rookie Won Sang-hyun as the starting pitcher for the team’s third game of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League against the Doosan Bears at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on Monday.
Won is a highly touted prospect who was selected by KT with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 2024 KBO Draft. At the time, KT said, “Won is a right-handed pitcher with excellent athleticism, a fastball that tops out at 150km/h and a reliable changeup. He is an immediate power pitcher with excellent game management skills, including aggressive pitching on the mound.” The team expressed its expectations for Won.
At the time of the rookie draft, Won Sang-hyun’s impressions of being selected by KT were the center of attention. The Busan man’s KBO role model was not his hometown club, the Lotte Giants, but KT. The main character is Choi Min-joon, who won the 2020 Rookie of the Year award and has since established himself as KT’s leading pitcher. “I’m happy to join KT,” Won said. 바카라사이트 When I was finishing up my first year of high school, I realized that I wanted to be a starter after watching him. I will strive to become a player who represents the team and the league just like him.”
Won is also a former high school baseball national championship hero.
As a sophomore in September 2022, he started the final game of the 50th Bonghwangdae National High School Baseball Tournament against Gangneung High School at Mokdong Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, and pitched 8⅓ innings with three hits, three walks, five strikeouts, no runs, and 105 pitches to help Busan High win the title. It was the first national championship in 22 years since the 2000 President’s Cup, when Choo Shin-soo (SSG), Jung Geun-woo (retired), and other 1982-born players won the title. The best player and best pitcher awards went to Won Sang-hyun.
Prior to his debut first-team spring training, Won participated in a mini-camp in the Philippines supported by the club and conducted joint training with role models Choi Min-joon and Shin Beom-joon, among other first-team seniors. He then realized his full potential in the spring camps in Busan and Okinawa, Japan, and was selected to the five-man roster after posting a 2.84 ERA in two exhibition games and one hold. On March 10, he pitched three innings of four-hit ball with two walks and five strikeouts against LG Electronics.
“I’m starting him because I like the stuff I have,” Lee said before the game against Suwon Doosan on March 28, adding, “I think he just needs to get through the first inning. If the first inning doesn’t go well, it can get tricky. I’ll watch his stamina to see if the pitch drops at any point,” he said.
The rookie’s shoulders are heavier than ever as he makes his debut.
The pressure is on for KT, which has lost four straight opening games for the first time in five years since 2019. After being swept by the Samsung Lions in the opening series over the weekend, they dropped back-to-back games against Doosan on the 26th and 27th to drop to eighth place in the standings. KT’s top four starters went out one after another, but Uhm Sang-baek gave up four runs in four innings, Benjamin gave up four runs in five innings, and Ko Young-pyo gave up nine runs in four innings.
With nowhere to turn, KT needs to get their first win as soon as possible if they want to make a run at the big title. Of course, KT didn’t really come into their own until the summer, but the last time they lost five games in a row to open the season was in 2019, Lee’s first year as manager. Starting the first two series at -5 is not a desirable scenario, even for a slow starter. That’s where rookie Won Sang-hyun comes in as an unsung hero.
“His deciding pitch is a curveball, which is better than the curveballs of the existing players. His RPM is higher than Cuevas’s.” “It would be easy to throw it to win, but he tries to throw it hard. I’m looking forward to him throwing his own ball,” and wished the rookie a good pitch.
Meanwhile, KT welcomed Doosan starter Kim Dong-joo and set the starting lineup as follows: Bae Jae-dae (center fielder), Cheon Sung-ho (second baseman), Mel Rojas Jr. 토토사이트 추천 (designated hitter), Park Byung-ho (first baseman), Kang Baek-ho (right fielder), Hwang Jae-gyun (third baseman), Jang Sung-woo (catcher), Kim Min-hyuk (left fielder), and Kim Sang-soo (shortstop).
