“I want to be selected, but… ”
Will the dream of KIA left-hander Yoon Young-cheol come true? On the 20th (hereafter Korean time), Yoon Young-chul took the mound as the second pitcher in a practice game against the baseball team held at the Veterans Memorial Stadium in Tucson, Arizona, Arizona, USA, and gave up 4 hits and 2 runs in 2 innings. He faced 10 batters to get 6 out counts, so it was not a smooth ‘unofficial debut’. 45 pitches.
Yoon Young-cheol is a newcomer that KIA expects greatly this year. As the second overall pick in the 2023 rookie draft, he is a skilled left-hander who showed off high school level command and game management skills during high school. He says he is not very interested in improving his speed, but he has a strong will to succeed in his own style. Still, it remains to be seen how much his fastball best of 136 km will go up after the season opener.
In particular, in last year’s JTBC entertainment program Strongest Baseball, Monsters, led by manager Lee Seung-yeop, attracted a lot of attention by overwhelming the legendary retired hitters in the KBO League. He is a pitcher that has been noticed early in the industry, but public awareness is quite high for a rookie.
Yoon Young-cheol was praised for his pitching that did not run away as expected. He got four hits, but no walks. He showed his ability against hitters representing the KBO League. According to the KIA club, Yoon Young-cheol said, “At first, I looked at the lineup and wondered how to deal with it, but when I went up to the mound, I wanted to catch an outcount. He said, “I wanted to play against senior Lee Jung-hoo and senior Kang Baek-ho, but I felt that he also swings well and has excellent contact skills with any ball.”
In fact, Yoon Young-chul developed his dream of becoming the Taegeuk mark for the adult national team while dealing with the national team hitters. He said, “Looking at the national team seniors, I thought that I would definitely want to be in that position, and as I played the opponent myself, that feeling grew even more.”
The KBO League is not the strongest baseball. It’s a much higher level, and if Yoon Young-cheol enters the first group, he will dissect it like a microscope. You have to be able to endure that to become a first-team pitcher, and you have to show top-notch performances among first-team pitchers in order to dream of something beyond that, such as wearing the Taegeuk mark.
Director Kim Jong-guk also said, “It was good in high school, but the pros are different. He has to come and see what he does.” Yoon Young-cheol is also cautious. “It is regrettable that the first pitch strike rate was low. He thinks that he has strengths in ball control, breaking ball ability, and mentality, and of course he has the desire to become the rookie of the year that senior Lee Eui-ri achieved, but I think it’s important to throw consistently without getting sick. I have a great desire to be selected for the national team, but I will have a chance if I do well on our team first.” 먹튀검증
In KIA, there are many supporters of Yun Young-chul, including pitching coach Jeong Myeong-won and great pitcher Yang Hyeon-jong. Make good use of it. Yoon Young-cheol said, “It was amazing to play baseball with senior Yang Hyeon-jong, whom I only saw on TV, but I want to learn that attitude because I have my own clear routine in training and my attitude toward baseball seems serious.”
Still, he did not hide his dream of becoming a starting pitcher. Yoon Young-cheol said, “If given the opportunity, he would definitely want to occupy a starting pitcher spot, and if he goes around the starting rotation, he would like to accumulate multipliers bit by bit.” He said, “I received a lot of support and joined, but I will prepare well so as not to disappoint the fans. Thank you for your support.”