“Best finish” Kim Taek-yeon (19, Doosan Bears) is expected to reach the national flag. Kim Taek-yeon was listed on the Premier 12 national team’s training call-up list announced by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) on the 11th. Of the total 35 players, Kim Taek-yeon is the only rookie in the first year. Of these, 28 will be selected, and Kim Taek-yeon is likely to survive on the final list.
She is qualified to play. Kim pitched in 60 games during the regular season this year, recording three wins, two losses and 19 saves with four holds and an ERA of 2.08. Since her debut in the post season, she gave 2 1/3 scoreless innings. She is also one of the best relief pitchers this year in name and reality. She is also the most promising candidate for Rookie of the Year.
Having played in the U-18 World Cup last year, he threw 247 pitches in five games while he was still young, drawing concerns from fans. In his first season as a pro bowler, he pitched a considerable number of pitches (992 pitches in total, 6th in relief). When Kim Taek-yeon took the mound in the second half of this season, many fans booed the Doosan Bears for fear of his injury. He also took six days off and threw 2 1/3 innings in the second round of the wild card game, which drew a lot of boos.
Kim Taek-yeon is a first-round player who was designated as the second overall pick after Doosan plunged to ninth place in 2022. Given the team’s circumstances, Doosan has ample conditions to test its starting pitcher Kim Taek-yeon. Doosan struggled due to the collapse of its starting lineup throughout this season. There were no full-time starters except for Kwak Bin, who tied for the most wins (14 wins). Choi Seung-yong and Choi Won-joon, who have extensive experience in starting, also had some anxiety as full-time starters.
On the other hand, there are considerable opinions that a bullpen pitcher is eligible for 롤 토토. Kim’s pitching average reached 75.2 percent (based on statistics) this year. There are no strong breaking balls except for the slider (baseball average of 19.3 percent), which is the second type of pitch. They say that because the pitches are monotonous, the bullpen matches the batters well. “Kim’s slider is not that bad. It’s the average level in the league. I like fastballs and can work together,” a team A source said. “It’s not enough as a starter. If the batting order turns two times, you will get used to fastballs. If he were a pitcher for our team, he would have used Kim as a bullpen.”
Right-handed pitcher Kim Taek-yeon recorded an OPS of 0.508 against right-handed hitters this season. He struggled more when facing left-handed hitters (POPS of 0.732). According to the number of pitches he threw, he recorded within 15 with 0.529 within, 0.732, and 0.641 between 31 and 45 pitches. This means that the more pitches he threw, the more difficult it was to deal with batters. Kim tried to overcome his weakness by diversifying his pitches by including splitter and change-up polishing.
“It’s hard to say that it’s a perfect slider yet,” Doosan pitching coach Park Jung-bae said. “I’m going to learn new pitches myself and continue to use them. I used to throw sliders, curves, and change-ups mainly, but after practicing splitter together, I heard that I felt good. Usually, it’s hard to use the new pitches right away in practice, but Taek-yeon also has the guts to check them right away in practice.”
It is not a requirement that Kim Taek-yeon has to throw more breaking balls in order to become a starter. Spencer Strider (Atlanta Braves), who Kim Taek-yeon picked as a role model, threw a fastball of 160 km/h when he was a prospect, but was considered to be monotonous in his pitching style. However, he showed outstanding performance as a starting pitcher in 2022 with 11 wins, 5 losses, and ERA of 2.67. Strider is a two-pitch pitcher with a 67% fastball average and 28.2% slider in 2022, but he overwhelmed the Major League Baseball with his strong pitching. The following year, he recorded 20 wins, 5 losses, and ERA of 3.86 281 strikeouts.
Kim Taek-yeon is also a top class in the KBO League when it comes to fastball control and ball control. If he can improve his slider, it is worth dreaming of a “Korean-style striker.”