A finishing pitcher with 32 saves in a 21-year-old season when his first national team failed. This is the story of Jung Hae-young (21), the closer of the KIA Tigers. Although his selection for the WBC national team was canceled, his future is bright.

With the announcement of the final list for the 5th 2023 WBC, which will be held in March this year, selection was expected, but unfortunately some were canceled. Representatively, KIA’s right-handed reliever Jung Hae-young is the main character.

Last season, Jung Hae-young appeared in 55 games and recorded 3-7 with an ERA of 3.38 and recorded 32 saves, which is third in the league. He recorded 30 or more saves for the second consecutive year following 34 saves in the 2021 season, and also broke the record for the youngest 50 saves in the KBO League.

As such, he had one of the best results among young relief pitchers, but the national team’s technical committee and coaching staff did not choose Jung Hae-young.

The 15 pitchers are veterans Kim Kwang-hyeon and Yang Hyeon-jong (KIA), as well as Won Tae-in (Samsung), Kwak Bin (Doosan), Koo Chang-mo (NC), So-Jun Sohn (kt), Ko Woo-seok, Kim Yun-sik, Jung Woo-young (LG), and Lee Yong-chan (NC). , Kim Won-joong-Park Se-woong (Lotte), Jung Cheol-won (Doosan), Ko Young-pyo (kt), and Lee Eui-ri (KIA). 스포츠토토

Lee Eui-ri, who is one year younger than Jung Hae-young, was selected as the youngest player on the national team, and four relievers were listed on the roster, which is a relatively disappointing result.

At the same time, the proportion of relief pitchers in the team mound management strategy was small. National team coach Lee Kang-cheol plans to select a relatively large number of starting pitchers and use them by destroying positions, considering that there are restrictions on the number of pitches of 65 pitches in 4 games in the first round of the finals and the one-day break for pitches of 30 or more pitches. revealed If that happens, the range of use of the salvation team will naturally decrease.

In addition, the fact that Jung Hae-young’s proficiency in forkball and curve is relatively low compared to the selected relief pitchers seems to have been the background for the exclusion.

At a press conference on the 4th, national team coach Kang-Cheol Lee said, “Not most of the 15 pitchers selected this time, but we mainly selected players who are strong in international games. I have to go beyond the first game to advance to the next round, so I think of the first game against Australia as the first priority,” he said. “So I picked a pitcher who could be strong against Australia. According to the power analysis, it was found that Australia is weak in changing balls (with a large drop) and falling forkballs. If you look at the list, most of them have (that kind of) decisive pitches and are pitchers who are good at throwing large angles such as forkballs and curveballs.”

Jeong Hae-young also threw a splitter (13.5%) as the second breaking ball following the slider (21.4%) last season. However, the national coaching staff and technology committee seem to have taken into consideration the fact that Jung Hae-young’s proficiency in pitches such as forkball (splitter) is relatively low compared to selected relief pitchers Lee Yong-chan and Kim Won-joong, and he rarely uses curveballs.