Lee Jeong-hoo and Koo Chang-mo also suffer injury setbacks
No reliable ace on the mound
Outfielders Kang Baek-ho and Kim Hye-sung 'left-handed', right-handed slugger Noh Si-hwan hit one home run in September
Kim Young-kyu, Kim Sung-yoon join final roster Team to hold first official training session in Gochukseo tomorrow
Heading into the Hangzhou Asian Games, Kang Baek-ho (KT, pictured left) and Kim Hye-sung (Kiwoom) are the centerpieces of the South Korean baseball team's batting lineup. The pair, who also wore the Korean flag at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March, 토토 are considered to be among the league's best hitters at the young age of 24.
'No Chang-mo, no Lee, no Jung-hoo'
South Korea's baseball team will be without left-handed pitcher Koo Chang-mo (26-NC) for the Hangzhou Asian Games. After Lee Jung-hoo (25-KIUM) underwent ankle surgery in July, the team will be without a key pitcher for the fourth straight Asian Games.
The Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) Performance Enhancement Committee and the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) Power Enhancement Committee announced on June 21 that left-handed pitcher Kim Young-kyu (23-NC) and outfielder Kim Sung-yoon (24-Samsung) were included in the final 24-man roster in place of the injured Koo Chang-mo and Lee Jung-hoo.
Koo Chang-mo made his first start on June 2 against Jamsil LG, throwing just five pitches before leaving the mound complaining of forearm pain. Since then, he hasn't appeared in the KBO's first team or the Futures League (second team). On the 19th, 사설토토 Koo pitched two scoreless innings in a second-team game against KT in front of Ryu Jung-il, the national team manager, and Cho Kye-hyun, the chairman of the KBO's power enhancement committee, but he was deemed too weak to play in a live game.
The weakest AG team in history
South Korea assembled a "dream team" of Park Chan-ho (50) and Kim Byung-hyun (44) at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok and continued to field the best domestic and international players until the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games. However, after suffering from measles due to the controversy over preferential military service, the team decided to focus on younger players. Players must be 25 years old and in their fourth year of professional baseball. The three wildcards, which can be selected regardless of age, must be 29 years old or younger.
As a result, this is one of the weakest teams ever assembled. In particular, the lack of an ace who can be trusted to pitch a single game is a concern for Ryu. The loss of Koo Chang-mo leaves only Lee Yi-ri (21-KIA) as a left-handed starter who can go more than five innings. "If a starting pitcher shows even the slightest sign of faltering, we have no choice but to make a quick change to overcome it," Ryu said.
The story is similar for the batters as of the 20th. Since September, Kim Hye-sung (24-KI) is batting .412 and Kang Baek-ho (24-KT) has shown signs of resurgence with a .346 batting average over the same period, but both are left-handed hitters. Noh Si-hwan (23-Hanhwa), the "right-handed slugger" who hit 30 home runs this season, hasn't hit a home run since September. "If it's difficult to score runs, we will actively utilize bunting," 스포츠토토맨 Ryu said.
Japan-Taiwan is a tough matchup
Hangzhou's success will likely depend on the outcome of the match between Japan and Chinese Taipei. Japan is a team of community baseball players, but many of them have the skills to earn a professional call-up. "We have two pitchers with fastballs around 150 kilometers per hour who can pitch against South Korea," said a member of the team's coaching staff.
Taiwan has seven players from the minor leagues of Major League Baseball. "As the mandatory service period in Taiwan has been increased from four months to one year, many good players have come out to take advantage of the military service," a KBSA official explained.
The team will begin its first official training session at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Nov. 23. The team will depart for Hangzhou, China, on Aug. 28, and will play its first group game against Hong Kong on Sept. 1. The final will be held on March 7. 섯다