The phenomenon was too clear to just look at it as a ‘consequence theory’. Most of the pitchers of the 5th World Baseball Classic (WBC) national team could not raise their pace to match the schedule of this tournament.
After consecutive successful results in the 1st and 2nd competitions, the WBC baseball team tasted the humiliation of being eliminated in the first round in the 2013 and 2017 competitions. This tournament also struggled from the first round. However, the reason for the sluggishness was different from the previous two competitions. In the 2013 and 2017 tournaments, in the early rounds of the first round, batters failed to develop a sense of the game, and were hit by opponents they had to catch, such as the Netherlands and Israel, respectively. Conversely, the pitchers were slow to build up their bodies in this tournament.
It is said that there were voices of concern about the speed of training from the time the national team was scheduled. An official familiar with the national team situation said, “There was also an opinion to create a mini-camp so that only the necessary players could gather a little more quickly and prepare. However, as far as I know, it was only a minority opinion and was not discussed in detail.”
After that, the official message that national team coach Lee Kang-cheol delivered to the players was also ‘take care’. When asked about the message he gave to the players after the first convocation training of the national team players began on the 16th, coach Lee said, “I asked them to ‘let’s all build up well and play the game without regret’.” It was an order to speed up as much as possible until February 16, when the national team starts official training in Arizona, USA.
It was not that each of the players selected for the WBC team neglected their preparations for the tournament. Most of the players headed to their respective camps earlier than February 1, the official starting line for spring camp, at least a week, and at most 15 days. However, the pace of the pitchers who appeared after the Arizona camp was below expectations.
A pitching leader in the KBO League said, “I saw a video of the national team pitchers pitching at the Arizona camp, and most of them looked bad. Even if director Lee Kang-cheol couldn’t express it in his supervisory position, his calculations must have gone wrong. He thought, ‘It must be difficult’ to operate a pitcher from the bench.” said. Another pitching leader also said, “Director Lee Kang-cheol probably believed in the players, but as much as he believed, it seems that the pitchers did not raise the pace. He must have already seen the pitchers at Arizona camp and thought, ‘This is a big deal.’”
There seems to be a kind of league culture at work. Even when the 2006 and 2009 tournaments are held, most clubs in the KBO league start spring camp in mid-January, starting with the pitching team. SK, which has enjoyed its heyday since 2007, also held a high-speed training camp in early January under manager Kim Seong-geun. Controversy continued during the inactive period, but as a result, most of the league players habitually made their bodies in a hurry. Moreover, ahead of the 2009 WBC, the national team’s coaching staff led the team’s selected players to gather early. For example, Kim Byeong-hyun, who had no team at the time, moved from January under the management of coach Kim In-sik and pitching coach Yang Sang-moon.토토사이트
Moreover, in this year’s WBC national team, there were many pitchers who lacked experience to speed up their bodybuilding ‘on their own’. It seems that relatively young pitchers such as Jung Woo-young and Kim Yun-shik (above LG), Lee Eui-ri (KIA), and Koo Chang-mo (NC) failed to show their skills. With 15 pitchers, this tournament was richer than any other tournament in the past. However, the line between a pitcher who can be moderate and a pitcher who is not at all is clear. This is also the reason why the weight and position of each pitcher is completely different from what was assumed at the time of selection.