"Lost the selection fight"...Korean Baseball Faces Important Challenges Through Premier 12
"Lost the selection fight"...Korean Baseball Faces Important Challenges Through Premier 12
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"I lost the starting pitcher fight."
This was the words of Ryu Joong-il, the coach of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier 12.
The South Korean national baseball team, led by head coach Ryu Joong-il, returned home through Incheon International Airport on the 19th after the Premier 12 group league schedule.
South Korea, which faced the trophy in its first tournament in 2015, was the runner-up in the second tournament in 2019. Later, it aimed to advance to the Super Round as its goal for this tournament, but unfortunately, it did not come true.
South Korea, which was caught 3-6 by Taiwan in the first round, crushed Cuba 8-4, but suffered a 3-6 defeat against Japan. Afterwards, South Korea defeated the Dominican Republic and Australia 9-6, 5-2 respectively, but only won and lost three games to two, giving Japan (5 wins, no losses) and Taiwan (4 wins, 1 loss) a ticket to the Super Round, which is given to the second place in the group.
Korean baseball, which has been recognized for its international competitiveness by advancing to the semifinals of the 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC), the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics gold medal, and the 2009 WBC runner-up, faced a difficult time in the 2010s. It suffered from elimination in the first round in succession at the 2013 WBC and 2017 WBC, and was humiliated by no medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
After being eliminated in the first round at the 2023 WBC, the Korean baseball team started a generational change with Ryu Joong-il. At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and the 2023 Asian Baseball Championship (APBC), the team won the title and the runner-up prize, respectively, confirming some achievements.
Korean baseball, which has cleared up its ranks like that, tried to catch two rabbits of advancing to the Super Round at the same time as continuing to work on generational change in this tournament, but had to swallow up regret in the face of various homework.
Above all, fostering starting pitchers seems to be the most urgent thing. Korea had to face a tough time at this year's event, losing all of its starting pitching competitions. At the match against Taiwan, Ko Young-pyo (KTWiz) collapsed by allowing six hits, two homers and two walks in two innings. At the match against Cuba, Kwak Bin (Doosan Bears) pitched a comfortable game by allowing three hits, three strikeouts and five strikeouts in four innings, but failed again to block long innings.
South Korea then put forward Choi Seung-yong (Doosan) as the starting pitcher against Japan, but he struggled with four hits, one strikeout and two runs in 1.2 innings. Since then, Lim Chan-kyu (LG Twins) has played in the match against the Dominican Republic, but he has been sluggish with five hits, one homer, two strikeouts and three runs in three innings. In the last match against Australia, Ko Young-pyo came out again and stopped 3.2 innings with one hit and two strikeouts, but his failure to advance to the Super Round was already confirmed.
The dire reality is that no pitchers have played more than five innings. Of course, even if Moon Dong-ju (Hanwha Eagles), Son Joo-young (LG) and Won Tae-in (Samsung Lions) left due to injury, the fact that pitchers representing the KBO League were replaced early on was a phenomenon that clearly reveals the current status of Korean baseball. 메이저놀이터
Coach Ryu Joong-il said after the tournament schedule, "There are many things to supplement. As you all know, we lost the starting pitcher fight."
There is no time to feel sorry. The next international competition is 2026 WBC, which is scheduled to take place in March 2026, and its status and difficulty are incomparable to those of Premier 12 as a large number of Major League Baseball players are deployed. With the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics still to come, Korean baseball cannot escape from the brutal history of international competitions unless it solves the problem of fostering starting resources. Attention is focusing on whether Korean baseball will be able to turn around in less than two years before the next WBC.