Ahn Woo-jin is out of the question’ Ryu Hyun-jin missed WBC
As the national baseball team suffers from being eliminated in the first round of three consecutive tournaments in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), regrettable words are pouring out.
Starting with the failure to set up a national team training camp in Tucson, Arizona, USA, there are various criticisms against the national team, such as manager Lee Kang-cheol’s failure to pour everything into the game against Australia, the use of pitching staff, and the complacent play of the players.
With the disastrous WBC results, the crisis theory of Korean baseball is once again highlighted, and the serious sluggishness of the pitching staff, who have not even thrown strikes properly, is raising even the theory of responsibility for the selection of players.
In the process, the name of Ahn Woo-jin (Kiwoom) was eventually summoned once again.
Ahn Woo-jin is undeniably the best pitcher in the KBO League last season. He won the Golden Glove in the pitching category with a record of 15 wins, 8 losses and an ERA of 2.11 in the 2022 season.
Japan, which gave Korea a humiliating defeat close to a cold game, earned envy by throwing a powerful ball that easily exceeded 150km for each pitcher who climbed the mound. From the standpoint of Korea, instead of participating in the WBC, they played a KBO league demonstration game and threw a 157km fastball from the first appearance. I couldn’t help but think of Ahn Woo-jin.
However, Ahn Woo-jin was completely out of the question in the selection of the WBC team.
In terms of his skills alone, he should have been selected for the national team, but his history of school violence in high school got in the way. At the time, the victims were hurt, and An Woo-jin has not yet apologized to all the victims and received forgiveness.
The national sentiment did not allow him to give An Woo-jin the glorious Taegeuk mark. Dropping out of the first round of WBC three times in a row is a pity for Korean baseball, but it is not desirable to feel sorry for An Woo-jin. Gone are the days when everything was forgiven as long as he was good at baseball. Now, people don’t like the word ‘I will repay you with baseball’ anymore.
Rather, the person I missed more than Ahn Woo-jin was Ryu Hyun-jin (Toronto).
Ryu Hyun-jin, who underwent elbow ligament joint surgery last year, was unable to join the WBC national team this time as he is striving for rehabilitation with the goal of returning in July.
There were also Choo Shin-soo’s remarks that the national team needed a generational change, and there were negative views, such as ‘When was Kim Gwang-hyun?’ In the fateful Korea-Japan match, Korean baseball did not have a suitable pitcher after Kim Kwang-hyun, so he kept on the mound and suffered a crushing defeat.
The pitch is also poor, but the young pitchers who participated in the WBC this time showed serious problems with their pitches. He could not throw his own ball to the extent that he could not even strike properly. Kim Gwang-hyeon, who was at least reliable, threw well until the second inning, but eventually collapsed due to a shaken ball in the third inning.
Korean baseball needed a pitcher who could throw the ball where he wanted while overcoming the pressure on the WBC mound.
There is no choice but to say,토토사이트 “How long will Ryu Hyun-jin last?”, but in Japan, veteran Darvish Yu (San Diego), who is one year older than Ryu Hyun-jin, is leading the mound in Japan.
Ryu Hyun-jin, who does not have the best skills in his prime, but has strong guts on the mound and has strength in control, was probably the pitcher the national team needed most than An Woo-jin, who had excellent pitches.