He went all-in to the bullpen and walked 15 in two days. Will LG's process of rebuilding the strongest bullpen be okay as it is
Mar 10, 2025
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LG manager Yeom Kyung-yeop has focused on rebuilding the bullpen since the end of last season. This is because the strongest bullpen, which led to the victory in the 2023 season, completely collapsed last year. In fact, only the closing pitcher Yoo Young-chan and the setup man Kim Jin-sung managed to keep the victory.
Manager Yeom has been working with the players since the closing camp to rebuild the bullpen in 2023, and it seemed that some results were made through practice games between Arizona 1st camp and Okinawa 2nd camp.
Coach Yeom said in the opening match of the exhibition game against KT Wiz on the 8th, `The coaching staff and players have worked hard and suffered a lot since last year's closing camp for our middle pitchers, but now I hope they will start the season with confidence by producing good results through the exhibition game.'
The possibility of success was seen in that there were more bullpen candidates than last year. Coach Yeom said, `There are a lot of players to test. The players who improved during the camp include Baek Seung-hyun, Woo Kang-hoon, Park Myung-geun, Jung Woo-young, Kim Dae-hyun, Lee Woo-chan, Choi Chae-heung, and rookie Kim Young-woo, and Kim Kang-ryul and Kim Jin-sung, who should be at the center, and Jang Hyun-sik, who will join at the end of the exhibition game, seems to have prepared well."
However, the appearance of the LG bullpen in the second game against KT was different from manager Yeom's wish.
On the 8th, Jung Woo-young, Song Seung-gi, Kim Dae-hyun, Lee Woo-chan, Park Myung-geun and Kim Young-woo took the mound after starting pitcher Son Joo-young, and Choi Chae-heung, Lee Ji-gang, Woo Kang-hoon, Kim Yoo-young, Heo Jun-hyuk, Sung Dong-hyun, and Kim Kang-ryul took the mound on the 9th.
Some bullpen pitchers showed good pitching. On the 8th, Park Myung-geun allowed two strikeouts and no runs in one inning, and Kim Young-woo gave up one walk, but he showed competitiveness by striking out swinging with a fork ball he was practicing with a fast fastball of more than 150km.
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However, there was a lot of pressure to throw well. On the 8th, Jung Woo-young had two walks and two wild pitches. I sprayed 14 balls, but only 3 strikes and 11 balls. Kim Dae-hyun also had difficulty throwing strikes and allowed one hit, one walk, one strikeout, and two runs in ⅔ innings.
On the 9th, frustrating pitching continued. Lee Ji-gang, who took the mound in the sixth inning, took only one out count and went down the mound with two hits, followed by Woo Kang-hoon, who took the mound, was on the verge of loading the bases with one hit, one walk, and one out and an error. Kim Yoo-young got a double from Jang Jin-hyuk, and Kang Baek-ho was allowed to walk straight. With the bases loaded, he gave Kim Yoo-young four runs (two earned runs). Kim Yoo-young, who appeared in relief, walked two, hit one, and threw wild pitches. Heo Jun-hyuk also allowed two hits, one walk, and two runs in one inning.
Even if he got a hit coolly, he couldn't throw aggressively and threw all the balls. It may be said that he has not yet adapted to the mound because he threw it for the first time in Korea, but there is nothing he can do about it.
It was clearly in contrast to Son Joo-young, who started, pitching well with no hits, two walks, three strikeouts and no runs in four innings.
In the two games, LG allowed as many as 15 walks, ranking first among the 10 teams. Samsung ranked second with 10, and Lotte had the least with 3.
If he throws the ball without playing in the exhibition game, he will be worried about whether he will be able to play the game properly in the regular season.
LG, which lost 1-5 on the 8th and 4-9 on the 9th, recorded the most runs with 14 runs in two days.
Will LG's bullpen, which had a shaky start from the beginning, be able to make an early must-win group during the exhibition game.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
