Was it the final or the first round that Korea played? Was the pitcher’s position a starter or a bullpen? The baseball team’s pitching staff lost direction and drifted during this tournament.

The Korean baseball team won 1 win and 2 losses in 3 Group B games in the 1st round of the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) until the 12th.스포츠토토  A total of 24 runs in 3 games. It’s all self-blame. It is a complete failure in pitching staff management.

There are bigger problems than failures. As the competition progresses, the mound overload gets worse. In order to manage the pitching staff, the number of pitches was limited, but the problem of overuse arose.

Coach Lee Kang-cheol selected Won Tae-in (Samsung Lions) as the starter for the match against China on the 13th. He already threw 29 pitches in 2 innings against Japan on the 10th. Even this was a battle. Against Australia on the 9th, he threw 26 pitches in one and a third innings. Including the practice game against the Hanshin Tigers on the 7th, he recorded 82 pitches in 3 games over 4 days. In the match against China, he fortunately only pitched one inning, but the pitching content was not good.

Park Se-woong (Lotte Giants), who pitched against the Czech Republic on the 12th, suffered a similar situation. He threw 21 pitches in 2 innings against Hanshin on the 7th, and threw 11 pitches in 1 and 1/3 innings against Japan after a two-day break, then took a day off and threw 59 pitches in 4 and 2/3 innings. It was close to a madlock, not a starter or a bullpen. The schedules of Jeong Cheol-won (Doosan Bears) and Kim Won-joong (Lotte) are also difficult. The two pitched in all five national team games from the practice game against the Orix Buffaloes on the 6th to the Czech match on the 12th.

Starting pitchers have to fit the limit of 65 pitches, which increases the burden on the bullpen, but those who have stably blocked one inning can be counted on one hand. To make matters worse, the bullpen ace Save King and Hold King found it difficult to pitch. Go Woo-seok (LG Twins) missed all three games due to neck pain, and hold king Jung Woo-young (LG) only threw 9 pitches against Japan in this tournament. Even that, the normal restraint did not come out. Standing by the bullpen every inning added to the fatigue of the pitching staff.

Coach Lee Kang-cheol is one of the leaders who spend the longest in the KBO league. Over the past two years, KT has been the team with the fewest bullpen innings. There were no overloads, including Kim Min-soo (80 and 1/3 innings), who took first place in relief innings last year, but there were no overloads, but the principles were clear in mound operation. The fixed starting lineup worked properly throughout the season, and the bullpen centered on finisher Kim Jae-yoon and setup man Sovereignty was sure to be centered. It was thanks to the principle that Lee Kang-cheol’s baseball was called ‘magic’.

But with the national team, it was different. Coach Lee Kang-cheol, who had been contemplating the pitch limit and the three-batter opponent rule since the Arizona training camp, failed to properly time the replacement throughout the tournament. The starting pitchers gave up runs in the second half after good pitching in the first half, and the bullpen pitchers piled up runners and provided an excuse for the runs. As large numbers of runs were added in the games against Australia and Japan, the principle of mound operation was completely distorted from the game against Czech Republic. The result was ‘Another Kim Won-joong’, ‘Another Jeong Cheol-won’, and ‘Another Won Tae-in’.

After the tournament, the players have to play the regular season in 2023, but the burden on their team is considerable. As much as I raised my body early, the burden of managing it is great. Doosan coach Lee Seung-yeop once encouraged members of his team, including Jeong Cheol-won, by saying, “Throw until your arms fall off and come back.” But before that, “Jeong Cheol-won is a pitcher whose first full-time season is in 2022. He said, “Recovery is important during the off-season,” and ordered, “I hope you come back healthy.” Doosan had to watch the 5 appearances of its players on the 7th.

After the defeat against Japan on the 10th, manager Lee Kang-cheol admitted, “I am responsible for the failure to manage the pitching staff,” and even after the match against China on the 13th, he said, “I should have decided on a clear selection. . If it is not a one-shot match, in any short-term game, the mound can endure only when there are principles. If we prepare for the next tournament without principles, the history of Cheorwon Again could repeat itself.