KIA Tigers fell into happy troubles in the 5th selection competition between rookie Yoon Young-chul (19) and 12-year-old veteran Lim Ki-young (30).
Ahead of the upcoming opening match, the four positions in the KIA Tigers starting rotation are firm: Adonis Medina (27) – Sean Anderson (29) – Yang Hyeon-jong (35) – Lee Eui-ri (21). Lim Ki-young, Kim Ki-hoon (23), and Yoon Young-chul competed for the remaining spot, but recently it has been virtually solidified as a two-way match between Lim Ki-young and Yoon Young-chul. The reason is that Kim Ki-hoon’s condition is improving more slowly than expected.
In particular, it was great that먹튀검증 newcomer Yoon Young-chul in 2023 showed attractive pitching even though it had only been three months since he had caught the ball again after graduating from high school. Yoon Young-cheol said in an interview with Star News ahead of the spring camp in January, “I didn’t prepare anything for a camp. First of all, I’m going to test whether my ball will work for the hitters through practice matches or live betting, and then I’ll make plans for the future step by step.” .
So far, that confidence is working. He showed gutsy pitching against the Korean national team participating in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), and in the demonstration game, he continued the march of 0 earned points with 8⅔ innings, 4 walks, 9 strikeouts, and no runs.
The KIA under coach Kim Jong-guk plans to give players who have proven their skills a chance to play in the first team, even if they are rookies. It’s a situation where I can sell my eyes enough to Yoon Young-chul, who met the standard, but I can’t make a decision because my eyes keep going to other veterans.
It is because of the recent performance of Lim Ki-young, who has been in charge of the 5 starters for the past two years. After transferring from Hanwha Eagles in 2014, Lim Ki-young began to show stable performances gradually from 2020. His earned run average gradually dropped to 5.15, 4.88, and 4.24, and he showed familiarity with innings by throwing more than 120 innings for three consecutive years.
He is showing his matured skills in his demonstration games as well. Lim Ki-young gave up 2 hits and 3 walks in 2 innings against Hanwha on the 13th, but he struck out 3 and recorded no runs. In the match against SSG on the 24th, he started with the bullpen, but he quickly cleared 3 innings with 40 balls. Naturally, Lim Ki-young is also continuing the march with an average ERA of 0 in demonstration games.
In particular, the highlight was the 7th inning, in which he struck out against left-handed batters, who had shown weakness. Eui-san Jeon and Shin-soo Choo both swung and struck out looking for Lim Ki-young’s ball that slipped out of the strike zone. He finished his mound with no hits, striking out 5 times in the 7th and 8th innings, including 2 at this time.
Lim Ki-young’s unchanging appearance is as welcome to KIA as Yoon Young-chul’s surprise performance. It is true that Yoon Young-cheol has guts beyond his age, game management, and control, but the possibility of being attacked cannot be ruled out as he gets used to it due to his slow speed (fastball maximum 144km). Lack of full-season experience is also a risk factor. On the other hand, Lim Ki-yeong, who has a lot of experience, is a player who needs to be calculated when running a 144-game long race. Moreover, at the beginning of this season, the KIA needs two foreign players unfamiliar with the KBO league and a native one-two punch that has been to the WBC, so even one prepared starting pitcher is needed.
With the SSG match on April 1 and the 2023 season opener ahead, Lim Ki-young and Yoon Young-chul each have one chance to pitch. Given that both of them are helpful to the team in both the starter and bullpen, KIA hopes that this happy worry will continue until the end of the season.
