Infielder Park Seong-han and outfielder Choi Ji-hoon, who led SSG Landers to the championship last season, were eliminated from the national team.
KBO held a press conference on the 4th and announced 30 national team entries for the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) to be held in March. As long as no medical issue (injury) occurs here, 30 players will be participating in the WBC as they are.
By team, LG produced the most with 6, followed by kt with 4, Kiwoom, KIA, Doosan, and NC with 3 each, SSG and Lotte with 2, and Samsung with 1. Hanwha had no one.
For SSG, the winning team, pitcher Kim Gwang-hyeon and third baseman Choi Jeong were both named on the national team list. Both are veteran players of the national team’s highest level. Opportunities for young players to participate are important for the generational change, but that opportunity did not come to young SSG players.
In particular, it would be regrettable that Park Seong-han and Choi Ji-hoon, who were active last year, were eliminated. Park Seong-han appeared in 140 games last year and recorded 2 homers, 68 points, 56 RBIs, a batting average of 0.298 and an OPS of 0.749. He fielded 1176 innings, the most of any shortstop in the league, for a fielding percentage of 0.961.
It was a big hit that major leaguer Kim Ha-seong (San Diego) was decided to participate in the shortstop position. Last year’s Golden Glove winner Oh Ji-hwan (LG) was selected as Kim Ha-sung’s backup. Following Park Seong-han’s second place at the Golden Gloves behind Oh Ji-hwan, it seems that he missed the national team by a narrow margin. 토토사이트
There is another person who unfortunately missed out on the golden glove by finishing 4th in the outfielder category in last year’s Golden Glove voting, and that is Choi Ji-hoon. Choi Ji-hoon played in all games (144 games) for the first time since his debut last year, recording 10 homers, 93 points, 61 RBIs, and 31 stolen bases with a batting average of 0.304 and an OPS of 0.789. He ranked third in league runs scored, stolen bases, and fifth in hits, but remained unrelated.
This time, the national team increased the number of entries to 30, but due to the pitching restriction, the number of outfielders was limited to 5 while selecting as many pitchers as possible. In the outfield, Lee Jeong-hoo (Kiwoom), Kim Hyeon-soo (LG), and Na Seong-beom (KIA) are expected to start, with Park Kun-woo and Park Hae-min supporting them.
It is a pity that if Choi Ji-hoon had been selected, he would have been highly likely to use it in many ways, including major defense, large runner, and pinch hitter. Choi Ji-hoon participated in the 2018 U-23 Baseball World Cup in his third year of college and played a big role, but he has no experience in selecting the adult national team.
Fortunately, both players are still young and are eligible to participate in the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September. The Asian Games can be played by players under the age of 25 or who have been in the professional league for 4 years or less. Park Seong-han and Choi Ji-hoon are looking forward to seeing if the 2023 season can blossom further, using the WBC elimination as motivation.
◆ 2023 WBC Korea National Team 30-man roster
Pitcher: Ko Woo-seok Sohn Joon-jun Lee Yong-chan Won Tae-in Kim Won-jung Park Se-woong Park Se-woong Kwak Bin Jung Cheol-won Jung Woo-young Ko Young-pyo Kim Gwang-hyeon Kim Yun-shik Yang Hyeon-jong Lee Eui-ri Koo Chang-mo (15)
Catcher: Yang Eui-ji Lee Ji-young (2)
Infielder: Choi Jeong Kim Hye-seong Oh Ji-hwan Park Byeong-ho Kang Baek-ho Kim Ha-seong Tommy Edman Choi Ji-man (8)
Outfielders: Lee Jung-hoo, Kim Hyun-soo, Park Hae-min, Na Seong-beom, Park Kun-woo (5)