Choi Won-joon (30, Doosan Bears) added a new weapon in the last closing camp.
Joining the team with the first pick in 2017, he joined the starting rotation in earnest in 2020. With 10 wins in 2020, he has definitely been reborn as the ace in the team with 12 wins in 2021. Although he remained at eight wins (13 losses) in 2022 due to unfortunate fortunes, he played 165 innings, the most since his debut.유흥알바
Last year, Choi ran into a difficult situation. He played in 14 games in the first half of the season and struggled with two wins and seven losses and an earned run average of 5.08, before switching between starting pitcher and relief from mid-August. He finished the season with three wins and 10 losses and an earned run average of 4.93.
Choi has always been a starting pitcher with 10 wins, but he has to compete again this season. Choi has started to equip himself with weapons that he has delayed so far.
Choi Won-joon said, “It was my first time watching the postseason on the bench. When I went to fall baseball, I was in a position to participate in games regardless of whether I was preparing as a starter or not, but just watching it made me think a lot,” expressing regret.
Choi Won-joon always thought about changing up. The timing was just right. Doosan recruited Cho Woong-cheon, its pitching coach, for this season.
Cho made his reputation as a luxurious change-up when he was active. Cho’s change-up was a surefire main weapon as he recorded an ERA of around 30 saves-1 while playing as an active pro.
Coach Cho joined Choi Won-jun in the closing camp and started teaching changeups. “I think I practiced for more than 15 days in the closing camp,” Cho said. (Choi) Won-jun wanted a certain weapon, so I asked him to try it. First of all, he knows how to throw changeups, but his movement is like a fastball. I practiced as a way to make changes.”
“I practiced watching record-breaking scenes while filming videos with the power analysis team. I improved the utilization of my wrist from the conventional throwing method,” Cho said. “I tried to make it feel the same as what I threw.” He also changed the angle of his wrist. It feels like dropping from the horizontal part to the bottom. Change-up is a pitch type that is thrown to avoid hitting static, but it needed to move, which was not enough.”
I also found something interesting. “Go Young-pyo has the best change-up among sidearm pitchers in Korea after analyzing the situation with the analysis team,” Cho said. “Go Young-pyo’s change-up was the same as my wrist angle when I was active. In the case of Wonjun, his wrist is constant and straight, but he changed this part.”
Ko Young-pyo (33, KT Wiz) is the best sidearm pitcher in the KBO League. He has posted double-digit wins since 2021. He has been making quality starts (more than six innings and three earned runs or less) to the extent that he is nicknamed “high quality.” Last year, he recorded 12 wins and seven losses with a 2.78 ERA in 28 games. After the end of the season, he signed a non-FA multi-year contract with KT worth 10.7 billion won (10.7 million U.S. dollars) for a total of five years. It is the first time for KT to do so.
Ko’s biggest weapon is change-up. Batters often admire change-up that comes from the same angle as his fastball.
Choi Won-joon’s efforts to install a change-up during the winter began to see light, although he cannot be said to completely resemble Ko Young-pyo’s appearance.
In the match against Softbank’s second team at Miyazaki Ikime Stadium in Japan on the 24th, Choi Won-joon allowed two hits, three strikeouts, one walk and one run in two innings. The maximum speed of the fastball was 141km/h, and he used curves and slider changeups. In particular, it is evaluated that the changeup has changed more stably on the spot.
After the game, Choi also expressed satisfaction. “I feel like everything is going well as I prepared for the closing camp last year,” Choi said. “Today, I had an opportunity to experiment with what I had focused on in Sydney. I am satisfied that he induced swing and miss by banking on his change-up. My goal is to clearly establish himself by dealing with batters in Japan, and to show a clear performance at exhibition games first.”