Участник:"It's not even 1m90 but the Japanese baseball is crushed."
Special rookie right-hander Kim Taek-yeon (18, Incheon High School), who was nominated by the Doosan Bears as the second overall pick, replied to a reporter's question about a "role model."
"Since I was an amateur player, I used to be a role model to follow suit. But now I think I am a professional player, and I have changed my mind to become a role model for those amateur players so that they can learn from me. I want to be a player who can become a role model for younger players as 'first Kim Taek-yeon' rather than 'someone else.'"
Changes in situations and positions. Thoughts must change, too. The 18-year-old already realized the reason.
He is by no means arrogant. He is better than anyone else in his class, but he has a more humble mind than anyone else in his age group. He clearly has an attitude to learn and learn good things.
Since Sangcheon Middle School, he has been learning LG's special closing Ko Woo-seok's "200 push-ups a day" routine and has been steadily continuing.
This means that he will not be blindly admiring the great seniors he pioneered earlier. He is determined to constantly learn and learn from them, even if there are difficulties going through
He is practicing calmly one by one in winter, when he is about to become a professional.
Doosan Bears is playing hardball against top-rated rookie players. "You have to be careful again. You can never throw a pitch. You only played catch.
Even in the process, the direction is clear. It is to secure diversity in breaking balls.
"My goal this winter is to improve the level of completion of breaking balls," he said early on. If a certain goal is set, I will go straight. It is in the catch stage, but I am busy developing new pitches.
Kim Taek-yeon, who won the Outstanding Player Award at the 2023 Baseball Softball Night held at the Mapo Garden Hotel in Seoul on the 18th, explained the development process in this way in an on-site interview.
"I think it's a good opportunity for me to throw a more complete breaking ball if I keep increasing my percentage. I'm just keeping my sense with the fastball, but I'm practicing more with the breaking ball."
The part that Kim Taek-yeon is focusing on is the change of trajectory opposite to the main weapon slider. It is to face a left-handed batter on a professional stage who has superior contact skills.
"I am confident that the slider is my first pitch type that can count balls even at a disadvantageous count." His main weapon is falling at a sharp angle from a pitch tunnel similar to a fastball. He underwent verification at an international competition. Adding a breaking ball in the opposite trajectory is a process to maximize the power of a slider.
In explaining the new pitching type, Kim Taek-yeon mentioned Japanese professional baseball ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is about to advance to the big league.
"I think we need a strong opponent for left-handed batters in the profession. Compared to Yamamoto, he certainly has a goal to throw left-handed or right-handed ones, so whether it's a curveball, splitter, or cutter, he uses a cutter on the left-handed batter's body, throws the outside splitter, and I'm thinking a lot about that kind of image. I'm not as tall as Kim Taek-yeon 1m82, Yamamoto 1m78), so I'm learning a lot by drawing that image of pitch style, even though I'm not the type to put it down like a 1m90 tall pitcher, but I'm going to the Major League after crushing the Japanese league."
Yamamoto throws the ball very comfortably and easily due to his ideal lower body use and center movement. This is the secret to a long run as the best pitcher without injury even with his small body. He is the first Japanese pitcher to win five awards (2021, 2022), four awards for three consecutive years, and the Sawamura Award for three consecutive years. His value is skyrocketing as he is the focus target of big market clubs including the New York Mets.
The path that Kim Taek-yeon should dream of and walk. It is a natural goal and dream, but he talked about the present.
"As it says, it's a long-term future, but if you become a player at that level, of course, every baseball player wants to challenge themselves to the U.S. at least once. I don't think about it right now, but I think my desire to go to the U.S. will turn into a certainty when I reach the level that I can do this compared to the U.S. players."
He is a young pitcher who knows exactly what to do and what to do right now. He is naturally nodding to Doosan's choice and satisfaction as it prepared a special uniform and accepted the highest down payment of 350 million won (318,500 U.S. dollars) just like Hwang Joon-seo, the No. 1 player in the Hanwha draft. He is a talented pitcher who can achieve explosive growth as Korea's best closing pitcher.