Team Korea manager 宣銅烈 (Sun Dong-Yeol) announced the 25-man roster for team Korea this afternoon. At the press conference Sun also mentioned Team Korea will not use the 3 wild cards spot for this tournament.
This mean the Korean final 25-man roster will stick to the age and service time limitation. Which is either under 24 or under 3 years of professional service time.
“Love that manager Sun didn’t use any of his wild cards and was willing to basically sacrifice success at this tournament to allow the young kids to gain experience”
“It’s great that Sun was named permanent manager of the national team, which will bring along some stability and consistency.” Said Dan Kurtz the founder of MyKBO.net. An English news/ stats website for all things KBO related.
Rise of the new KBO generation
Taking a further look over the statistics of both pitchers and batters. For positional players, Koo Ja-Wook, Park Min-Woo, and Kim Ha-Seong are eye-popping since they have an OPS+ above 120. As for the pitching department, we can see the KBO pitchers are in a better condition based on their ERA+.
Just purely looking at the stats, we have narrowed down on three pitchers to watch out for in this tournament. RHP Park Se-Woong, submariner Im Ki-Young, and LHP Ham Duk-Joo.
“All three of these pitchers will be a big part of the rotation for this tournament and it will be interesting to see how these guys do on an international stage. One note of interest will be to see how the young catchers for the team help call a game and if they’re able to settle their young pitchers down when they need to” – Dan Kurtz of MyKBO
KBO expert Dan Kurtz then continued to talk about 3 of the Team Korea’s probable starting pitchers.
“Park Se-woong: Break out year for this Lotte pitcher and has a chance at becoming the ace of the national team”
“Im Ki-young: Submariner who after a few years of being in a relief pitcher has transitioned very nicely to being a starter”
“Ham Duk-joo: Another young pitcher who made the transition to starter and has helped bolster Doosan’s rotation”
The one that got away
Though it’s a pity that Premier 12 pitchers Han Hyun-Hee and Shim Chang-Min did not make the final cut to the 25-man roster. Han pitched 106.2 innings this year with 4.47 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. Shim contributed 75.1 innings with 4.18 ERA and 1.31 WHIP.
For batters, Wyverns batter Kim Dong-Yub is missing due to injuries. Kim posted a record of .277/.329/.496 with 22 home runs.
25-man roster- Pitchers
| Name | Name | Team | Position | Age | IP | ERA | WHIP | ERA+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 金潤東 | Kim Yoon Dong | Kia Tigers | RHP | 24 | 80.1 | 4.59 | 1.46 | 108 |
| 金明信 | Kim Myeong Sin | Doosan Bears | RHP | 23 | 45.1 | 4.37 | 1.46 | 114 |
| 李珉鎬 | Lee Min-Ho | NC Dinos | RHP | 24 | 88.2 | 4.06 | 1.33 | 123 |
| 張現植 | Jang Hyun-Shik | NC Dinos | RHP | 22 | 134.1 | 5.29 | 1.53 | 94 |
| 朴世雄 | Park Se-Woong | Lotte Giants | RHP | 21 | 171.1 | 3.68 | 1.32 | 135 |
| 朴晋亨 | Park Jin-Hyung | Lotte Giants | RHP | 23 | 88.0 | 5.11 | 1.53 | 97 |
| 張必峻 | Jang Pil-Joon | Samsung Lions | RHP | 29 | 67.1 | 4.68 | 1.60 | 106 |
| 金大鉉 | Kim Dae-Hyun | LG Twins | RHP | 20 | 94.0 | 5.36 | 1.35 | 93 |
| 林起映 | Im Ki-Young | Kia Tigers | LHP | 24 | 118.1 | 3.65 | 1.32 | 136 |
| 咸德柱 | Ham Duk-Joo | Doosan Bears | LHP | 22 | 137.1 | 3.67 | 1.40 | 136 |
| 具昌模 | Koo Chang-Mo | NC Dinos | LHP | 20 | 115 | 5.32 | 1.63 | 94 |
| 沈載敏 | Shim Jae-Min | KT Wiz | LHP | 23 | 74.2 | 5.18 | 1.57 | 96 |
25-man roster- Fielders
| Name | Name | Team | Position | Age | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 韓承澤 | Han Sueng-Taek | Kia Tigers | C | 23 | 0.229 | 0.289 | 0.277 | 45 |
| 張勝賢 | Jang Hyun Seung | National Police Agency | C | NA | NA | NA | NA | |
| 崔元準 | Choi Won-Joon | Kia Tigers | IF | 20 | 0.308 | 0.351 | 0.462 | 105 |
| 柳志赫 | Ryu Ji-Hyeok | Doosan Bears | IF | 23 | 0.259 | 0.317 | 0.360 | 72 |
| 朴珉宇 | Park Min-Woo | NC Dinos | IF | 24 | 0.363 | 0.441 | 0.472 | 133 |
| 金河成 | Kim Ha-Seong | Nexen Heroes | IF | 21 | 0.302 | 0.376 | 0.513 | 124 |
| 河周錫 | Ha Ju-Suk | Hanwha Eagles | IF | 23 | 0.285 | 0.328 | 0.440 | 93 |
| 鄭炫 | Jung Hyun | KT Wiz | IF | 23 | 0.300 | 0.369 | 0.426 | 102 |
| 金星旭 | Kim Sung-Wook | NC Dinos | OF | 24 | 0.247 | 0.315 | 0.390 | 78 |
| 羅炅珉 | Na Kyung-Min | Lotte Giants | OF | 25 | 0.256 | 0.307 | 0.359 | 69 |
| 李政厚 | Lee Jeong-Hoo | Nexen Heroes | OF | 19 | 0.324 | 0.395 | 0.417 | 107 |
| 安益勳 | An Ik-Hun | LG Twins | OF | 21 | 0.320 | 0.379 | 0.356 | 89 |
| 具滋昱 | Koo Ja-Wook | Samsung Lions | OF | 24 | 0.310 | 0.383 | 0.527 | 129 |
Player Highlights
Giants Ace Park Se-Woong
Submarine pitcher Im Ki-Young
Doosan Bears lefty Ham Duk-Joo
Nexen Heroes Kim Ha-Seong
NC Dinos Park Min-Woo
Samsung Lions’ Koo Ja-Wook.
Can see Koo hits a home run against CPBL foreign pitcher Zeke Spruill around 1:06 mark. Spruill played for Kia Tigers back in 2016.
