S. Korea going with groundball pitchers at World Baseball Classic with Australia in mind

SEOUL– The importance of first games at a baseball tournament can be overstated, to the point of being cliche. But Lee Kang-chul, the South Korean manager at this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), values his team’s first game so much that he basically built his entire pitching staff with the opener in mind.

Lee announced his 30-man roster for the March tournament on Wednesday. The squad includes 15 pitchers, including a pair of former major leaguers in Kim Kwang-hyun and Yang Hyeon-jong, and rising stars in their early 20s in Go Woo-suk, Koo Chang-mo, So Hyeong-jun, Lee Eui-lee and Won Tae-in.

Many of the 15 profile as groundball pitchers, and manager Lee said he went in that direction specifically to handle Australian hitters in their first game on March 9 at Tokyo Dome.
“Based on our analysis of Australian hitters, we decided they would struggle against forkballs or looping breaking pitches,” Lee said. “And that was our focus when putting together our pitching staff. We selected pitchers who throw breaking balls with huge vertical drops or forkballs. And most of the 15 pitchers induce a lot of groundballs.”

South Korea will also face Japan, China and the Czech Republic in Pool B. The top two teams from the group will reach the quarterfinals.

With Japan, world No. 1 stacked with major league talent, being the clear-cut favorite in Pool B, and China and the Czech Republic seen as heavy underdogs, South Korea must beat Australia to have a shot at finishing in the top two.

Lee rejected the notion that South Korea was throwing the Japan game and pushing all the chips into beating Australia.

“We feel that if we win the first game, we’ll be set up nicely for the rest of the tournament,” Lee said. “If we were to face Australia later, it wouldn’t have been so easy to put so much focus on them. We just had the luck of the draw.”

For South Korea, 10 of the 15 pitchers are either full-time relievers or have had some experience pitching out of the bullpen. That could come in handy at the WBC, where pitch count limits will be in place.

At the previous edition in 2017, pitchers couldn’t throw more than 65 pitches in the first round, 80 pitches in the second round, and 95 pitches in the semifinals and the final.

Manager Lee said pitchers’ usual roles with their clubs will be thrown out the window at the WBC.

“Middle relievers or closers could start games for us. Because of the pitch count limits, we should try to get ahead early and protect the lead,” Lee said. “We’ll try to figure out who’s going to be in top form during training camp. I will use the best pitchers available in crucial moments, regardless of roles.”

Lee said he was counting on Kim Kwang-hyun and Yang, both 34 years old with more international experience than anyone on the staff, to be the leaders on and off the field. The manager admitted he even contemplated selecting only young pitchers and leave out veterans, for the sake of the future of Korean baseball.

“Obviously, I had to think about winning games, and so I had to go with some veterans,” Lee said. “Not every one of these 15 pitchers will be on top of their game at the tournament. But because of the pitch counts, we will probably have to use all 15 of them at one point or another.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

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