LG Jung Woo-young and Ko Woo-seok became the best in the KBO league in their field last year. Based on this performance, he was also selected for the WBC (World Baseball Classic) national team.
Grades are, to the last degree, achievements on the Korean stage. What should be noted more than that is that the two players each have major league-level main weapons. It is not an exaggeration, but a fact that can be proven by numbers. 스포츠토토
In the above graph, the horizontal axis is the restraint, and the vertical axis is the release point height. Pitchers who throw at arm heights similar to those of Jung Woo-young can now be found in the major leagues. Jung Woo-young’s real strength is restraint. According to Statiz, a KBO league statistics site, Jung Woo-young’s two-seam fastball was 151.5 km per hour.
Jung Woo-young’s two-seam is a rare species not only in the KBO league but also in the major leagues. It is difficult to find a player in the major leagues who recorded an average speed of over 150 km/h while throwing with his arms down like Jung Woo-young. In terms of ranking, Jung Woo-young’s two-seam was second only to Colorado sidearm pitcher Justin Lawrence.
The average velocity of Lawrence’s fastball was 95.3 miles per hour, or about 153.4 km. Other than Lawrence, no other player has thrown a ball faster than Jung Woo-young from an arm as low as Jung Woo-young’s. The second fastest runner after Lawrence was Boston sidearm pitcher John Shriver, who clocked 93.9 miles or 151.2 km.
Jung Woo-young once almost got lost between restraint and movement last year. However, he decided to maintain his original pitching method without excessively increasing his speed, and actually rebounded perfectly in the second half. In a state where his own was certain, he put the Taegeuk mark for the first time in his life.
Go Woo-seok is the closer pitcher who throws the fastest ball in the KBO League. However, his fastball velocity was not unique. According to Stattis, the average speed of last year’s fastball was ranked first by Go Woo-seok at 153.5 km per hour, and by An Woo-jin at 153.4 km per hour. In addition, Ahn Woo-jin, while a starting pitcher, recorded a record comparable to Go Woo-seok.
Instead, Ko Woo-suk achieved the level of ‘de-KBO’ in the slider. Last year, the average speed of the slider
was 146.7 km. In 2021, he was also in first place with 142.0 km, where he extended another 4.7 km. No player has thrown a slider as fast as Go Woo-seok since 2014, when StatTease tallied velocity by pitch type. During SK, Merrill Kelly (Arizona) and Angel Sanchez recorded 143 km. Go Woo-seok is the first runner to exceed 145.0 km.
Even in the major leagues, where pitchers are throwing faster and faster pitches, sliders like this belong to the limited class. Six players averaged over 90 mph while throwing 300 or more sliders last year. Texas Jacob deGrom recorded 92.6 miles (about 149.1 km) and Cleveland Emmanuel Classe recorded 91.9 miles (about 148.0 km). The 146.7km Gowooseok is located right next to it.
This high-speed slider is the result of Ko Woo-seok’s constant contemplation after taking on the finishing touches. “I did a lot of research because I wanted to throw a ball that felt like a middle ground between a cutter and a slider,” Ko Woo-seok explained last year.
Two wrestlers, LG Pil Seung-jo and Korea’s impregnable wall, will wait for verification on the world stage at the WBC in March with their own weapons. As they are all players with dreams of overseas challenges, this WBC can be used as a test stage.