KIA Tigers rookie left-handed pitcher Yoon Young-chul (19) showed the most outstanding performance among pitchers in the KBO League last week. He scored 2 runs in 7 innings against SSG Landers on the 6th and 3 runs in 6 innings against Doosan Bears on the 11th. All of them became losing pitchers due to the lack of scoring support from the other line, but they played the most innings per week and did a good job as starting pitchers.
Choa Pharma and this magazine selected Yoon Young-chul as the MVP for the second week of June. Yoon Young-cheol said, “It’s the first time I’ve received an award at an external awards ceremony. It seems that you have appreciated my effort to help the team win. He will do even better to win the award,” he said.
Yoon Young-chul was nominated as the second overall pick in the rookie draft held in September last year and is a top-notch prospect wearing a KIA uniform. He proved his competitiveness in the spring camp and exhibition games held in February and March, and immediately took a place in the starting lineup. As of the 15th, he appeared in 10 games, recorded 3 wins, 3 losses, and an average ERA of 3.08, showing a performance worthy of a super rookie. He is also at the forefront of the Rookie of the Year competition.
Yoon Young-cheol said, “I blocked more than 5 innings in the last 8 games. This point is satisfactory. Even if I record a loss in a game I started, if one of the bullpen pitchers can rest, I think it will help in the next game. I will go out with that mindset in the future,” he looked back on his 10 debut games.
This season, Yoon Young-cheol’s four-seam fastball (fastball) average speed is 138 km/h. His ball is slow, but his command is excellent, allowing him to hit the upper, lower, left, right and left corners of the strike zone as desired.
The main weapon is also sharp. It is a changeup that is highly regarded by opposing team leaders and batters. It is said that all pitching motions are almost the same as when throwing a fastball, and the rotation of the ball that can be seen with the naked eye is similar to that of a fastball. The hit rate of the changeup, which threw 163 this season, is only 0.093. Yoon Young-chul also said, “Senior batters said, ‘It’s hard to get the timing right because it comes in the same way as a fastball and sinks right in front of the home plate.’ I am throwing with confidence.”
In March 2020, when he was a freshman in high school, Yoon Young-cheol honed his changeup by self-study. He said, “The coach taught me how to grip, and then I watched and studied pitching videos of domestic and foreign pitchers who threw changeups well. In particular, he watched carefully how the pitchers did when they released the ball through the slow-motion video,” he said.
The most watched video by Yoon Young-chul was the pitching of Ryu Hyun-jin (Toronto Blue Jays), a representative baseball pitcher in Korea. In the first season of his debut in the KBO League in 2006, Ryu Hyun-jin learned the changeup from his team senior, Koo Dae-seong, and made it his own main weapon. He commanded the KBO League and Major League Baseball (MLB) with his changeup.
Yoon Young-cheol said, “I originally watched the video regardless of the throwing hand, but Ryu Hyun-jin was a left-handed pitcher, so I watched more.
Most of all, among the videos I could see, the scene of a senior throwing a changeup was the most,” he smiled. This is because there is a burden of allowing long hits. I don’t tend to throw changeups well in matches with left-handed hitters, but Yoon Young-cheol is currently showing a high level of change-up perfection that he does not hesitate to use left-handed batters. The advice he seeks from team seniors Yang Hyeon-jong and Lee Eui-ri It’s not a changeup, it’s a slider or curve.
Yoon Young-cheol was not listed on the final list (24 players) of the Hangzhou Asian Games baseball team announced on the 9th. He is a player who is growing as a ‘changeup master’, but he still showed too much on the professional stage. little. 메이저놀이터
Yoon Young-chul calmly said, “It’s not that I don’t have regrets, but I think I need to focus more on what I have to do in front of me.” He continued, “If you show more progress, you will be able to stand on the mound with the Taegeuk mark someday. For now, I just want to do my best in my role on the team. If you care too much about the results, your mind seems to go somewhere else. Even if expectations are high, I will try to maintain my current appearance.”