The 2023 season farming of the KIA Tigers depends on two keywords.
After watching Adonis Medina and Sean Anderson’s bullpen pitching recently, KIA coach Kim Jong-guk, Tucson, Arizona, USA, said, “Honestly, I have higher expectations than Panoni, who teased last year. Because he is a power pitcher, I expect him to be a player who can beat the opponent’s one-two punch and face-to-face. , The pitch is also good. If you throw more than 300 innings in total, it will be good because our team has a stable 3rd to 5th starter.”
The reason foreign pitchers want 300 innings instead of 30 wins is because of the management that looks at the entire season. Coach Kim said, “If you do innings, I think victory will follow. Even if you give up three runs like Yang Hyeon-jong, if you throw a lot of innings, the game operation is much easier and the bullpen burden is less. 328⅓ innings), but I hope you can digest that much.”
In 2020, after Drew Gagnon (159⅔ innings) and Aaron Brooks (151⅔ innings) exceeded 300 innings in total, the KIA suffered from foreign pitching difficulties in the last two years. In 2021, Daniel Mengden, Brooks, and Bo Takahashi combined for 234⅔ innings, and last year, Ronnie Williams, Sean Nolin, and Thomas Panoni combined for 251 innings.
Last year, KIA pitchers recorded a total of 1279 innings. The KBO average was also 1285 innings. The fact that two foreign pitchers throw 300 innings, about a quarter of them, means that both of them fill the required innings and run a full-time season in a healthy way, and there is a hole in the starting staff, which reduces the burden
on starting resources or bullpen pitchers. also means
KIA ace Yang Hyeon-jong also said to the coach’s 300 innings remarks, “It would be great if you did that. Then we will be able to breathe. I hope it does not hurt and throws steadily.” Yang Hyeon-jong said, “I always look forward to it, but the positive thing is that Anderson and Medina try to get along with the players a lot.
If two foreign pitchers hold the key on the mound, there is Kim Do-young, a rookie infielder in his second year on the other line. Coach Kim emphasized twice during the interview on the 15th, “Kim Do-young is the key player this season.” Manager Kim predicted, “If Kim Do-young takes the position of shortstop or third baseman, he will create a synergistic effect in the team’s batting line.”
Coach Kim said, “Last year, Ryu Ji-hyeok and Hwang Dae-in did very well with career highs in both corners. Park Chan-ho was good at batting, running and defending. has to go out. That’s why the most important thing is how Kim Do-young does this year.”
In this spring camp, Doyoung Kim is training third baseman 70% and shortstop 30%. It means that the first position to challenge is the third baseman. Ryu Ji-hyuk, who will play the most innings as a third baseman at KIA last year, is threatened. If he goes to shortstop, Park Chan-ho should move. In other words, Kim Do-young’s position intensifies competition for other positions.
In recent years, he refrained from recruiting free agents from outside and went all-in on internal training. Last year, Na Seong-beom was the first external free agent KIA caught in 5 years after Choi Hyung-woo in 2017. This year, attention is focusing on whether Kim Do-young will be able to become a ‘catfish man’ that creates tension within the team.