Kim Jin-wook is currently playing the 2022-2023 Australian professional baseball as a member of Geelong Korea. On the 31st of last month, an interesting scene appeared on Geelong Korea’s YouTube channel, GKTV. It was a scene where Chris Oxspring (45), who played in the KBO League in the past, was teaching Kim Jin-wook the changeup.
Oxspring entered the KBO league as a substitute foreign player for LG in July 2007 and lived in Korea at LG, Lotte, and KT. After his retirement, he served as Lotte pitching coach from 2016 to 2018, and also coached the Australian national team for the Premier 12 in 2019.
Oxspring, who knows the KBO league better than anyone else and has experience as a coach, highly evaluated Jin-wook Kim’s potential and taught him the most necessary changeup for a left-handed pitcher. Kim Jin-wook, who pitches mainly with fastballs, sliders, and fast balls, desperately felt the need for a changeup that sinks outside right-handed hitters. Since his debut, he focused on equipping a changeup as his third weapon, but it was not easy.
Even in his first appearance in the Australian League on the 30th, he showed the anxiety of pitching and the limits of simple pitches, and collapsed with 8 hits (1 home run), 1 walk, 1 ball and 8 runs in 2 innings.
Meanwhile, on the 4th, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) team roster was announced.
The pitching staff that attracted the most attention included experienced veterans such as Kim Gwang-hyeon (34, SSG Landers) and Yang Hyeon-jong (34, KIA Tigers), Jung Cheol-won (23), and Kwak Bin (23, Doosan Bears). Young players who can throw strong balls like Kim Yun-shik (23, LG Twins) were selected.
Eui-ri Lee (21, KIA Tigers), who was selected as a surprise at the time of the Tokyo Olympics, also wore the Taegeuk mark. However, the name of Kim Jin-wook, who was active in the Tokyo Olympics along with Lee Eui-ri, was not known.
Kim Jin-wook and Lee Eui-ri have been rivals since high school, and even after joining the pros, there were many comparisons. In his debut season, Eui-ri Lee recorded 4 wins, 5 losses and an average 토토사이트 ERA of 3.61 in 19 games, becoming the rookie of the year.
However, Kim Jin-wook’s move this season was different. He showed good form as a starter at the beginning of the season, but chronic insecurity in control was a problem. He is a fireballer who throws more than 150km from a high RBI with a wild pitching form reminiscent of Kim Gwang-hyun in his heyday, but his seldom caught zero and monotonous two-pitch pitching had limitations.
In the end, he spent more time in the second team and stayed with an average ERA of 6.36 with 2 wins and 5 losses in 14 games this season.
Kim Jin-wook joined Geelong Korea after completing the finishing camp. He worked hard to improve his pitching form throughout the finish camp and is sweating hard to show a different look next season. He is trying to catch the ball by changing his wild pitching form to a concise and lowering the height of his arms. And equipped with his changeup, he is preparing to grow into a pitcher who will succeed the lineage of the national left-hander.
Through the Tokyo Olympics, he has already verified that he has a pitch that works on the world stage. Now, he is dreaming of a new leap with the ability to throw the ball steadily and a new weapon called a changeup.