“I used all the WBC (World Baseball Classic) official balls I received in Korea.”
Doosan Bears right-hander Kwak Bin (24) worked really hard ahead of this year’s spring camp. He is proud to say that he has worked the hardest since joining Doosan in 2018 as the first player. In fact, Kwak Bin received elbow surgery from his debut season and had a hard time just rehabilitating for more than three years, and even in 2021 and 2022, he had never thrown the ball early since the off-season due to elbow care.
This year, for the first time since his professional debut six years ago, he started throwing the ball in earnest from winter and quickly picked up his pace. Kwak Bin was selected for the 2023 WBC team to be held in March. Last year, he had the best season of his life, recording 8 wins and 9 losses in 27 games, 147⅔ innings, and an average ERA of 3.78. Kwak Bin threw the ball with the determination to do his best during the tournament, and used up the WBC official ball he had already been given.
On the 2nd, Kwak Bin continued to learn his senses with the WBC official ball while pitching in the bullpen at the Blacktown Baseball Stadium in Sydney, Australia. Last year’s rookie of the year Jeong Cheol-won (24), who was also selected for the national team, was asked by Gwak Bin to collect all his WBC official balls from Korea and bring them to Australia. Jung Cheol-won and Kwak Bin are moving together with a focus on preparing for the national team in this spring camp.
The pitching results weren’t bad. The highest speed of the fastball came up to 146 km. Compared to the pitchers who pitched together, the sound of catcher Yang Eui-ji’s (36) mitt hitting the ball was so heavy that it could be heard much louder. However, as it was at the beginning of the camp, the balance was not yet perfect, so the first pitch left a disappointment. I was a little nervous about Yang Eui-ji’s presence in the national team. 먹튀검증
Gwak Bin said, “I pitched three times in Korea. I didn’t decide on the number of pitches and threw until I liked it. But I couldn’t adapt because I threw again after a long time. Didn’t you see that I was throwing strangely (wide pitch) earlier?”
Then, “The balance suddenly got weird. I think I was nervous because it’s been a long time since I’ve been with (Yang) Eui-ji. It’s an honor just to receive my ball. When I was a rookie, I just came out of high school as a pro and didn’t know anything, and now I’m a little bit You know.
Doosan pitching coach Jeong Jae-hoon praised Gwak-bin, saying that he had prepared very well. He said, “(Kwak) Bin seems to have gained confidence because of his good grades in the second half. Even when pitching, he had good concentration, probably because he was determined. do,” he said.
Kwak Bin said, “Coach Jae-Hoon Jeong has seen me since I first started. He asked me to give feedback on my current condition. The coach said that I had completely changed last year from the year before. He said that if you throw a few pieces of silver, he will find you right away, and he said that it got better.”
He also thanked his friend Jeong Cheol-won for helping him adapt to the WBC official ball. Kwak Bin said, “The WBC official ball is bigger than the existing KBO league official ball. (Jeong) Cheol-won brought all the balls from Korea and was able to continue throwing them in Australia. Now, if I throw one or two more times, the WBC official ball will no longer be usable.” He explained that he would endure well until he joined the national team.
Both Doosan coach Lee Seung-yeop and national team coach Lee Kang-chul deserve a smile of satisfaction when they see Kwak Bin. Kwak Bin has to take his place as the main player in Doosan’s domestic starting lineup this year, and he has to catch both growth and performance on the WBC stage, but at the current pace, both goals seem to be fine.
As Kwak Bin is building his body for the March tournament, he is trying to prepare more thoroughly so that his physical strength does not drop at the end of the regular season. He said, “It’s my first adult national team, so I feel very burdened, and the closer the date approaches, the more I feel burdened. Although it is fast) Both 2021 and 2022 have always been good from August to September, so I believe in that trend this year as well. I want to endure only the beginning. (I won 8 wins in the regular season last year) I want to see you,” he said, determined.