I can't believe that the first starter of another team is the sixth starter in LG... "Losing game can also be won." There's a reason for Yeom Kyung-yeop's plan to win

*This content was translated by AI.

LG Twins manager Yeom Kyung-yeop (58) has set a winning plan to win alternative starting games.

LG, which won its fourth combined championship (No. 1 in the regular season + Korean Series) last year, showed the most undulating performance among the 10 clubs. He has spent 158 days in first place out of 193 days in the 2025 season and has never been out of third place.

Another record that showed consistency was the 12th consecutive Winning Series. Starting with 2 wins and 1 loss in three consecutive games in Jamsil against the Kiwoom Heroes on July 8-10, LG swept 29 wins (1 draw and 7 losses) from 2 wins and 1 loss in three consecutive games in Changwon against the NC Dinos on August 26-28. This was the KBO's record for the most consecutive winning series. This was because the back door became solid with the stabilized starting lineup and rookie Kim Young-woo's must-win group after Anders Tolhurst joined the team. In addition, it was largely thanks to the long-term operation of giving up games to be given away without overdoing the bullpen.

Coach Yeom Kyung-yeop, who recently met with reporters at LG's New Year's greeting ceremony, said, "Last year, we used a strategy of 2 wins and 1 loss to endure when we had to put up with a fight. The strategy was successful, and the winning series was also successful for the 12th consecutive time. If I had kept running there, there would have been no winning series for 12 consecutive years," he said.

But this year is different. The winning rotation will start from the start of the season, from Tolhurst-Yoni Chirinos foreigners' one-two punch, which has already been verified in the KBO league, to domestic starters led by Lim Chan-kyu, Son Joo-young and Song Seung-ki. The variables were reduced as much as possible by re-signing two foreign pitchers, and domestic starters gained full-time experience. In particular, the three Korean starters scored 3 points with an ERA of 11 wins last year, respectively, and are proud to rewrite the record of 10 wins for the first time in 31 years for the three native starters of the 1994 Sanghoon Lee, Kim Tae-won and Jung Sang-heum trio.

What's more surprising is that existing selection resources will join. Left-hander Kim Yoon-sik (26), who won the 2023 Korean Series, and right-hander Lee Min-ho (22), who won 12 games a year, will return. First, Lee Min-ho returned.

Before joining the army, he was mainly a starter and recorded 24-23 with a 4.58 ERA and 247 strikeouts in 351 ⅔ innings in 76 games. Career High became the youngest LG native starter to win 10 games with 12 wins, 8 losses and an ERA of 5.51 in 26 games in 2022. He was discharged from the military in August last year and will join the spring camp this year.

Kim Yun-sik, who will be discharged from the military in April this year, is a long man resource that can handle both the starting pitcher and the bullpen. Prior to joining the military, he had 23 wins, 17 losses and 3 holds with a 4.44 ERA and 218 strikeouts in 326 ⅓ innings in 99 games. In 2023, he started Game 4 of the Korean Series and won the start by pitching one run in five ⅔ innings.

There is one more candidate for the sixth selection. Lachlan Wells (29), who started the Kiwoom Heroes last year. Wells made his debut as a substitute for Kiwoom's 1st starter Kenny Rosenberg's short-term injury and played an ace-class role for a while with 1 win, 1 loss and a 3.15 ERA in 4 games. According to LG General Manager Cha Myung-seok, none of the Asian quarter players were as good as Wells.

As such, there was a clear reason for director Yeom Kyung-yeop's transmission plan. Manager Yeom said, "I think we have enough pitching power to compete in losing games this year," adding, "It's important to start the camp and how the players' physical conditions come up, but that's how we plan for now."

First of all, Kim Yun-sik and Wells will be in the sixth starter. However, he talked about the sixth starter as a preliminary candidate, not a six-man rotation. The intention is not to be given a fixed starting position, but to use those players when alternative selection is needed due to variables such as weather and injuries.

Manager Yeom said, "We start the camp with the most prepared of the four years after coaching LG. Five starters are perfectly equipped, and there are Kim Yun-sik, Wells and Lee Min-ho in the sixth starter, he said. "There may be no need for six starters." In that case, Wells and Yunsik will go to Longman. Lee Jung-yong also explained, "I can play two innings, so there is no problem even if I have a bullpen day."

He said, "If existing players feel tired while rotating the 5th starting rotation, they will use the 6th starting pitcher. I'm a person who always thinks it's much faster to charge when (my physical strength) is 50% exhausted," he said. "When it reaches 0%, it takes time for it to come up again. Not making 0% is the most important part of my supervised operational philosophy. "I think that's why I was able to lead Chirinos to 177 innings without injury last year," he added.

Based on the prepared reserve resources, the winning coach's plan is to watch alternative starters or bullpen day games, which are often thrown away. Coach Yeom said, "We all lost in the game where we used six starters last year. That's how weak the sixth starter was. However, this year, players with the ability to lead the sixth starter to victory are waiting. That's how solid our team has become than last season," he said. "If it's prepared as planned, I think we can play without throwing all 144 games. If I aim for that, I think I will have more wins," he said, expressing his great ambition.

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*This content was translated by AI.