Captain Kim Kwang Hyun is gone' Did the head coach expect, Kim Gun-woo to be the first starter... "To help the team without any injuries"

*This content was translated by AI.

"I think (Kim) Gunwoo will go upward."

The short-term impact of the second half was clear. Nevertheless, no one expected that the status would rise in such a short period of time.

Kim Gun-woo (24, SSG Landers) is heading to Vero Beach, Florida, USA on the 23rd of last month for the first spring camp. My shoulders are heavy. This is because the head coach was selected as the second starter early on.

According to SSG, manager Lee Sung-yong said, "In a situation where we have to prepare for the Cheongna era, fostering young pitchers is not an option, but a must. "If you're going to give me a chance, I'll boldly use it," he said, and Kim Gun-woo is at the center of it.

After graduating from Jemulpo High School, Kim Gun-woo was a left-hander wearing an SSG uniform as the first designation in 2021, and although he was expected to succeed Kim Kwang-hyun (38), he has not performed much and has been to the Armed Forces Sports Unit (Sangmu).

He showed a possibility as a starting candidate ahead of last season, but only after May did he take the opportunity to take the mound as a starting player. He erased his weaknesses and proved himself to be a starter. In particular, the pitch balance and control were caught at the same time as they were equipped with a double kick motion to throw the ball after stopping for a while with their right leg in the second division.

The performance came in numbers. On September 23, against KIA, he struck out as many as 12 strikeouts in five ⅓ innings. In the second game of the semi-playoff against Samsung on October 11, his first postseason appearance, he recorded six consecutive strikeouts since the start of the game. It remained a new postseason record.

Based on these performances, he impressed baseball fans in the K-baseball series in November last year and pitched one hit, six strikeouts, and perfect pitching in four innings in two games against the Czech Republic and Japan.

Coach Lee Sung-yong, who left the country first with veteran players as a starting member on the 19th of last month, said about the starting plan, "I think Gun-woo will go upward. I've been telling you for two years, but I'm going to use it boldly if I'm going to use it, because I have to find a selection for the military," he said. "Didn't you prove everything after the postseason last season. So I think it would be better to give it to the front if I give it more opportunities," he explained.

He said he would use Kim Gun-woo as a second or fourth starter, which has yet to be verified, while he said he would use Kim Kwang-hyun, who has a certain foreign pitcher Mitch White, but is likely to be injured, and the words "I will boldly use him" can be seen as expressing his intention to use him as at least three starters as well as the first native starter. This indicates that the new foreign pitcher Anthony Beniziano is willing to use it in front of Takeda Shota in the Asian quarter.

As for Kim Kwang-hyun, he said he suffered from a shoulder injury last year, and the plan was to place him as the fifth starter and let him take a rest after the entry was canceled, not twice a week, until Sunday. There was also a belief in Kim Gun-woo.

However, Kim Kwang-hyun suffered an unexpected injury. SSG Landers said on the 15th, "Kim Kwang-hyun is scheduled to return home on the 15th to check his physical condition due to pain in his left shoulder during training for the first-team camp," adding, "We will confirm the future schedule according to the test results, and we will re-inform the exact injury area and rehabilitation period later."

Kim Gun-woo's shoulders are getting heavier. Kim Gun-woo, who is focusing on lifting himself up in the first camp, said, "It's early in the camp, but I've experienced it once last year, so I'm setting my goals more clearly and training this year. "I'm feeling that my exercise is doing better than last year because I've set my goals clearly," he said.

In the situation of preparing for the first full-time season, we believe that the most important thing is physical strength. "I thought that physical strength is more important than restraint or strength if I go out as a starter. Now, we are focusing on raising our pace well in time for the opening of the season, and we are building our bodies without overdoing it," he said.

In the second half of last year, he steadily started as a starter, and his position in the team has completely changed. Looking back at the time, Kim Geo-woo said, "If I had trained in the same way without looking back on myself at the time, the season would have ended in a state of regret," adding, "I studied a lot on my own because I thought it was too bad to end like this, and the process led to good results in the first team in the second half of the year. Looking back, it's like a dream," he said.

SSG players are having a grueling schedule throughout this camp that may be 24 hours short. Kim Gun-woo said, "I go to bed at 9 p.m., wake up at 5:30 a.m., and go to work at the training site. Naturally, the body adapted like that. Not only me, but my seniors and colleagues are all training under the same conditions. If I exercise in advance at dawn, it is less difficult when I do a set schedule, and I feel like I am overcoming myself. "There is no problem with physical strength at all," he explained.

Kim Gun-woo's opinion is different, although he may think about adding more pitches. "Rather than adding new pitches, the goal is to make the four existing fastballs, curves, sliders, and changeups stronger and more firm. I want to be a pitcher who throws all four pitches well. I'm particularly trying to refine my slider more. It's early in the camp, but a good picture is coming out," he said confidently.

The idea is to move toward the goal step by step. Kim Gun-woo said, "My goal is to play more than 100 innings as a starting pitcher. However, what is more important than figures is that I want to be a starting pitcher who helps the team. He also said, "My goal is to complete the season without injury."

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*This content was translated by AI.