'WS Winning Team → KBO' Fastball Foreigner Booms 152km from the start! 'This' was praised for his fastball "The value of Koo Jong looks good"

*This content was translated by AI.

Matt Sauer (27, KT Wiz), who challenged the Korean KBO League as the winner of the World Series (WS), finally made his first debut.

According to the KT club, Sauer held his first live pitching at the Geelong Baseball Center in Geelong, Australia on the 16th (Korea Standard Time). With a total of 20 pitches, including four-seam fastballs, two-seam fastballs, cutters, curves, and forks, the most anticipated fastball speed was 152km/h and an average of 150km/h.

Sauer was the first foreign pitcher in the KBO to sign a contract in 2026. In the Major League, Sauer was sluggish in 24 games for two years with two wins and one loss with a 6.85 ERA. In Triple-A, he was also not good with 6 wins, 7 losses and a 6.80 ERA in 28 games. However, KT noted that Sauer threw a fast ball up to mid-150km/h and freely used various pitches such as cutters, sinkers, sliders, and splitters.

Sauer, who was also called up by the Los Angeles Dodgers to make a big league call-up last year in a minor league contract, was assigned the designation during the expansion roster in September. When the Dodgers released Sauer after winning the World Series, KT succeeded in snatching him right away.

KT, which had always been thirsty for fastballs and pitching pitchers, expected Sauer to play the first starting role, and the pitching on the day was also satisfactory. Je Chun-mo, KT's first-team pitching coach, said, "We checked various breaking balls such as cutters and curves. The pitch value of the cutter looks good. It was a pitch that felt the strength of the ball," he praised.

The player himself expressed strong confidence that he could show a better performance than this. Sauer said, "It was my first live performance, but I think the fastball pitches came up well." "I'm also satisfied with the fact that I'm in good shape after pitching. I want to trim the breaking ball a little more. "I'm in good condition in time for the opening," he said.

Another fastball pitcher also stretched out. Sugimoto Kouki (26), who KT chose as the Asian quarter this year, was expected to throw a fastball with a maximum speed of 154 kilometers per hour.

At the time of recruitment, KT General Manager Na Do-hyun said, "Sugimoto is a pitcher with strong fastballs, sliders, and various breaking balls," adding, "He showed stable game management ability by playing as a starter and an intermediate pitcher in the Japanese independent league." As such, I judged that it was competitive enough in the KBO league," he said, explaining the background of the recruitment.

It was live pitching on the 17th, showing that expectation. Sugimoto threw a total of 26 pitches, including fastballs, cutters, sliders, curves, and forks. The fastball speed was up to 148 kilometers per hour and an average of 144 kilometers. Coach Je Chun-mo said, "Both speed and control are better than the last live. "I think my physical condition has risen more than 80%," he said.

Sugimoto also said, "I threw the ball with more condition than the last pitching. I threw it because I tried hard to break bad habits. I'm satisfied because I got a better result than the last live pitching."

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*This content was translated by AI.