"The ball is also swinging in the middle." Park Yong-taek points out his decision and lacks experience 韓타선→될까이해답 → Will the 'foreign Korea contract' be the answer?

*This content was translated by AI.

"I swung and missed in the middle, with a big difference in the fighting spirit. Because I didn't have a chance to hit it."

The batting lineup, which showed strength in the group stage, had only two hits against the Dominican Republic, which is full of major leaguers. I couldn't just blame the batters. It is pointed out that the most fundamental problem is that there was no opportunity to face pitchers of that level.

The Korean baseball team lost to the Dominican Republic 0-10 in the seventh inning in the second round of the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) finals at Rondipo Park in Miami, Florida on the 14th (Korea time).

It was too much for the pitchers, who were considered the strongest among the WBC participants, to face Dominica, who was considered a weakness even before the tournament.

What's more eye-catching is the batting lineup, which had only two hits in nine innings against Dominican pitchers. In the four group games, he showed off his powerful firepower enough to score 28 points, but when he faced major leaguers, he collapsed helplessly without even trying his hand.

It is true that the starting pitcher was so strong. Christopher Sanchez (Philadelphia) was a pitcher who lost 13-5 with a 2.50 ERA and 227 strikeouts in the Major League last year and showed his overwhelming skills to rank second in the National League Cy Young Award voting.

South Korea only had two hits and one walk in five innings against Sanchez and struck out eight. Batters of the Korean baseball team repeatedly missed the bat on Sanchez's ball, and Sanchez deleted five innings with 63 pitches.

However, Albert Abreu (Chunichi Dragons), who took the mound afterwards, tied the Korean batters tightly even though he was not an active big leaguer. In two innings, he pitched perfectly with three strikeouts.

Lee Jung-hoo (San Francisco Giants), Kim Hye-sung (LA Dodgers), and Germay Jones (Detroit Tigers), who are active in the Major League, also struck out or made mistakes. Moon Bo-kyung (LG Twins), who tied for first in overall RBIs in the WBC along with Dominican Fernando Tatis Jr. (San Diego) with 11 RBIs in four games, was also silent on the day.

In common, the difficulty was a two-seam fastball in the mid-to-late 150km/h. It is a type of fastball that flies in like a shot, but draws a tail at the end, and it is a good ball to bring out a bad hit. However, Korean hitters who had not easily encountered such a fast fighting spirit were rarely able to get the timing right and were helpless.

KBS baseball commentator Park Yong-taek said on the KBS YouTube channel after the game, "From the perspective of batters, you can get used to and respond to the changing ball when you go to the batter's box to some extent, but if the two-seam fastball or cut fastball is too good, you can't cope with it with one or two at-bats," adding, "We need a lot of experience with this ball. The actual movement of the ball is different from what is seen. He said, "Our batters have not shown anything to the extent that they have not been able to do anything."

"I knew that Kim Do-young and our batters were definitely prepared for the timing and needed to be prepared quickly, but I swung and missed because of the movement, which made a big difference in the number of pitches going into the middle," he said. "I'm not ready to hit the pitchers' balls, and in the end, I have to hit such a ball, but I didn't have a chance to hit it because there is no pitcher throwing such a ball."

Commentator Lee Dae-hyung also added, "Curves and sliders can cope, but the moment I threw a fast ball, the fighting spirit turned toward my body, so I was not prepared at all for that timing."

It is natural that domestic pitchers should be more motivated and try harder through this opportunity. However, it is not a way to see an effect right away. The most realistic way is to allow more competitive foreign pitchers to play in the KBO League.

There is one barrier. It's a ransom. Currently, the ransom of foreign players coming to the KBO League for the first time is limited to 1 million dollars (about 1.5 billion won). There are many restrictions, including a total of 4 million dollars (about 6 billion won) for three people, and an increase of 100,000 dollars in the total amount depending on the annual period if they renew their contracts. For now, teams that exceed this salary cap will be given penalties such as sanctions and falling the ranking of designation rights depending on the number of times.

This is a measure to prevent a power imbalance that will occur by drawing a large deviation in the level of foreign players depending on the financial situation of each club.

On-site concerns about free contracts for foreigners also remain. Initially, the purpose of introducing the foreign salary cap is blurred, which can reduce the tension caused by the tight ranking competition due to the wide gap in power depending on the team's financial status.

In addition, the inflation of ransom for foreign players who want to go to the KBO League may become excessive.

With the global stage and the wider power gap through WBC, concerns about strengthening the international competitiveness of Korean baseball are inevitably growing. It is also a part that KBO President Koo Hu-yeon emphasized when he took office.

Of course, the direction of long-term development, such as expanding the pool of talent, should be carried out at the same time, but it is also necessary to consider ways to achieve effectiveness in a short period of time.

In that sense, fixing the salary limit for foreign players can be a factor that can boost the competitiveness of league hitters in the shortest time. It can also be expected to affect the competitiveness of domestic pitchers.

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*This content was translated by AI.