"There was no second universe."" The disappointing high school winter league, the big three also showed only Ha Hyun-seung, 150km [High School Weekend League Opening ①]

*This content was translated by AI.

With the start of the weekend league of high school baseball in all regions over the weekend, the race for the first place in this year's rookie draft also announced a full-fledged start.

As second-year prospects performed well last year, the 2027 KBO Rookie Draft, which will be held later this year, received a lot of expectations from the start. Starting with the Big Three represented by Ha Hyun-seung (18) of Busan High School, Um Jun-sang (18), and Kim Ji-woo (18) of Seoul High School, interest grew as prospects receiving attention from the U.S. Major League Baseball, such as Yushin High School Lee Seung-won (18) and Daegu High School Jeong-il (18) were introduced.

Prior to the weekend league, they finished warming up in several tournaments involving teams returning from off-season training in January and February, including the Winter League. High schools in Seoul held the 2026 Spring Festival in the first week of March, and started the weekend league a week later than other regions.

Many scouts say that at the opening of the weekend league, there were no prospects who emerged from the beginning like Jung Woo-joo (20, Hanwha Eagles) two years ago. In the big three, which was expected, Um Jun-sang did not improve his batting condition, unlike solid shortstop defense, and Kim Ji-woo also expected that the fastball of up to 149km/h was not much different except for the heavy weight.

Major League Scout A, who recently met with Star News at a high school baseball scene, said, "I haven't had a player to watch yet. It is partly because the weather was particularly cold, but the players' performances did not come out as expected. I think it will be a proper evaluation if at least E-Mart Bae goes."

Two years ago, Jung Woo-joo was upgraded to a first-round candidate at once, throwing a fastball of 153 kilometers per hour from the Winter League in February. Scouts who visited the site expecting the second Jung Woo-ju went back with disappointment to the point that "some second-year players stand out."

A KBO scout B said, "At that time, Jung Woo-joo was a case of showing the expectations of scouts as a reality. Jeonju High School had a plan to focus on making Jung Woo-joo's body and show it on track. In that situation, he took the mound in February and showed it. There has been no such player this year," he said.

Ama baseball generally ends in November when the National Sports Festival and small-scale local competitions are completed. He will leave for full-fledged domestic and overseas training from January and prepare for the next season through the Winter League and several competitions in February. Of course, Jung Woo-joo is only a special case, and it is difficult to expect a significant change in a short period of about three months.

Of course, among them, there are prospects who have shown growth. Ha Hyun-seung, one of the top candidates in total, is a representative. Ha Hyun-seung caught the eyes of scouts by throwing balls up to 149 kilometers per hour at the 2026 prestigious high school baseball exhibition in Gijang, Busan, in early March. In particular, the fact that the slider's completeness is steadily improving was highly evaluated by scouts at home and abroad.

KBO Scout B said, "Ha Hyun-seung is a player with good fastball trajectory and RBI. On top of that, the slider comes to the end of the hitters' heating points and falls, so it is not easy to hit at the high school level. It was more complete than I thought, so I was satisfied. Now that the day is over, I think we need to see how to use other pitches," he said.

Ha Hyun-seung, who contacted Star News before the weekend league, said, "I think it was a good result to keep practicing not to forget the slider that was good last year. He threw one game, but he seems to have started well in that he stopped two perfect innings without a walk and a hit. I also struck out three," he said with a smile.

He continued, "It didn't bother me that there were many scouts. Rather, going up to a close situation was more concentrated and fun. There will be many such situations in the future, but I'm going to do what I've been doing. Since I started well, I want to aim for 155km this year and perform well with my friends," he said with strength.

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*This content was translated by AI.