"Controversy over Taeng Taeng Ball?"→On the contrary, I like it,' he said at the conclusion of the national team, "Pitchers will have better abilities."

*This content was translated by AI.

"When I looked at the future, I had a feeling that the pitchers' abilities would be better."

The number of homers in 42 games last year, which was 53 homers and an average of 1.26 homers, increased to 1.98 (119 homers in 60 games) in this exhibition game. Pitchers are shaking at the prospect of an all-time riding and pitching season, but national team closer Cho Byung-hyun (24, SSG Landers) had a different idea.

Cho Byung-hyun participated in the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO Media Day held at Lotte Hotel World Grand Ballroom in Songpa-gu, Seoul on the 26th as a representative player of SSG and met with reporters after the event.

After making 30 saves for the first time in his career, he participated in the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the national team, and he played five innings in four games, striking out four, showing an amazing performance with an ERA of 1.80. He was the most outstanding bullpen pitcher along with Ko Woo-suk (Detroit Tigers), who did not give up a single point.

I gained a lot from the WBC. In the final group match against Australia, which should not have given up one more point, he took the mound as the closing pitcher, completely blocked the first ⅔, and took the mound in the bottom of the fifth inning when he was dragged 0-7 in the quarterfinals against the Dominican Republic, which suffered a cold game loss in the 0-107th inning, and deleted one inning due to a three-out offense.

Cho Byung-hyun said, "What I learned a lot from going there seems to help the team win without a walk and build a personal record. "I'm going to be aggressive this season," he said. "I felt a lot that I wanted to go to the Major League more. I also felt that I lacked a lot," he said.

He did not hide his ambition to advance to the big league. "If you're doing well by then, you can post or sign an FA or multi-year contract," Cho Byung-hyun said. "I haven't thought about that yet, but I think I can do it if I do well for one season or one season."

There is no worry about the aftereffects of the WBC. Cho Byung-hyun said, "There seems to be a lot of talk from many fans that the ball speed has dropped a lot, but I believe it will come up more. He's in such good shape. I felt like I was getting better at speed, ball control, and ball control than WBC. I think I will be able to perform well this season," he said, expressing confidence.

There is also a controversy over the tang ball in some quarters. Cho Byung-hyun also said, "I've only thrown one game, but I think the ball is going well," adding, "I also felt like a hit that (the late) Myung-jun pushed and hit a ball that wouldn't go over."

However, he expressed his opinion that it is not necessarily bad for the pitcher. "I don't know if the reaction power has increased, but the performance of the pitchers can be worse as the ball goes well," he said. "However, looking at the future, I felt a lot that the pitchers' abilities would improve further." Even if the ball goes out a lot, it would be good to think about how to play against the batter. I'm going to study a lot of that," he stressed.

After going through the WBC stage last season, which was spectacular, the reference point for oneself became higher. Cho Byung-hyun said, "I want to play all the games where the save player is at stake. Whether it's three consecutive games or four consecutive games, I want to go out," he said, adding, "I'm thinking of a better performance than last year. Blon should be the least number of finishing pitchers to help the team win. I did two last year, so my goal this year is to cut it to less than two," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.