*This content was translated by AI.
LG Twins' Woo Kang-hoon (24) made fans excited with his different ball control from previous years.
Woo Kang-hoon is a right-handed sidearm who joined the Lotte Giants as the fourth in the fifth round of the second round of the 2021 KBO Rookie Draft after graduating from Hope Daecho-Masong Middle School. It drew a lot of expectations with its unique pitching form on a fast ball of up to 152 km per hour. However, he was not considered important due to serious ball control difficulties in allowing one full walk per inning. Eventually, in March 2024, he headed to LG through a one-on-one trade with Son Ho-young.
It was still the same at LG. Until last year, he allowed 22 pitches (eight balls on 14 walks) in 25 games and 21 ⅓ innings. Fifteen strikeouts were also meaningless. However, he has changed significantly this year. In five exhibition games and four ⅓ innings, he allowed no outs and only three strikeouts. In the match against Incheon SSG Landers on the 19th, he recorded only one ball out of 13 balls against four batters and struck out two.
Woo Kang-hoon, who found confidence, also showed strong performances in the opening game of the regular season. LG took the mound in the top of the eighth inning when it was losing 5-11, making the first three-out inning. He confidently inserted a maximum fastball of 152 km/h to induce KT batters to swing and miss. Jang Sung-woo struck out swinging, and Heo Kyung-min was grounded out to shortstop. Han Seung-taek scored a series of balls on his body to get a rookie strikeout.
What has changed. Woo Kang-hoon, who met Star News before the game on the 29th, said, "Until last year, I tried to throw the ball hard, so I turned my back bigger and used a lot of arm strength. As a result, my arm hurt and the result was not good," he said.
However, based on the advice of Choi Sang-deok (55), LG Futures' pitching coach, he relaxed and focused on balance. Woo Kang-hoon said, "Since the second half of last year, I have been practicing breaking balls with coach Choi Sang-deok in the second division. He explained, "If the arm height of the breaking ball is the same, the fastball can also revive its power and throw it without strain on the arm."
"I practiced breaking balls like that and went into actual pitching, and I felt that my ball got better even if I threw a really light fastball. I've been practicing balance a lot since then. He also tried to keep his arm's speed constant when throwing a breaking ball. He added, "I used to have slow arm speed when throwing breaking balls, but I tried to get rid of it because there were many evaluations that the breaking ball was flat and visible to batters."
Although it started well every year, he tried to shake off the disappointment of finishing the season at Futures every time due to poor control. Woo Kang-hoon said, "I've lacked a lot of control. I don't care about the maximum restraint. "I want to stay in the first team for a long time by steadily throwing an average speed of more than 150 kilometers per hour," he said with strength.
The head coach is also counting on Woo Kang-hoon, who has changed. In the first place, Woo Kang-hoon was also classified as a starting candidate because he was not bad at using breaking balls due to his not bad finger sense. Ahead of the game on the 29th, LG manager Yeom Kyung-yeop said, "(Kang Hoon) has been consistently showing good performance since the exhibition game. First of all, I'm going to put him on the mound at a time when the score difference is not large," he said, expressing expectations.
If Woo Kang-hoon plays full season this season, the trade atrocities that have been going on will also be cut off. Right now, Son Ho-young, who headed to Lotte as an opposite benefit of Woo Kang-hoon, became a regular member of the first team, leaving a bitter aftertaste for LG.
Woo Kang-hoon said, "Even though the score gap widened so much yesterday (28th), I was able to gain confidence and cheer up because the fans cheered me a lot. He also stressed that the tempo was faster because the defense must end early to continue the atmosphere in offense.
"I'm in my sixth year as a professional, and I've never played the first-team full season yet. If I play full season, it means that I can go to the must-win group, so I will stay in the first team until the end with that goal," he said.
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*This content was translated by AI.
