'Check Your Pitching Motion': Hanwha Sends Jung Woo-ju, Hwang Jun-seo, Park Jun-young, and Kang Geon-woo to Japan's 'Next Base'

*This content was translated by AI.View Original

The Hanwha Eagles, who finished last season in second place but ended this season in ninth, are moving faster than anyone else after the season concluded. After replacing their manager and general manager and retaining Wang Yencheng, Hanwha has now sent four promising young pitchers, who left tasks unfinished, on a study trip to Japan.

The Hanwha Eagles announced on the 14th, "To improve the skills of our promising pitchers, we are dispatching players to specialized training facilities in Japan."

This dispatch includes four pitchers: Jung Woo-ju (20), Hwang Jun-seo (21), Park Jun-young (23), and Kang Geon-woo (19).

All of them are highly anticipated pitchers drafted by Hanwha in the upper rounds within the past five years. They all signed contracts with signing bonuses worth over 100 million won to wear the Hanwha uniform, but they share the common point of leaving regrets this season.

In particular, Jung Woo-ju, who joined as the second overall pick last year and was selected for the national team due to his outstanding pitching, moved between the starting rotation and the bullpen this season. He pitched in 45 games over 46 innings, recording a record of 1 win, 3 losses, and 5 holds, with an ERA (ERA) of 8.02. This is three times higher than his 2.85 ERA last year.

Hwang Jun-seo and Park Jun-young also received consistent opportunities but did not meet the standard. Hwang Jun-seo, the first overall pick in 2024, consistently exposed issues such as insufficient stamina. This season, he narrowed the gap between his first-half and second-half performances, but his overall record remained at a similar level. He finished with a record of 1 win and 5 losses and an ERA of 5.51, failing to smile.

Park Jun-young, the first overall pick in the second round in 2022, received his most opportunities since his debut and showed some potential by starting games in the second half, but the disappointments still outweighed the positives. He finished with a record of 2 wins and 4 losses and an ERA of 6.06.

Kang Geon-woo, a rookie who joined as the 13th pick in the second round this season, did not receive sufficient opportunities, pitching in 16 games over 22⅔ innings. He also failed to put on an eye-catching performance in the Futures League (KBO minor league). He struggled with an ERA of 8.74.

Along with the end of the season, Hanwha concluded that it was more important for these players to have opportunities to fill their shortcomings rather than take sufficient rest, and decided to send them on a study trip to Japan starting from the 14th.

From the 15th to November 3, they will undergo customized training programs at Next Base Athletics Lab, located in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Many teams have also sent promising pitchers there during the season. Lee Yi-ri of the KIA Tigers visited this facility during the season and subsequently rose to become a key bullpen resource for his team, leaving a notable success story.

The players dispatched to Next Base plan to focus on precisely analyzing individual pitching motions using advanced data and establishing efficient pitching mechanics and stable pitching balance tailored to their physical characteristics. It is expected that this process will be about finding their own definitive pitching form and mechanism, as it has been judged that these have not yet been settled.

Hanwha had already dispatched Kim Seo-hyun and Kwon Min-gyu in the first phase last July to check training results, and based on this, they decided to dispatch four players in the second phase.

The Hanwha Eagles aim to improve the skills of promising pitchers through this dispatch while strengthening a player development system based on advanced data to prepare for the 2027 season.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original