Lee Kang-cheol, head coach of the Korean national baseball team, started preparing for the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) in earnest.
Director Lee will depart for Sydney, Australia on the 5th. National team battery coach Jin Gap-yong, pitching coach Jung Hyun-wook, and Shim Jae-hak quality control (QC) coach accompany him. They plan to look at various players active in the Australian Professional Baseball League (ABL) to analyze the Australian national team, the first opponent of Group B in the first round of the WBC, for about five days.
Coach Lee announced the final 30 players on the 4th and said about the pitching staff, “We selected not all of the 15 pitchers, but we selected a lot of ground ball judo type, considering the game against Australia as our top priority.” Regarding the selection of fielders mainly left-handers, he explained, “I took into account the fact that Australian pitchers do not have many left-handed pitchers and are mostly right-handed pitchers.” That’s why the will to win the first game of the tournament by beating Australia is strong.토토사이트
Right now, the atmosphere is more all-in against Australia than against Korea and Japan. In the first round, the top two teams in each group advance to the second round (quarterfinals). Group B includes South Korea, Australia, Japan, China and the Czech Republic. If the national team wins against Australia, it will be a little easier to deal with China and the Czech Republic, which are evaluated as relatively weak. In addition, the second game of the first round against Japan can be greeted in a positive atmosphere.
However, Australia is not an easy opponent. Australia is emerging as the Group B dark horse in this tournament. Although many of the major league players who once led the heyday of Australian baseball retired, the lineup has weakened, but talented players playing in their home league and minor leagues are expected to join the national team. Coach Lee will look at the Australian players in person until the 9th and try to come up with a winning strategy in a little more detail.
South Korea will hold an official training in Arizona in the middle of next month. From the beginning of March, we will play evaluation matches with Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) teams and enter the first round of the finals of fate.