Starting Pitcher Selected for First Game in Olympic Back-to-Back Title Challenge
Growing Ace with Fastball, Changeup, and Slider
Israel Features 8 Former MLB Players Including Kinsler and Valencia
The baseball national team (ranked 3rd in the world), aiming for a second consecutive Olympic gold, is facing the challenge of lacking an ace pitcher. With star pitchers like Ryu Hyun-jin (Toronto Blue Jays) and Kim Kwang-hyun (St. Louis Cardinals) largely absent, the mound's strength has diminished. Manager Kim Kyung-moon sees this as an opportunity for generational change. Out of the eleven pitchers on the roster, he selected eight as starting candidates. He focused on choosing starters for the first and second games of the group stage. After observing live pitching and evaluation games, his choice was Won Tae-in (21, Samsung).
Won Tae-in will start as the pitcher in the first game of Group B in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics group stage against Israel (ranked 24th in the world) at Yokohama Stadium in Japan at 7 p.m. on the 29th. He is a next-generation ace who has pitched well this season with a 10-4 record and a 2.54 ERA in fifteen professional baseball games. Manager Kim said, "He is still young, but he is the pitcher with the most wins in professional baseball," adding, "He pitches calmly on the mound, so even in the somewhat burdensome first game, he will fulfill his role well."
Won Tae-in is a third-year professional pitcher whose skills have blossomed this year. In five games last April, he pitched excellently with a 4-1 record and a 1.16 ERA, earning the monthly MVP award. Although he struggled in two games in May, allowing 13 runs, he took sufficient rest and bounced back. In the first half of the season, he played fifteen games with a 10-4 record and a 2.54 ERA. He leads the league in wins and ranks fifth in ERA.
Last year, Won Tae-in could hardly have dreamed of being selected for the national team. He recorded a 6-10 record with a 4.89 ERA in 27 games. The secret to his changed status in just one year lies in his slider. His main weapon remains the changeup. His fastball, which reaches the high 140 km/h range, has a pitching motion similar to the slider, effectively confusing batters. However, it is difficult to endure many innings with just a fastball and slider combination.
After last season, Won Tae-in honed his slider to minimize his weaknesses. He uses the slider and fastball to gain the count advantage and throws the changeup as a winning pitch. This effectively disrupts batters' timing, often inducing swings and misses. Thanks to this, his strikeouts per nine innings increased from 5.01 last year to 7.4 this year.
Won Tae-in is a "Beijing Kid" who nurtured his baseball dream watching the national team win all games and the championship at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He said, "I never imagined I would achieve my dream in my third year as a pro," adding, "The Olympic stage represents not just a team but a country, so it comes with great responsibility. I want to repay the expectations accordingly." Manager Kim said, "Baseball is a sport where results cannot be guaranteed. That's why the first game is the most important," and added, "We have prepared hard. We will repay the fans with a good game."
The first opponent, Israel, is not an easy team. They have eight players who have played in the U.S. Major Leagues, including Ian Kinsler and Danny Valencia. The national team lost 1-2 in an extended battle in the first round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC). Ten players from that game, including Josh Zeid, who pitched three scoreless innings to secure the win, and Scott Burcham, who hit the winning infield single, have been selected again for this tournament.
Manager Eric Holtz said, "No matter who we face, we are confident and prepared." He announced John Moskot as the starting pitcher for the first game. Moskot is a right-handed pitcher who played for the Cincinnati Reds in the U.S. Major Leagues for two years starting in 2015. He recorded a 1-4 record with a 6.82 ERA in eight games. After retiring, he worked as a minor league pitching coach before returning as a player for the Israel national team in 2019.
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