“I’ll throw three pitches to senior Na Sung-bum.”
Right-handed fireballer Cho Dae-hyun (18, 1st round) and catcher Max Er Sang-jun (18, 3rd round), who will join the KIA in the 2024 season, formally greeted the Gwangju fans on the 8th. Later, they met with reporters in the press room and boldly summoned “Nasta” Na Sung-beom (34). They were as bold as the MZ generation.
When asked about his role models, Lee pointed to Han Jun-soo, the current first-team backup catcher. “I’ve seen him since this year, and he’s stable in both offense and defense,” he said. “The senior I want to see the most is Na Sung-bum. He has no ups and downs. He doesn’t hit too well or too badly. I admire him because he plays consistently well.”
Lee Sang-joon saw it correctly. Na’s greatest virtue is consistency. In just 58 games this season, he had 11 games without a hit. He even had three consecutive games without a hit, from the final game of the first half on July 13 against Samsung Electronics in Gwangju to the first two games of the second half, against Doosan in Gwangju on July 21 and NC in Gwangju on July 25. He never had a two-game hitless streak.
With a 0.671 on-base percentage, a 0.427 slugging percentage, and a 0.348 on-base percentage, it’s hard not to feel a void in KIA’s lineup after 58 games of monster stats. While other players usually fill the void, there’s a big difference between having Na and not having him.
Sang-jun won’t be facing Na as a catcher or a batter. But even if he did, how would he handle a pitching lead? “Honestly, I don’t think I can win, but I have to make them follow (the battery’s intentions),” he said.
Right-handed fireballer Cho Dae-hyun, who hit a high of 151 kilometers in high school, was asked how he would handle Na Sung-bum. “I would throw three pitches toward the body,” he said. When I asked him why, he said, “If you want to catch a hard hitter, you have to catch the body. Even if it hits the body, I’ll keep it close to the body.”
In fact, it’s not easy to get a hitter like Na into a count. If his command is not good enough, he will get hit by a long ball. However, Cho Dae-hyun vowed to trust his pitches and fight the count. He’ll be able to use that mindset next year against the big hitters of the nine clubs.스포츠토토
I thought he was talking about a dream, but he is realistic. “My goal is to make it to the first team. If I make it, I’ll probably make my debut at the end of the game when there’s a big lead,” he said. “I want to put 155 kilometers on the scoreboard,” he said, accepting the weakness of his up-and-down command. A confident prospect.