Kwak Bin, who is preparing for the new season in Sydney, Australia, has completed his second bullpen session. He threw 50 pitches. The maximum speed of his fastballs was 148 kilometers per hour. Although he took less time to build up his body than usual due to basic military training last winter, his speed increased significantly. However, Kwak sometimes looked disapproved, and received detailed feedback while checking tracking data. "It was better than the first bullpen session, but I think I still need to throw more balls," Kwak said. "The fastball keeps going into the cutter type. I checked because it felt like the ball was going in weakly."
Kwak won 15 games last season, tying with Won Tae-in of Samsung for the most wins. The rotation was shaky throughout the season due to a string of foreign pitchers leaving the team due to injury, but Kwak kept the starting lineup as he played the ace alone. That's why he said he was grateful but felt lonely at the end of last month when he left Australia. He was the only one who survived for a year like a breadwinner.
Last year, Kwak stood tall as one of the best pitchers in Korea in name and reality. In a recent YouTube broadcast, Kim Kwang-hyun and Yang Hyun-jong both singled out Kwak as the three starting players for the next generation. "I'm very grateful, but I have to take responsibility for that. I want to do better and become a player that everyone can recognize," Kwak said.
Thanks to his stellar performance in the last season, Kwak signed a contract with an annual salary of 380 million won (390,000 U.S. dollars). This is the highest annual salary for a non-FA player in his team. His salary is also an increase of 170 million won (170 million dollars) more than last year. As a result, he has become more responsible.
Kwak Bin is a pitcher who grows every year. He only focused on rehabilitation for two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery, but he proved his potential by securing the starting rotation for his return season in 2021. He passed the regular innings the following year, won 12 starts in 2023, and won the most wins in the last season. Kwak said, "My goal every year is to show better performance than last year by staying silent." "Better performance" does not just describe his performance. He wants to improve his dissatisfaction and bad parts throughout the season and improve every year as a pitcher.
카지노사이트 This season's goal is to minimize the ups and downs. Kwak Bin's performance fluctuated on a monthly basis last season. He won the monthly MVP in May with a 1.48 ERA, but was shaken to 5.91 in June. He was good again in July and then sluggish again in August. Kwak Bin said, "Last year, I went back and forth a little bit, so if I had about 10 times like that, I would like to reduce it to about 7 times this year." It would be nice if he could do everything he wants at once, but that's not possible. Kwak Bin's style is to grow solidly every year and clear the challenges one by one.
After arriving in Sydney, Kwak repeats his routine every morning. As soon as he wakes up, he starts thinking about how to throw the ball today. Recalling the desired sense of pitching, he hints at himself so that he can have that sense in training as well. "It could be a really small difference if you think about it and not about it, but if you throw it without thinking about it, a bad habit comes out," Kwak said. "That's why I'm repeating my habit more sensitively."
Training in hot weather is also hard, but if you raise your senses and concentrate every morning, you will feel mentally fatigued. However, the more you do, the more you try to concentrate. "I need to be tired now to feel comfortable during the season," Kwak said. In his seventh year as a pro, he has learned this by himself.