The last nomination in the first round, which was exchanged with irreplaceable Cho Sang-woo, LG had a 156km fireballer

Dec 25, 2024

The Kiwoom Heroes team returned home through Incheon International Airport on the 6th after the 2024 spring camp. Jo Sang-woo is leaving the arrival hall. Incheon International Airport = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2024.03.06/

This year, we picked 156km fire bowlers from the 10th place, but next year, Kiwoom will be able to do so.

Will Kiwoom Heroes' 'Gambling of Nomination Rights' lead to 'Awesome' in the future.

The current direction of Kiwoom is very clear. In a word, it is 'rebuilding'. The goal is to create a new round focusing on young and promising players without showing regret over players who are difficult to catch due to FA and overseas expansion. Instead, in order to make up for the young players' lack of experience, a large number of experienced players from the stove league have been recruited. The calculation was to minimize power leakage while saving money as much as possible. Of course, we have to wait and see if we can hold out like this or not.

In the meantime, what stands out is the obsession with rookie nomination rights. During this season, he sent Kim Hui-jip to the NC Dinos and received two rookie nominations for the first time in exchange for a trade. In the first round alone, two first and seventh-ranked players were selected, and two more 27 and 28th-ranked players were added in the third round. Kiwoom, which already had Jeon Joon-pyo and Lee Jae-sang through a trade of designation rights in the 2024 draft, which was held last year.

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Other teams intend to erase question marks about rookies that they do not know how to grow with guaranteed cards. But Kiwoom is the opposite. General manager Ko Hyung-wook has been able to select players with his `hawk eyes' since he was a scout. Even after becoming a general manager, he is busy watching various amateur competitions. "We believe that it is much more beneficial to bring in new players that we thought were capable of seeing in the trade," Koh said.

So, he made another trade for a large nomination. Cho Sang-woo, who will become an FA at the end of next season, will be sent to KIA Tigers, which has urgent performance, and has received 1 billion won in cash for KIA's first and fourth round nominations.

In the end, the key is who will be brought in with the first round of nomination. KIA won the championship this year, so it is its 10th pick. Kiwoom is in last place, so it can once again nominate the first overall player next year, following this year's pick, Chung Hyun-woo, and can reinforce two players in the first round.

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If you are ranked 10th, you can question whether you can pick a good player, but if you compare the results of this year's draft, you can roughly estimate it. The LG Twins, who were ranked 10th this year, selected Kim Young-woo from Seoul High School. It is a promising resource that can shoot a maximum speed of 156km. I can't guarantee that the players who will be in next year's draft will be better than this year, but if a player with similar abilities comes to Kiwoom and grows, there is a good chance that Cho Sang-woo's vacancy will be filled.

On top of that, what general manager Ko is aiming for is the first place in the second round. He is the 11th player overall. He is also named by Kiwoom. "If you are ranked 10th in the first round, it is really unclear which player to select," Ko said. But if we can pick another one right behind us, we can expand our view of the player. The first overall ranking will be important, but it will be a great benefit for us to be able to use these two cards." Kiwoom named Yeom Seung-won, one of the biggest high school infielders and Lee Young-min's batting award winner, as the No. 1 player in the second round this year. Yum Seung-won, who is rated as the "second Lee Jung-hoo", underwent elbow surgery and is aiming to make his 2026 season debut.

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