S 3% came out, so I had to go study abroad...Kia invested more than 1.5 billion won
Jan 01, 2025
|
KIA Tigers' sidearm Lim Ki-young (32) had his worst season last year. Immediately after the opening, it was twisted as it left due to fine damage to the left side's internal oblique muscles, but it was hard to adapt to the ABS (automatic ball determination system) newly introduced by KBO last year. Lim Ki-young is the type to target the low strike zone, and last year's ABS strike zone was more generous in the strike zone than in the low strike zone. Lim Ki-young tried to match the changed system, but there was a limit to making a sudden change. Lim Ki-young swallowed his disappointment last season with 6-2 losses, 2 holds, 45 ⅔ innings, and a 6.31 ERA in 37 games.
Reflecting on the slump last season, Lim Ki-young said "It was definitely the impact of ABS. Because I'm the type to throw low in a way, but because I didn't catch such a ball, there were many on-base hits by the opponent. At the same time, there were more cases where (I) was driven."
Lim Ki-young was impatient with last year's sluggishness because he won his first FA qualification after the season. Depending on the player, FA opportunities come two to three times, but the reality is that it is difficult to qualify as No. 1. Lim Ki-young had a lot of worries about whether to exercise his FA rights as the season did not go as he had hoped last year, but he submitted an application after an hour of interviews with KIA General Manager Shim Jae-hak. At this meeting, Lim Ki-young strongly appealed that he wanted to stay at KIA, and general manager Shim also gave the answer that he would catch the team because it is a necessary player.
Shim kept his promise with Lim Ki-young. KIA signed a contract with Lim Ki-young on the 21st of last month for a total of 1.5 billion won, including a three-year contract period, a down payment of 300 million won, an annual salary of 900 million won and an option of 300 million won. There was a disagreement on the amount, so it needed time to narrow the difference, but Lim Ki-young acknowledged last season's sluggishness and did not become greedy anymore.
General manager Shim did not stop at giving Lim Ki-young a 1.5 billion won contract. He recommended personal training at the Pitcher Training Center 'Tread Athletic' in Charlotte, North Carolina. The club will provide support, so he asked them to supplement what they want to supplement and come back.
|
|
Lim Ki-young readily accepted Shim's proposal. He is preparing to go to the U.S. early in January for a training session. The general manager took care of me to go. It's my first time training in the U.S., so I'm looking forward to it, and I decided to do it because I want to build my body quickly.'I expected a positive change when I got help from Tread Athletic.
KBO's decision to adjust the ABS strike zone in the new year is also a good thing for Lim Ki-young. The KBO Executive Committee decided to lower the ABS strike zone by reflecting the results of a team survey early last month. Without any change in zone size, both the top and bottom are lowered by 0.6 percentage points, so that the whole moves down.
Lim Ki-young said, "(I think the changed ABS strike zone) would be good. But I think I'll have to do it before I know. You have to see for yourself how low it has been, and you have to adapt from camp. I think I should prepare differently by throwing away a little bit of what I've been doing before."
Lim Ki-young graduated from Gyeongbuk High School and joined the Hanwha Eagles as the 18th overall pick in the second round of the rookie draft in 2012, and in December 2013, he first wore the KIA uniform as a compensation player for pitcher Song Eun-beom (currently Samsung Lions) for the FA transfer. At KIA, he solidified his image as an all-weather pitcher who does not care about starting and bullpen. In 2023, he completely turned to the bullpen and had his best season of his career with four wins, three saves, 16 holds, 82 innings and a 2.96 ERA in 64 games.
Lim Ki-young's goal is to spend the same season as 2023 again. He is preparing for the new season, remembering the pain of not being able to share the joy of winning the integrated championship with his teammates when he was eliminated from the Korean Series entry last year. Will he be able to rebound in the new year and give a boost to KIA, which is trying to win the title for the second consecutive year. Lim Ki-young gets on a plane to the U.S. before his colleagues and starts working on increasing the strike rate.
|
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
