“Unconditionally, (Yang) Eui-ji throws what senior wants to throw. At the WBC, I shook my head at senior (Yang) Eui-ji and threw what I wanted and got hit.”
This is what Doosan native ace Gwak Bin (24) said right after the KIA game in Gwangju on the 9th. It is dangerous for the pitcher to nod his head inertia to the catcher’s ball combination. He has a solid game plan, and he clearly feels it through the ball mix he leads.
However, if the catcher is Yang Eui-ji and Gwak Bin, the story is a bit different. Yang Eui-ji is the No. 1 catcher in the KBO League. His ability to lead and react to the game is excellent. The ability to assemble the game by comprehensively judging the condition of the pitcher and batter, key data, game situation and surrounding environment is unmatched.
On the other hand, Kwak Bin is still an inexperienced pitcher. However, he has a great weapon: a 150km fastball. He has tremendous potential to develop into a big starting pitcher. So, the meeting between the two is special. Yang Eui-ui makes up for Kwak Bin’s lack of experience, and Kwak Bin can increase his chances of bursting his potential with Yang Eui-ui’s help.
In that respect, if you look at the contents of Gwak Bin’s pitching that day, you can see that it was clearly different from the match against Jamsil NC on the 4th. The NC match blocked 7 innings with 2 hits, 10 strikeouts, 1 walk and no runs. It was a perfectly scratched day, threatened with force. On the other hand, against KIA, he gave up 4 hits, 7 strikeouts, 4 walks and 2 runs (visa book) in 5⅓ innings.
He had a fastball of 151 km, but he pitched a ball that was completely broken. When the KIA hitters couldn’t properly cope with Kwak Bin’s curve, he actively utilized it. For fastball pitchers, a slow curve is a very good timing stealer. A game that held up well, going with sliders and the like. Instead, the power was slightly reduced.
Maybe it was because the game was played five days after throwing 94 pitches. Kwakbin said, “It’s not like that. To be honest, I wasn’t feeling well. It was hard. It is because it is still in the stage of raising the number of pitches. I couldn’t hit the ball. On the contrary, the balance got better after the 5th episode.” 안전놀이터
With a starting pitcher playing full-time, there aren’t many games where he pitches in peak condition. Kwak Bin, who has been to the WBC, has yet to fully develop his stamina. The important thing is that catcher Yang Eui-ji accurately saw through such a state of Gwak Bin and then took a customized game lead. As a result, Kwak Bin did not allow a single ERA in two consecutive games. It is unreasonable to say that it is entirely thanks to Yang Eui-ji, but it is true that she received the ‘Yang Eui-ji buff’. I also admitted it.
Gwak Bin said, “If there is a pitch that a hitter cannot hit, Ui-ji makes him continue to throw it until he hits it.” In a word, it means to persistently dig into pitches that showed weakness. That was the case with the curve that day. Kwak Bin threw as Yang Eui-ji led, and he fully trusted Yang Eui-ji while experiencing the results and effects. Excessive determination is not allowed, but receiving a lot of help until you are more firmly established as a starting pitcher is a catalyst for growth.