The Doosan Bears, led by head coach Lee Seung-yeop, won the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League SSG Landers at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 23rd with 11 hits, including one home run. Doosan, which has won four consecutive games including one draw, has risen to second place for the first time in 57 days, beating the Samsung Lions and NC Dinos, who tied for second, who lost to the KT Wiz and the Kiwoom Heroes, by one game, respectively (29 wins, 2 draws, 21 losses).
Doosan won the game early in the bottom of the second inning by scoring nine runs in the attack, and catcher Kim Ki-yeon, who hit a first two-run double, became the main player of the final hit. In addition, Yang Seok-hwan decorated his 12th home run of the season with a wedge of three runs, and Kang Seung-ho and substitute Seo Ye-il scored multi-hit side by side. And second-year right-hander Choi Joon-ho, who has been a starting pitcher since the injury of foreign ace Raul Alcantara in late April, has been solidifying his position as Doosan's fifth starter with 17 innings in the last three games.
The KBO League abolished the regional association system and conducted a full-scale draft for four years from the 2010 rookie draft to the 2013 rookie draft. However, the team revived the regional association system from the 2014 rookie draft due to the side effect of being marginalized by small local schools, contrary to the original goal of equalizing power (with full-scale draft again from 2023). However, Doosan did not see much fun in the full-scale draft, which was conducted for four years.
In the 2010 draft, when the first full-scale draft was conducted, Doosan named Jang Min-ik, a left-hander of Suncheon Hyocheon High School who was the tallest player in the history of the KBO league at 207 centimeters (limited to domestic players). Doosan did not impressively play in school, but it paid attention to the growth potential of Jang Min-ik, who possesses "all-time hardware," but Jang did not grow as much as Doosan had expected. In the end, Jang was released after failing to win a single win in the first division during his nine years with Doosan.
In 2011, Doosan named Choongam High School right-hander Choi Hyun-jin instead of Seo Jin-yong (SSG) of Kyungnam High School and Han Seung-hyuk (Hanwha Eagles) of Deoksu High School, who threw fast balls up to 150 kilometers per hour. Choi was a promising player who recorded no-hitter in high school, but he was the only first-team player who lost a game in 2011 with 4.2 innings and five runs. Choi remained a "cyber pitcher" and ended his career after the 2017 season.
Doosan named Yoon Myung-joon, a right-handed pitcher coach at Korea University, as the sixth pick in the first round at the 2012 rookie draft, which produced a slew of star players including Han Hyun-hee, Kim Won-joong (Lotte Giants), and Park Min-woo (NC). Doosan, which failed to see good results after selecting promising high school graduates for two consecutive years, chose a college graduate pitcher, which was considered a strong player. Yoon recorded 28 wins and 15 saves and 63 holds for 11 years as Doosan's uniform, the best performance among first-round rookies in the era of full draft.
Doosan, which nominated pitchers in the first round for three consecutive years, turned to fielders in the 2013 rookie draft and chose Kim In-tae of Cheonan Bukil High School as the first round. Kim In-tae, who had high expectations as an outfield prospect following Kim Hyun-soo of the LG Twins when he joined the team, began to get opportunities in the first division in earnest in the 2020s. However, Kim In-tae is still moving up and down the first and second divisions with a batting average of .174 with one homer, two RBIs and three runs in 10 games this year, his 12th year as a professional.
The revival in 2014 ended with 2022 and the 2023 Rookie Draft saw its full draft come to an end 10 years after it was drafted. Doosan, which had the ninth overall pick in the 2021 Korean Series, had the chance to name promising young players such as Bukil High School infielder Moon Hyun-bin (Hanwha), Chungam High School catcher Kim Dong-hun (Kium), and Daejeon High School pitcher Song Young-jin (SSG). However, Doosan chose right-handed pitcher Choi Jun-ho of Bukil High School.
When he was at Bukil High School, Choi formed a triangle formation with Jang Woo-jin (Doosan Mountain) and Kim Hui-gun (NC), leading E-Mart to win and Bonghwangdae to finish second, but failed to make it to the youth national team, which led to his being evaluated as premature to be nominated for the first round. As soon as he joined the team, he failed to participate in the spring camp as he suffered an elbow injury in a medical test. In the end, Choi finished the season without throwing a single ball in the rookie season's first division stage.
Choi started this season in the Futures League again this year with a lackluster performance of five runs (ERA of 13.50) in 3.1 innings in exhibition games, but he pitched well with one earned run in eight innings in two games in the Futures League, and was called to the mound by the first team on April 17. Choi, who made his professional debut against Samsung on April 17, allowed one run in five innings in his first start as a pro against NC Dinos on April 23, and is starting in the last six games in a row. His performance in the six games as a starting pitcher also exceeded expectations by posting two wins, one loss and 3.21 earned runs in 28 innings.
Choi Joon-ho, who won his first professional debut win with a quality start of two runs in six innings against KT on the 12th, also showed good pitching in which he recorded a quality start for two consecutive games with one run in six innings against Lotte on the 17th, when he suffered his first loss of the season. And Choi Joon-ho secured his second win of the season by showing a consistent pitch of five hits, two walks, four strikeouts and two runs in five innings with the strong support of the batting line that scored nine runs in the bottom of the second inning alone against SSG on the 23rd.
Kim Yoo-sung, who got a chance as a starting pitcher with Choi Joon-ho at the time of injuries to foreign pitchers Raul Alcantara and Brandon Waddell in late April, was excluded from the first-team entry on the 10th and is currently playing in the Futures League. However, Choi Joon-ho has been steadily keeping the rotation by starting six consecutive games. With Alcantara's return scheduled against the KIA Tigers on the 26th, Choi Joon-ho is solidifying his position as the fifth starter of the Doosan mound, connecting Alcantara, Waddell, Kwak Bin and Choi Won-jun.
BY: 토토사이트
