“We have a pitcher and a batter….”
Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, where the 2023 Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) team was training on Friday.
The first tape of the training was cut off by ‘Ryu Jung-ilho’. Although the Japanese team was the last to practice, Japanese reporters were interested in watching the Korean team practice.
The Korean baseball team is coming off a gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games in early October, and this year’s APBC team includes many of the same players who won the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
In the middle of a training session, a Japanese journalist interviewed the team’s captain, Kim Hye-sung.
They asked her how she felt about the Japanese team, to which she replied, “They are a strong team and have many good players.”
“Name a player to watch out for. Kim named pitcher Tatsuya Imai (25, Seibu Lions) and hitter Shugo Maki (25, Yokohama D & A BayStars).
Imai, who was drafted in the first round in 2016,
First made the first team in 2018 and is 38-23 with a 3.69 ERA in 110 games. This year, he has been a regular starter in 19 games, going 10-5 with a 2.30 ERA, including two complete games.
Shugo Maki was a key member of the 2023 World Classic Baseball (WBC) championship team, batting .299 with 29 home runs and 103 RBIs in 143 games this season. 먹튀검증토토사이트 He is one of Japan’s early favorites to bat fourth in the lineup, according to national team manager Hirokazu Ibata.
Kim said, “Imai throws the ball with confidence. He seems to have good control. I saw Maki play at the WBC, and she can hit really well. She seems to be a versatile player.”
The Japanese press asked, “Chihiro Sumida is the favorite to start against Korea, but what do you know about him?
Sumida joined Seibu as the No. 1 pick in the 2021 rookie draft and broke into the first team last year. He struggled in his first year, going 1-10 with a 3.75 ERA in 16 games, but has been more consistent this year, going 9-10 with a 3.44 ERA in 22 games. He has a fastball that sits around 150 miles per hour and a splitter and changeup. She is not an easy opponent because of her stable pitches.
When asked by Japanese reporters, Kim laughed and said, “It’s a secret,” before leaving for training.