KIA is looking for one starter this year. Yang Hyeon-jong returned to the league last year, and Lee Eui-ri, who has solidified his presence as a starter for two years, has filled four starting positions, including two foreign pitchers. The 5th pick, he competes for that spot at the Arizona spring camp in the United States.
The hot competition includes Lim Ki-young (30, KIA) this year as well.
Lim Ki-young was the first full-time starter at KIA in 2017 and is the main player who led the overall victory. It was a season that was enough to be fixed as a starter, and it was ranked as the number one domestic starter to succeed Yang Hyeon-jong. However, since then, I have not been able to step up and have always faced difficulties.
In the past 10 years, except for Yang Hyeon-jong, there was no domestic pitcher who threw regular innings as a starter, and Lim Ki-young threw 153 innings in 2021 and filled the regular innings for the first time. He was far ahead of the selection competition in 2022. However, due to a side injury during the spring camp, he was unable to start the season, and Han Seung-hyeok, who filled the spot in the meantime, took a long time to find a starting position.
This year, Lim Ki-young jumped into the selection competition again. All competitors are juniors. Kim Ki-hoon, who was expected to join as a left-handed fireballer and was called ‘the second Yang Hyeon-jong’, returned after serving in the military. Along with the powerful Kim Ki-hoon, ‘Super Rookie Candidate’ Yoon Young-chul competes for the starting spot. If it gets pushed out this year, it could be a real crisis.
Lim Ki-young naturally accepts this competition. Lim Ki-young said, “After coming to KIA, I always competed, but I think that is better for me. If you start with a fixed seat, it seems that you become lazy and careless. After the 2017 season, I was a bit lax,” he said. “I’m going to think the same this year. If you think ‘if it doesn’t work here, it’s a crisis’, you can overface it. I will do what I always do, but I will eat hard and try.”
Lim Ki-young, who was often injured in the process of preparing for the season or during the course of the season, is most wary of injuries this year as well, standing in the middle of the competition for survival. During the off-season before his camp, he focused on softening his muscles with yoga and swimming for the first time in his life. Lim Ki-young said, “If you’re sick, you can’t even try and it’s over. I am not sick and I will try to compete until the end.”
In fact, ‘bad luck’ played a very big role in Lim Ki-young’s inability to rise to the next level. Lim Ki-young, who is considered the pitcher with the least luck in the KIA, stopped at the threshold of 10 wins each season. Last year, he threw 129.1 innings, earned only 4 wins with an ERA of 4.24, and lost 13, making his name the pitcher with the most losses in the league. 슬롯사이트
Lim Ki-young said, “I think my luck has reached that point and I am going to try again. (Yoon) Seok-min and Hyung also had the most losses (2007), and it broke out in the next season. I won’t explode to that extent, but I hope I can get over that hurdle at least once.” promised that