In the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) baseball team, there are people who silently help prepare for the tournament behind the scenes.
While selecting the national team, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) selected a total of eight helpers, including four training coaches to help players manage their bodies, and four batting ball pitchers and four bullpen catchers to support various training sessions.
They are sweating heavily while supporting the training of national team players in Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Koo Jun-beom (28), who was a left-handed pitcher for the professional baseball Samsung Lions until last season, joined as a professional batting ball pitcher.
Koo Jun-beom, who joined the Samsung Lions in the 2nd, 6th round of the 2014 rookie draft, worked as an active player until last season and received a love call from the national team after being released in October of last year.
A KBO official said, “We were looking for a left-handed batting ball pitcher, and we decided that Jun-beom Koo, who had played actual matches until recently, was the right person.”
Koo Jun-beom worked mainly in the 2nd team during his active career, and has the experience of starting a game in the 1st team in the 2021 season.
Kwon Nuri, who plays for SSG Landers, Kang Jae-wook, who plays for kt wiz, and Jeon Jin-hyung, who used to play fo먹튀검증r Samsung, both serve as bullpen catchers and batting ball pitchers.
These are veteran helpers whose skills have been verified.
In particular, Kwon Nuri has a lot of experience on the international stage, such as being the bullpen catcher in the 2019 Premier 12.
The bullpen catcher’s main job is to catch the pitcher’s ball in the bullpen and check his condition. He also doubles as a batting ball pitcher and helps batters hit.
And that’s not all. Bullpen catchers serve a variety of duties as training and game assistants.
A KBO official said, “We selected bullpen catchers who received good reviews from each team,” and said, “They are indispensable and important resources for the national team.”
Kang Jae-wook, bullpen catcher, joined the national team after playing for his team kt’s Tucson Spring Camp in Arizona.
He said, “I continued to receive the ball from the national team pitchers such as So-Jun Sohn at kt,” and “I will work with the pitchers a lot to help them quickly adapt to the WBC official ball.”
There are a total of four training coaches who help the athletes manage their bodies.
Coach Hong Joo-seong is the current kt trainer. Coaches Park Seong-jin and Kim Ji-hoon also have experience working at kt. Coach Son Jae-won worked for the Lotte Giants.
There are a lot of helpers for the national team who came from kt. Four out of eight bullpen catchers and training coaches belong to kt or come from kt.
It seems that a lot of kt manpower has been recruited as kt coach Lee Kang-cheol took over as the national team command tower.
KT dispatched a total of 8 people to the national team, including coach Kang-cheol Lee, hitting coach Gi-tae Kim, 6 coaches and players including So-jun So, Young-pyo Ko, Byeong-ho Park and Baek-ho Kang, and 2 support staff including Jae-wook Kang and Joo-seong Hong.
Coach Hong Joo-seong said, “Trainers are an important helper for the players,” and added, “We will try to ensure that the players can compete in the competition in 100% condition.”