“Now I can only think about baseball.”
Park Se-woong, 28, of the Lotte Giants, is at the multiplier point of his baseball career in 2023. After the 2022 season, he signed a five-year, 9 billion won non-free agent contract. He was on the verge of free agency, but opted for stability. At the same time, he withdrew his application to join the Armed Forces Athletic Corps (MSC) after being accepted into the first round.
With his enlistment no longer an option, Park took a gamble. In order to keep his career on track and make his non-free agent multi-year contract worthwhile, Park had to win a gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games and receive a special exemption from military service. In the professional world, where nothing is guaranteed and the future is unknown, Park took a gamble on his baseball career.
Park’s determination paid off.
The gamble paid off. At the World Baseball Classic (WBC), Park averted a cold-game humiliation against Japan and earned the title of “national ace” with a dominant performance against the Czech Republic. After a rough start to the regular season, Park regained his form and was on a roll before being called up to the Hangzhou Asian Games, going 8-7 with a 3.41 ERA in 26 games and 148 innings. He pitched a six-inning no-hitter against Korea in the Super Round to set the stage for the final and win the gold medal. Park’s baseball career ended on a happy note. He finished the regular season with a 9-7 record in 27 games, 154 innings pitched, and a 3.45 ERA.
Although he failed to reach 10 wins for the third consecutive year, he has been a true innings-eating ace for four consecutive seasons. 토토사이트 Over his last four seasons, he has thrown 615⅔ innings. His 615⅔ innings are third all-time behind LG Casey Kelly (682⅓ innings) and David Buchanan (680⅔ innings) and first among native-born players.
Military service is no longer an obstacle for Kim.
He has become the ace in the hole and the backbone of the team. At the team meeting, Kim Tae-hyung said, “If you exclude foreign players, Park Se-woong is the ace. He should definitely take pride in being an ace,” he said, adding, “I don’t think he’ll be nervous or impatient now that his military service issue has been resolved, so I think he’ll show a much better performance.”
Park Se-woong himself said, “People say that I can play baseball with a relaxed mind because my military service has been resolved, but rather than relaxed, I can only think about baseball now. There’s no time to feel comfortable on the mound,” he emphasized. He also said, “There is a new manager, so I will prepare accordingly. I will build trust with the manager and become a player who can throw with responsibility,” he said, vowing to take on the responsibility of an ace.
Park Se-woong is a player who thinks only of baseball during the season and off-season.
Now that the military is out of the way, he can really focus on baseball. “It’s good to be evaluated by the market in free agency, but I wanted to play baseball for Lotte for a longer period of time,” Park said at the time of his five-year, 9 billion won multi-year contract. “When I signed the contract, I remembered the seniors who played for Lotte, Choi Dong-won, Yoon Hak-gil, coach Yoon Jong-seok, and Song Seung-jun. I thought a lot about the records they set at Lotte, and I wanted to set them again,” he said, revealing his determination to become a part of the history of the giants.
After being drafted by KT in 2014 and traded to Lotte in 2015, Park has since become one of the “top 10” players in most of the club’s career records. That’s because he’s been relatively steady, quiet, and dominant on the mound, even in the aftermath of his elbow debridement surgery in 2018. He ranks seventh in games started (205), eighth in wins (62), eighth in innings pitched (1127), and tied for sixth in strikeouts (907).
Assuming a full-time schedule of 27-28 games
He will surpass Joo Hyung-kwang (217 starts), Jang Won-joon (227 starts), and Yoon Hak-gil (231 starts) to become the fourth most prolific pitcher in the club’s history. And for Choi Dining, he’s within striking distance of “Iron Arm” Choi Dong-won’s record. Choi is a Lotte legend and the franchise’s first permanent reserve, leading the team to an unprecedented four Korean Series titles.
Choi has played 1292⅔ innings for Lotte. He is currently 165⅔ innings behind Park Se-woong. Park is within reach if he can consistently pitch around six innings as the homegrown ace this year. It’s a tall order, but it’s also not out of reach. Park previously pitched 171⅓ innings in 2017 and 163 innings in 2021. 에볼루션 바카라사이트 It’s a record that should be coveted by anyone with an appetite for innings.
He wants to make history for the Giants, and he’s well on his way to doing just that. With the obstacle of military service out of the way, how far can he go in the club’s history?