“I was really happy when I was first selected for the national team.”
Jang Hyun-seok (19, Masan Yongma High School), the only amateur player on the national baseball team, expressed his will to do his best at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
Jang Hyun-seok recorded 2 runs in 1 inning, 2 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, in a game against Daegu Sangwon High School in the 2nd game of the 57th Presidential Cup National High School Baseball Championship held at Mokdong Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 4th. Masan Yongmago made a big inning in the 5th inning and won 10-5 and succeeded in advancing to the round of 16.
Was it because it was a long time since I climbed? On this day, Jang Hyun-seok’s maximum speed was up to 154 km, but there were ups and downs. In the bottom of the 8th inning with a 10-1 lead, Masan Yongmago went to the mound on 1st and 2nd base, giving up wild pitches and walks, putting the bases full. After that, he allowed 1 run in a wild throw, and allowed 2 RBIs and timely hits in the middle game to Ahn Jun-sang and 1 RBI and 1 RBI in the left game to Nam Tae-woong, giving up 4 runs (2 earned) in the 8th inning alone. Sweeper, who is in the process of polishing, pulled out batters’ bats to the extent that he was satisfied with “I think it’s better than during the Blue Dragon period,” but his fastball was often missing and the number of pitches increased, eventually throwing 32 balls in one inning.
But he still had an attractive pitch. He struck out all three out counts while throwing a variety of pitches, including a fastball, slider, curveball, changeup, and sweeper. After the game, Jang Hyun-seok blamed himself, saying, “I didn’t want to throw the ball perfectly because I didn’t throw the ball for a while after resting after the Blue Dragon. But I didn’t know it would be this bad.”꽁머니
Jang Hyun-seok was the only amateur player selected for the national baseball team for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games held in September. Recognizing that the Asian Games are amateur competitions, the Power Reinforcement Committee sought to select players with the best skills. Among amateur players this year, who are said to be the best draft pool ever, the Korea Baseball Softball Association selected 19 players, and Jang Hyun-seok was selected without much disagreement. At the time of the announcement of the national team in June, Jo Gye-hyeon, chairman of the Power Reinforcement Committee, explained, “Jang Hyun-seok has been checked since March, and he received the most points from the Power Reinforcement Committee in terms of pitch, speed, and game management.”
The gap between high school baseball and professional baseball is significant, so you can think of taking Jang Hyun-seok as an experience as a consideration for amateur baseball. However, there are many opinions in the baseball world that Jang Hyun-seok is competitive even now. Jang Hyun-seok is a right-handed fireballer who has a strong physique with a height of 190 cm and a weight of 90 kg and a fast ball with a maximum speed of 157 km. People say that they have better potential than the players who were recently selected as the 1st and 2nd picks in the draft, such as Dong-Ju Moon (20), Seo-Hyun Kim (19, Lee Sang-Hanwha Eagles), Young-Cheol Yoon (19, KIA Tigers), and Jun-Seok Shim (19, Pittsburgh Pirates). comes out unnoticed
In particular, even with the same fast ball, the rotation rate is around 2400 RPM, and it is evaluated that it is different in terms of quality. The perfection and control of the changing ball are also of a high level. A curve and changeup with a large drop in the early 130 km/h range, a slider and a sweeper in the early 140 km/h mix to confuse hitters. In particular, the fast-paced curve that shares the same pitching tunnel as the fastball is the main weapon that draws hitters’ miss swings. Thanks to that, he received the attention of many major league scouts, and eventually, on the 1st, instead of applying for the KBO draft, he officially declared the challenge in the United States. As he has all-time talent, there are predictions that his contract will also receive more than 750,000 dollars (approximately 960 million won) that Shim Jun-seok received last year.
In the Asian Games, it is highly likely that he will be a pitcher used in the 1+1 strategy. At the time of selection, national team coach Ryu Joong-il explained, “At that time, we have to look at Jang Hyun-seok’s physical condition, but he is a pitcher who can also be selected. If not (after the starting pitcher goes down), he can throw long innings as the second pitcher.”
In fact, Jang Hyun-seok has often played as a starter, but due to the nature of high school tournaments, he has a lot of experience as a stopper to save the mound in situations where the team is most at risk. In particular, it is difficult to find a pitch that can strike out consecutively even with no bases loaded, even in the current national team. On the 24th of last month, in the quarterfinal match between Jangchung High School and Cheongryonggi, he made a relief mound and showed an overwhelming pitch that caught 14 strikeouts in 6⅔ innings.
Jang Hyun-seok is also in a position to do his best in the Asian Games, which is likely to be his last tournament in high school. He said, “I was really happy when I heard that I was selected for the national team for the first time because I had no luck with the national team in the past.”