‘Surprise card’ Cho Sung-hoon (SSG Landers) will make his first career start.
SSG will play their fifth game of the season against the Doosan Bears of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League on Tuesday at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. SSG’s starter will be Cho Sung-hoon.
Cho was selected by the SK Wyverns (now SSG) with the fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2018 KBO Rookie Draft. He appeared in one game in his debut season, giving up two runs (two earned) on three hits in ⅔ innings, but his fastball reached 151 km/h. On October 11, 2018, he appeared on the mound again for the first time in four years and eight months.
In April 2019, he was accepted by the Commercial Baseball Organization to complete his military service. However, when he returned from the military, injuries held him back, and he had fewer opportunities to pitch in the Futures League due to his frequent injuries. He appeared in 12 games and 14 innings in 2021 and 10 games and 10 innings in 2022.
This season, however, Cho has been healthy and has appeared in nine games in the Futures League, going 2-1 with a 4.18 ERA in 23⅔ innings pitched with 11 runs (11 earned). Futures general manager Lee Dae-soo said on the 16th, “Cho Sung-hoon’s fastball was in the mid-140km/h range after he was injured. However, I saw him throwing 151km/h the day before (on the 15th).”
SSG coach Kim Won-hyung is also concerned about Cho Sung-hoon. Coach Lee Dae-soo said, “The coach cares a lot about Cho Sung-hoon. He even made a specific plan on how to manage him because of his injuries.” “He said, ‘He’s a player who has been injured often, so his durability will be weak. That’s why he said, ‘Until his durability is good, when other pitchers throw 60 pitches every two months, Sung-hoon should be able to throw 60 pitches every four months.'”
Coach Kim Won-hyung said, “He trained as he wanted to. He was throwing a lot of balls, so he kept getting injured. So I told him to do the opposite. I trained to reduce the number of pitches and build my body.” “He pitched properly in each inning. He was throwing the right pitches every inning. I wanted to see him pitch as a starter once.”토토사이트
Cho Sung-hoon will take the mound for the first time since his debut season. His opponent will be Raul Alcantara. Alcantara has appeared in 13 games this season, posting a 7-3 record with 24 runs (18 earned) in 82 innings pitched, 17 walks, 85 strikeouts, and a 1.98 ERA. He ranks third in wins and strikeouts and fourth in ERA. It will be interesting to see how he fares against Alcantara.