“Jang Min-jae is also a candidate for the starting pitcher for the opening game.”
Hanwha coach Subero has given a chance to glory to a native pitcher, not a foreign pitcher, as the starting pitcher for the opening game. In the first year of 2021, Kim Min-woo was selected as the opening match starter, and in 2022, last year, Kim Min-woo was selected for the opening match. “The starting pitcher for the opening game should be a Korean pitcher,” was Coach Subero’s own philosophy.
Who will be the starting pitcher for Hanwha’s opening game this year, the last year of coach Subero’s tenure?
Coach Subero, who is leading the spring camp at Bell Bank Park in Mesa, Arizona, USA, was asked about starting pitchers for the opening game, and after thinking for a while, he picked three pitchers.
Director Subero said, “Kim Min-woo can be a candidate, and Moon Dong-ju can also be a candidate. And there is Jang Min-jae,” he said, and mentioned Jang Min-jae at length. Kim Min-woo is a starting pitcher for the opening game for two consecutive years, and Moon Dong-ju is a newcomer who is attracting attention as a second-year fireballer.
Manager Subero said, “Jang Min-jae was the most consistent pitcher last year. He was a pitcher who entered the league’s top 10 among domestic pitchers,” he praised.
“Other people have a lot of questions about what Jang Min-jae shows, but one of the mistakes I always admit is sending Jang Min-jae to Seosan (second team) in the first year of coaching. It is a team that needs pitching more than anyone else, but I couldn’t see Jang Min-jae properly. There will be no such mistakes in the third season. Jang Min-jae is also one of the candidates.”
In 2021, the first year in charge of Subero, Jang Min-jae was not given many opportunities. Jang Min-jae played 4 games as a relief pitcher in May and stayed in the 2nd team all the time. He pitched in six games as a starter after September. He had 2 losses and an earned run average of 2.76 in 12 games without a win.
Last year, the position started as a bullpen pitcher. After throwing as a relief pitcher in April, he was given the opportunity to start at the end of April, and showed steady pitching and digested the starting rotation until the end of the season.
Jang Min-jae was the most stable pitcher in the Hanwha starting lineup last year. He went 7-8 with a 3.55 earned run average in 32 games (126.2 innings). Although he fell short of his regulation innings, his earned run average of 3.55 was 12th overall in the league. 메이저사이트
From the middle of last year’s season, coach Subero said whenever he was asked about Jang Min-jae, ‘I made a mistake. I didn’t know Jang Min-jae properly. He was a pitcher who should have been used as a starter long ago,” he admitted his mistake. He apologized again for his mistake at spring camp this year.
On the other hand, when asked if he was greedy for the starting pitcher for the opening game, Moon Dong-ju, a second-year player, said, “My goal is to enter one of the starting rotations rather than being a starting pitcher for the opening game. It seems that the selection for the opening game is early, and he thinks that the opportunity will come later if he only focuses on what he can do for the starting position.”