SPOTV commentator Jeong Min-tae (53), who won 124 wins in the KBO League and won only two Korean Series MVPs, visited Daejeon on the 19th and 20th to broadcast the KT-Hanwha match. Whenever a pitcher from Hanwha came out, Commissioner Jeong Min-tae’s voice gained strength. Right-handed pitcher Joo Hyun-sang (31). If it had not been for the recommendation of Commissioner Jung Min-tae, there would not have been the current ‘pitcher Joo Hyun-sang’.
Joo Hyun-sang was not originally a pitcher. After going through Cheongju High School and Donga University, he was an infielder when he was nominated by Hanwha in the 64th overall in the 2nd 7th round in 2015. Since his first year with the club in 2015, he has played 103 games for the first team. He boasted stable defense at the main position of third base, and when the team was in a hurry, he even wore a catcher’s mask twice.
His defensive power was outstanding enough to be acknowledged by then manager Kim Seong-geun, but his batting average was 201.02 (47 hits in 222 at-bats) for the two years until 2016, and his hitting was weak. If you are a third baseman, you need a long hit, but 7 doubles without a home run are all long hits recorded in the first team. After that, he had a hiatus while serving in the military as a public service agent, and returned to the team in August 2019, but there was no place in the infield.
At that time, Commissioner Jeong Min-tae, who was the Hanwha pitching coach at the time, recommended Joo Hyun-sang to pitch. Lee Seung-yeop, Lee Dae-ho, Choo Shin-soo, Lee Ho-joon, Chae Tae-in, and Na Seong-beom have made great success by changing from pitchers to hitters, but there have been few successful cases of conversion. Now, there is Na Kyun-an (Lotte), but at the time, it was only Kwon Jun-heon, Kim Jae-yoon, and Ha Jae-hoon.
However, Commissioner Jung paid attention to Joo Hyun-sang’s strong shoulder. “Since I was an amateur, the phenomenon has been quite fast. When I was a third baseman, when I saw him throw to first base, the ball flew quickly and with power. I thought that with that speed, I could do it enough even as a pitcher,” recalled Commissioner Jeong. He knew it himself, and he said he would give it a shot. So he told the club, ‘Please give me one or two more years and see’, so he became a pitcher.”토토사이트
Commissioner Jeong left Hanwha, where he worked for six years at the end of 2020, but Joo Hyun-sang grew into a first-team pitcher in the second year of pitching conversion. In 2021, when he made his first-team debut as a pitcher, he played an active role with an average ERA of 3.58 with 2 wins, 2 losses and 4 holds in 43 games (50⅓ innings). He struggled with an average ERA of 6.83 in 49 games (55⅓ innings) last year, 1 loss, 1 save, and 3 holds, but this year, he played an active role in 31 games (32⅔ innings) 1 win, 1 loss, 4 holds, and an average ERA of 2.48, rising to the winning group.
He went to the 2nd team twice in April and May, but it was reorganized by lengthening extensions. After returning to the first team on June 15, he is demonstrating his power with an average ERA of 1.37 in 25 games. According to Trackman, a fastball with a maximum speed of 150 km per hour is more powerful than numbers. Commissioner Jeong said, “Hyun Sang is short (177 cm). Shorter pitchers need to pull their release point as far forward as possible and have good kicking power in front of the hitter. The fact that Hyun Sang had that side of him was one of the reasons why he recommended that he become a pitcher.”
Even against KT on the 19th and 20th, which Commissioner Jeong commented on, Joo Hyun-sang pitched 1 perfect inning two days in a row. Commissioner Jeong could not hide his smile at the performance of his former disciple. Commissioner Jeong said, “I never thought that Hyun Sang-i would do this well even when he turned pitcher. They are doing surprisingly well, so I feel good. He sometimes calls me to say thank you, but I’m proud of it,” he said with a smile. I hope that he will continue to perform well as he is now,” he said.