The Kia Tigers are taking their first steps toward the 2024 season with rookies in Okinawa, Japan.
“We will begin our final training camp from November 1 to 28 at the Kin Stadium in Okinawa,” KIA announced on November 26.
Twenty-eight players, including five 2024 rookies, will participate in the “four days of training, one day of rest” final training program, where they will undergo physical and technical training.
Coach Kim Jong-guk will continue to lead the program, while new coaches Jung Jae-hoon and Lee Dong-gul will join the team. Jung began his coaching career in 2018 and served as the pitching coach of the Doosan Bears until this season. Lee began her coaching career in 2021 with the Hanwha Eagles, where she served as pitching coach and pitching performance coach.
The 2024 rookies will also participate. Kang Dong-hoon, Kim Min-jae, Choi Ji-woong, Lee Sang-joon, and Kim Doo-hyun will make their first appearance in front of the first team coaching staff. First-round pick Cho Dae-hyun (Gangneung-Go) is headed to the reserve team. Dae-hyun Cho, who has been a two-hitter this year, needs a break. KIA also gave rookie Yoon Young-cheol, who pitched a lot in high school, a break last year by not putting him in the final camp.
As a hitter, Cho batted .288 (21-for-73) with no home runs or stolen bases, 12 RBIs, a .369 slugging percentage, a .397 on-base percentage and a .766 OPS in high school, and as a pitcher, he went 8-1 with a 2.28 ERA in 28 games with 36 walks and 96 strikeouts in 79 innings. In particular, at the 2nd Shinsegae E-Mart Bae National High School Baseball Tournament in April, he batted .481 (13-for-27) with nine RBIs in seven games as a hitter and went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in six games as a pitcher, striking out 30 batters in 20⅔ innings (six walks, three hit batsmen) to lead Gangneung High to a runner-up finish.
A KIA official told Star News on the 26th, “Cho Dae-hyun played a lot of games this year, so we decided that he needed to manage his physical fitness. We will leave him in Korea, not Okinawa, to rest and manage him.” 굿모닝토토 주소
The squad will travel to Okinawa for the final training camp on March 31 via flight OZ172. Other players participating in the Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) will train in Gwangju from the 26th before joining the national team on the call-up date.
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