Ko Woo-seok (26, San Diego), who has time to calmly supplement his problems and raise his ball power in the minor leagues, finished his first official game of the season with a clear improvement from two weeks ago. San Diego has a plan to call up and use it as soon as his condition improves, apart from the results of Ko Woo-seok. While Ko Woo-seok is gradually approaching the idea, attention is also being paid to how San Diego, which is in urgent need of a bullpen, will view Ko’s scouting report.
Ko Woo-seok, who has been assigned to San Antonio, the current Double-A team under his club, to open the season, announced a good start in the 9th inning against the Amarillo Sword Puddles (Double-A team under Arizona) held in Hodgetown, Amarillo, Texas, on the 6th (Korea time). Due to the Double-A schedule, which is later in the season than the Major League or Triple-A, Ko Woo-seok was only able to make his first real appearance on the day. The overall results of the game were good, and there were encouraging points in the content of the game.
Ahead of this season, Ko Woo-seok, who signed a two-year guarantee of $4.5 million with San Diego through a posting system (closed competitive bid) and a maximum of $9.4 million for 2+1 years including options and incentives, suffered a great ordeal from the start of the season. He came to Seoul as he was included in San Diego’s 31-member list to participate in the opening two consecutive games against the Los Angeles Dodgers of the “2024 Major League World Tour Seoul Series” held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on March 20 and 21, but he had no choice but to watch the game from the dugout without being registered on the 26-man roster.
San Diego decided that Ko’s condition was not normal and began to develop a more long-term plan. Rather than sending him to El Paso, a Triple-A team under his club, he sent him to San Antonio, a Double-A team. It wasn’t that Ko’s skills were as good as Double-A. Now, he thought it was more important for him to find his normal condition than his performance. If so, he thought it would be right to send him to Double-A, where the opening of the season is about a week later than Triple-A, which is similar to that of the Major League Baseball, where he has time to adjust. It was a consideration to focus more on his ball power itself rather than the result.
Ko Woo-seok, who left Seoul with regret, showed good pitching content in his first appearance on the day. He threw 16 pitches in one inning, struck out two without a hit or a walk, and pitched a scoreless pitch. Ten of the 16 pitches were strikes, which also had a high strike rate. Above all, there was a clear tendency for Ko Woo-seok’s ball to rise. Although they were relatively underperforming Double-A hitters, it was rather a good sparring for Ko to focus on his pitches without paying attention to this or that.
Ko took the mound as the last pitcher in the ninth inning with his team leading 12-5. It was not a save situation, but it was felt as if he was taking the mound at a familiar moment. Ko struck out rookie players against first-runner A.J. Vukovic. He threw two consecutive balls at the 1B-2S advantageous count to reach the full count, but struck out rookie players with an outside cutter on the sixth pitch. The ball speed was 90.16 miles (about 145.1 kilometers) per hour on the broadcast. It was in the normal speed range. 고소득알바
Ko managed to garner an out count by deploying J.J. Dorazio to center field with a fly ball. Then, he struck out the final batter, Napi Castillo, with a swing and miss, and finished the game. After striking out the first pitch, Ko made a count in favor of 2S with a swing and induced a weak swing by throwing a powerful high fastball that seemed to come to mind for the fourth time at 1B-2S. The ball’s speed amounted to 95.17 miles (153.2 kilometers). According to the broadcast, Ko’s maximum speed was 96.24 miles (154.9 kilometers), and his fastball was consistently over 94 miles (151.3 kilometers).
It was a cheerful movement. He also felt the exuberance in the finish movement and seemed to prove that Ko is much better than in the exhibition game or the practice game against LG. In particular, he played more aggressively like the ball that struck out Castillo at the last minute, and seemed to have regained a lot of faith in the ball power itself. At the exhibition game, Ko’s maximum speed was 150-153 kilometers, but he went up 2 kilometers on the day, proving that he is now reaching 100% in terms of speed.
It is not well known how San Diego will manage Ko Woo-suk in the future. For now, it is unlikely that everything will be judged by the performance of one game. There is a possibility to watch one or two more games, and maybe even finish with a series of tests. As raising the ball power was important anyway, there seems to be no need to go through an experiment at Triple-A. If Ko Woo-seok finds everything he can, he is likely to immediately weigh the timing of his Major League call-up.
“It must have been a difficult time for him. He had to make a difficult decision in the process of forming a pitching staff. I made the decision while watching him pitch in the bullpen. I think I need to take another opportunity. I judged that the build-up is not over yet,” San Diego manager Mike Shildt said when Ko was sent off. “But I think I will have a chance to help my team after the opening of the season.” He stressed that if Ko finds his skills, he can call-up anytime.
Although he went down to the Minor League this year due to lack of veto power, Ko is still receiving 4.5 million dollars for a two-year guarantee and up to 9.4 million dollars for three years. The amount is quite expensive for a bullpen pitcher, surpassing the league average. There is no club in the Minor League that can spoil such a player. After all, if Ko consistently displays his pitching performance in two to three more games, and the Double-A coaching staff judges that he has completed the given mission, chances are high that the report will be uploaded immediately.
What’s more, the Dodgers’ current bullpen session is not in a good shape. As of Tuesday, its ERA stood at 5.24, ranking 24th among 30 teams in the Major League. The Dodgers ranks 24th with 6.20 ERA. The problem is worse in the bullpen than the starting pitcher. Closer Robert Suarez, setup men Wandy Peralta and Yuki Matsui are doing well, but the performance gap between these players and the rest of the bullpen pitchers is too wide.
