Kang Seung-ho of the Doosan Bears played 140 games and 988 innings in this season, but participated in the final training in Icheon. Although he is the team’s main second baseman, he voluntarily participated in the finishing training rather than taking rest and reinforcing exercises. Kang is engaged in the final training to produce better batting indicators for the 2025 season.
Doosan began its final training with a four-day training-1 rest turn at Icheon Bears Park from the 1st.
Kang Seung-ho is the most experienced player in the fielders’ group in this season’s closing training session. Kang had a batting average of 0.280 and 146 hits, 18 homers and 81 RBIs, a 0.328 on-base percentage and a 0.476 slugging percentage in 140 games this season. As the main second baseman, he played in 140 games and played 988 innings through defense innings, ranking second among second basemen in the league.
Despite the fact that he could skip the final training session, Kang volunteered to participate in the final training session. “I was physically tired after the season, but I decided to participate in the final training session to make up for my shortcomings and find a direction for next season rather than just resting,” Kang told reporters at Bears Park in Icheon on Sunday.
Kang Seung-ho had a batting average of 0.287, 94 hits, 13 home runs and 53 RBIs in the first half of this season, and his batting index was bent as he played the season with a batting average of 0.269, 52 hits, 5 home runs and 28 RBIs in the second half of this season.
“Kang had a career-high season this year. However, he did not finish well in the second half of the year compared to early and mid-season,” Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop said of Kang. “However, he has shown remarkable batting performance up to May, in which I thought he would be at the level of Kim Do-young or higher. Since then, he has been in poor performance for a long time,” Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop said. “I felt that we need to make changes to show good batting performance, and he has shown strong commitment to improvement. We are granting individual training hours as well as group training. We will be able to show better performances next year.”
Kang Seung-ho himself has repeatedly agonized over the sagging trend in the second half of the year than in the first half.
“In the early part of the first half, I had good batting performances as I had a hitting point in front of me,” Kang said. “As we hit the ball so well, I was rather busy playing baseball (laughs). However, as I got less and more physical strength, my hitting point got pushed back. As I tried to judge the ball quickly, my strikeouts increased. It was not easy to return to good form because of poor performance that started due to lack of physical stamina. I realized again that managing physical strength is important during this season while playing full-time.”
While discussing with batting coach Lee Young-soo, Kang Seung-ho wants to give his batting posture a leg kick feeling, not a toe-tap. Rather than trying to recover his good batting form in the first half too much, the point is to find a new batting posture that suits him.
Kang Seung-ho explained, “I asked for advice from commentator Park Yong-taek during the season, and he said it was never easy to regain his good batting form. He advised me that it is important to make new changes in a bad state, so I am training in a posture that raises my legs slightly, not the original toe-tap position. I felt more chased by the ball because I played toe-tap, but I am trying to establish my zone by raising my legs.”
Kang is the type to be sensitive to defensive errors. This is because defensive mistakes can affect his ability to bat. However, Kang has achieved mental growth this season under the advice of defensive coach Cho Sung-hwan.
Kang said, “We had a really tough time in defense in the early part of the season. We played nearly 30 games, but I remember we already had up to eight errors. Still, I was able to play defense more comfortably thanks to coach Cho Sung-hwan who often said good things mentally. I thought I would make 30 to 40 mistakes this season, but I ended up with 13 mistakes. I want to thank coach Cho once again.”
Kang is also leading the training atmosphere as the best fielder at the wrap-up training. Kang’s commitment is to focus on bridging veteran players and younger players in the 2025 season. 토토사이트
“Seeing my juniors from the very beginning of the final training session, I thought that they should train more. I will also do my best while competing with them,” Kang said. “I don’t think I am the main second baseman yet. I want to play the role of a bridge between seniors and juniors in next season, and improve the team’s atmosphere,” Kang said. “We finished the game helplessly in the last wild card match, and remembering the pain and pain, we will all work hard to prepare so that it doesn’t happen again.”
