“You were playing with us.”
KIA Tigers manager Lee Bum-ho recently appeared on the YouTube channel of retired baseball players while attending the year-end baseball awards ceremony. Lee Bum-ho, who met at the sports reporter’s night award ceremony on the 11th, was pleased to hear Lee Dae-ho and Lee Taek-geun’s honest evaluation of Kim Tae-hyung (18. Deoksu High School), a prospective rookie who appeared in JTBC’s strongest baseball team.
Kim was named fifth in the first round of the 2025 KBO Rookie Draft. He is a right-handed orthodox who plays fastballs and various breaking balls in the late 140km range. Analysts say he boasts of outstanding pitching completeness and game management ability for high school students.
He is a rookie who has yet to open the lid, but expectations are still high. Manager Lee Bum-ho maintains a cautious stance, but when he observed it in person at the Okinawa closing camp, he concluded that he is different. He said he can use the team as a backup starter next year as well. Insiders in the team believe that if Kim systematically trains in the pro league, he can continue to throw balls over 150 kilometers in the future. 스포츠토토
In fact, the showdown between Kim Tae-hyung’s Deoksu High School and the Strongest Baseball Monster was revealed on air. Lee Dae-ho, Jung Geun-woo, and Lee Taek-geun did not run away. Manager Lee Bum-ho said, “At last, Tae-hyung’s throw was aired. He threw folk balls at 145-147 kilometers. There are seniors and juniors, so I asked him.”
“I think it’s really good,” Lee told Lee when shooting YouTube. “Good control of strength and weakness, and when you throw hard, you throw hard, but when you use breaking balls, you definitely use breaking balls. I like breaking balls, too.”
Lee took a step further. “He just threw while playing with us.” In other words, he did not look like a rookie. Lee’s reaction was similar to that of the coaches who coached and watched Kim Tae-hyung in Okinawa. They told Lee that he threw well in a sweet way (slowly and leisurely manner). Even when Lee and Shim Jae-hak watched closely, they said that they threw in a sweet way just as they did.
“I wanted to see if he threw hard that we came and threw as he thought. But he threw the same thing. I thought he certainly had the ability to throw without being swayed under any circumstances,” Lee said.
Lee plans to take Kim Tae-hyung and another rookie Yang Soo-ho to the Irvine spring camp next year. The 2025 season basically calls for taking a starting class in the Futures League. However, Kia already have some variables in its starting lineup for next year. Yang should be given rest from time to time, and Lee Eui-ri will return in June, but will not be able to handle the rotation normally. Just like this season, backup starters must perform well. Either Hwang Dong-ha or Kim Do-hyun will return to the lineup as setup man who will fill Jang’s share. If so, Lee calculates that Kim Tae-hyung can often appear in the first team as a temporary starter.
Manager Lee Bum-ho said, “Taehyung needs to take starting classes at Futures. But I’m going to give him a chance in the first team. We need to make sure we manage the starting rotation until his loyalty returns.” Kim Tae-hyung of the 2025 season is a plus-power that Kia expects.
