“and! Look at the batters’ bats spinning around… “The inning was deleted right away?”
A game between the high school all-star team and the Lotte Giants Futures team at the Lotte Baseball Tournament on the 12th of last month. The Lotte Giants starting pitcher did not allow a single player to get on base in three innings. Cheers and praise poured in from the audience. The starting pitcher who led the game with stable pitching was Jeong Seon-woo, who joined the Lotte Giants as a training player in the 2025 season. A graduate of Busan Kaesong Middle School and Dong-A University, he expressed his strong aspirations, saying, “I want to become the first starter for the Lotte Giants,” even though he came as a foster player.
Jeong Seon-woo, a left-handed pitcher in his fourth year of college, pitched 48.1 innings and recorded 4 wins, 2 losses, an earned run average (ERA) of 3, an on-base percentage allowed per inning (WHIP) of 1.31, and 44 strikeouts. Jeong Seon-woo, whom we met at the Lotte Giants Sangdong Baseball Stadium on the 3rd, said, “I have been a Lotte Giants fan since elementary school, so I watched a lot of videos and had many intuitions,” and smiled. “It is a great honor to join the club that I have dreamed of since I was a child.”
Seonwoo Jeong was also a promising batsman who won the batting award by ranking first in batting average at the 2017 Lotte Baseball Tournament in his third year of middle school. However, in the same tournament this year, he stood on the mound as a training player for the Lotte Giants. And he left an impression on the fans by leading the game stably on the mound. He recalled the game, saying, “I pitched responsibly as I was given the opportunity to be a starting pitcher,” and “Based on my training at the final camp, I paid attention to my pitch control and threw, so my skills naturally came out.”
Jeong Seon-woo struggling at the Lotte Baseball Tournament on the 12th of last month. Provided by Lotte Giants
Jeong Seon-woo’s main weapon is a changeup, which he uses as a winning shot (the third strike ball that a pitcher throws to put a batter out). His specialty is stealing the batter’s timing with a breaking ball. In a game against the high school all-star team on the 12th of last month, he used a change-up to draw out the bats of batters and recorded 5 strikeouts. He said, “I’m not a pitcher who strikes out with speed, so I tend to win a lot with control of the pitch,” and “I learned a lot from watching videos of seniors like Yoo Hee-gwan and Ko Young-pyo, who pitch by adjusting their speed and pace.”
Until his third year of high school, Jeong Seon-woo was also a pitcher. Later, when I entered college, I had to choose between being a hitter or a pitcher. Jeong Seon-woo performed outstandingly as a pitcher that year with 3 wins and no losses. In addition, his skills continued to grow and he completely transitioned into a pitcher, recording 32 strikeouts in 33.2 innings and receiving the Outstanding Pitcher Award for the first half of the high school baseball weekend league (Gyeongsang A).
Lotte Giants training player Jeong Seon-woo is answering questions from reporters. Producer Kim Jin-cheol
When asked what type of training he was focusing on after joining the rookie camp, Jeong Seon-woo said, “As I transitioned from an amateur to a professional, the number of innings (responsibility) has increased significantly,” and “I am focusing on weight training and building up my basic physical strength.”
A successful example of a foster player this year is LG Twins Shin Min-jae, who established himself as a starting infielder and even participated in the 2024 WBSC Premier 12. Jeong Seon-woo’s goal is also to write a legend as a foster player. He said, “I want to improve my curve and two-seam,” and expressed his determination, “I will work harder and become an exemplary player.”
More details of the interview conducted with Jeong Seon-woo can be found in the video above or on the Kukje Newspaper YouTube channel.
2024-12-13 23:10:00