The World Baseball Classic (WBC) Group B players were introduced.
On the 10th (Korean time), the WBSC announced a total of 600 final entries from 20 countries participating in the WBC, which will be held from the 9th of next month. Each team has 30 players and 5 countries from Groups A to D will have a preliminary round. From the main round to the semifinals, pitchers can be replaced by two pitchers each.
While introducing each group, WBSC presented the representative players of each group as the main image. Group B, in clock order from left to right, was introduced by Hasung Kim (Korea), Shohei Otani (Japan), Eric Sogard (Czech Republic), Ju Kwon (China), Aaron Whitefield (Australia), and Yu Darvish (Japan). done. In Japan, two people in particular came out as the ‘face’ of Group B.
Kim Ha-seong is the most outstanding player in the national team and major league career among the 30 finalists in Korea. Starting with the 2017 WBC, Ha-seong Kim competed in the 2017 APBC, 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, and 2019 Premier 12, and advanced to the major leagues in 2021. Kim Ha-seong, who belongs to San Diego, recorded 130 hits (11 homers), 59 RBIs, 58 points, and 12 stolen bases in 150 games last year with a batting average of 0.251.
Ha-seong Kim was recognized for his excellent infield defense enough to be named among the three finalists for the Gold Glove in the shortstop category of the National League last year. Major League Baseball’s official website introduced Kim 토토사이트Ha-seong and evaluated, “The Korean infield defense formed by Kim Ha-seong and Tommy Edman is the best among 20 countries.”
In Japan, Ohtani and Darvish are attracting attention as they are candidates for the championship. Ohtani is currently an unrivaled two-time star player in the major leagues. Last year, he succeeded in achieving both the regulation innings and the regulation at-bat for the first time in history last year, and 200 strikeouts and -30 home runs were also the first ever. Ohtani is expected to double as a pitcher in the WBC as well.
Darvish signed a six-year, $108 million contract extension with San Diego on the 10th, just before participating in the tournament, allowing him to play as a major leaguer until the age of 42. Among the 186 WBC players on the 40-man roster, he is the only veteran pitcher with high reliability enough to be exempted from the club’s spring camp, and is Japan’s first starter.
Following the nationality of his parents, the sovereign will represent China for the second time in a row following the 2017 WBC. Pitcher Pil Seung-jo, who joined kt in 2015, is treated as an ace in China, where the mound is weak. Japan’s ‘Full Count’ recently dealt with sovereignty and said, “There is no doubt that sovereignty is an ace level in China. He has a fastball and changeup in the late 140km range. He is not going to play in Korea, so there is a high possibility of pitching in Japan.”
Sogad of the Czech national team is a veteran infielder who played 815 games in the major leagues from 2010 to 2021. The Czech Republic is participating in the WBC for the first time. Australian outfielder Whitefield also played in the 2017 WBC. Although his career in the major leagues is limited to 8 games, he has a wealth of experience, starting in 2015 and playing in 547 minor league games. He is the only major league 40 roster registered player on the Australian national team.