ABS attack, is the value of the inning player skyrocketing?
No single pitcher has shut out (based on nine innings) in the 2023 KBO League. It is the first time since the launch of the professional baseball league in 1982. Still, there were three Korean pitchers who had complete wins in the record: Oh Won-seok (SSG Landers), Jung Chan-heon (Kium Heroes), and Shim Jae-min (Lotte Giants). All of them were due to the "Kangwoo Cold Game."
Only three of Korean pitchers have shut out more than once in nine innings over the past three years. They are Ko Young-pyo (KT Wiz, 2 innings), Lee Jae-hak (NC Dinos), and Park Se-woong (Lotte, 1 inning or more). During the period, the average number of innings pitched by KBO league starting pitchers was only five.
Strong starters are one of the measures to evaluate a strong team. KT is mentioned as a favorite every year because it has a strong starting lineup that can be both good and good.
If a starting pitcher is in charge of a long inning, the burden on the bullpen is greatly reduced, which greatly helps each team to play a long race of 144-game system. As the end of the season approaches, all 10 club managers are concerned about the bullpen's physical exhaustion. This is why the value of "inning data," which can lead to long innings, is increasing at a time when the number of complete starters is decreasing.
Starting from the 2024 season, KBO League pitchers will face new challenges. This is the introduction of the Automatic Ballistic Determination System (ABS), which is also called the "AI umpire." The 10 teams are busy preparing countermeasures.
In particular, pitchers are concerned about the process of adapting to the strike zone, which is inevitably different from the past. The prevailing view is that pitchers will be at a disadvantage as "framing," a technique that adjusts the mitts to receive favorable decisions when a catcher catches a ball, also becomes meaningless. As a result, some predict that the number of innings that are still lacking significantly could decrease further.
As a result, the value of pitchers who can take responsibility for long innings in the future is expected to skyrocket. Despite the variable "ABS raid," the fact that he can maintain his inning pitching ability can be highlighted as a requirement for a "good starter."
In fact, it is also the starting pitcher's virtue to lead the longest innings as much as possible, and one of the criteria for winning the Sawamura Award, given to the best pitcher in the Japanese professional baseball (NPB), is also "10 complete throws for the season." As more and more people failed to meet this standard and won awards, there were once voices of concern.
Of course, the KBO League, which has 144 games per team and a five-starter system, inevitably has greater physical burden on starting pitchers compared to the NPB, which has a six-starter system. Nevertheless, the reality is that the number of complete games is remarkably small. The Korean baseball is looking forward to the emergence of an inning player who can overcome even the ABS attack.