'Little Peddy'
Shin Min-hyuk (24, NC Dinos), who broke the egg in the fall baseball and served as the team's de facto ace, will wear the Taegeuk mark.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced on the 12th, "We will replace all LG Twins (Jung Woo-young, Moon Bo-kyung) and KT Wiz (Park Young-hyun, Kang Baek-ho), and pitchers Shin Min-hyuk and Cho Byung-hyun (SSG), fielders Na Seung-yeop (Lotte), and Moon Hyun-bin (Hanwha) will finally join."
LG is leading this year's Korean Series with three wins and one loss as of the 12th, which was held until Game 4. Even if LG confirms its victory in Game 5, which is scheduled to be held at 6:30 p.m. on the 13th, there is no time to work together because it will leave the country the next day. In addition, if KT wins Game 5, it will not be able to even leave the country at all. In response, KBO excluded players from both teams from the final entry.
At the same time, four of the preliminary entries joined the national team. Among them, Shin Min-hyuk's name stands out. He played in 29 games (24 starts) this year and recorded five wins, five losses and a 3.98 ERA. He took a short break after his team NC ended the season with a loss (2-3) in Game 5 of the 2023 KBO playoffs against KT on the 5th, and joined the Daegu Samsung Lions Park where the APBC 2023 national team players are training on the 10th to participate in adaptation training
With this joining of the national team, Shin Min-hyuk will wear the Taegeuk mark for the first time since joining the pro league in 2018 (49th overall in the 5th round of the 2nd draft). Shin Min-hyuk, who graduated from Maehyang Middle School and Yatap High School and was nominated by NC, has played in 102 games in the first division for four seasons until this season, with 20 wins, 23 losses and a 4.46 ERA. After adapting for the first two years, he pitched in the first team for the first time in 2020, and the following year, he pitched 145 innings to meet the required innings (144 innings) with a 9 wins, 6 losses and a 4.41 ERA.
Shin Min-hyuk, who had only 4 wins, 9 losses and a 4.56 ERA last year with some ups and downs, got off to a good start this year, including his first quality start in the team (against Doosan in Jamsil on April 5, allowing 3 runs in 6 innings). However, he only had a 7.15 ERA in three games in May, and was eventually eliminated from the first division entry. After returning to the first division against Doosan in Changwon on June 15, he showed excellent pitching and played an active role between the starter and the bullpen. Since September, he has shown an ERA of 3.48 in eight games, and especially in his last appearance in the regular season (against Gwangju KIA on October 17), he has been hopeful with two hits and no runs in five innings.
Shin's true value was revealed in the postseason. He started in place of ace Eric Peddy (30) in the first round of the semi-playoff against SSG Landers on the 22nd of last month, and showed a surprising performance with four hits, one walk, three strikeouts and no runs in five ⅔ innings. Although the team failed to win the starting game without the batting line-up, it contributed greatly to the team's 4-3 victory.
In the following playoffs, Shin Min-hyuk's good pitching continued. Coming up to the second round of the playoffs with KT, he showed a tremendous pitch of one hit, one walk, two strikeouts and no runs in six ⅓ innings. There was not even a significant crisis until he was driven to first and second bases with a walk and error in the seventh inning, and he became a winning pitcher as the bullpen kept the lead. He then blocked KT's lineup with a perfect score until the fourth inning in Game 5, but he allowed three hits, one strikeout, and two runs in four ⅓ innings as he was hit by pinch hitter Kim Min-hyuk with a two-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning.
In this fall's baseball, he allowed just two runs in three games and 16 ⅓ innings, creating a remarkable 1.10 ERA. Modifying pitching movements and stepping steps similar to ace Peddy worked. At the same time, he pitched well on behalf of Pedi, who had only one game due to the aftereffects of injury at the end of the season.
Compliments from people around him also followed. NC manager Kang In-kwon (51) said, "I think Shin Min-hyuk will become a pitcher who has advanced to the next level through baseball this fall." "(Shin Min-hyuk) throws as well as he asks, said catcher Kim Hyung-joon (24), who hit the battery with Shin Min-hyuk. It's convenient if Minhyuk comes out, he said. "If you throw it as you do without doing anything weird once in a while, you really have good control, so it's not easy for batters." "Minhyuk's advantage is his change-up, but he threw a lot of change-ups, so the batters couldn't hit him," he said.
Shin Min-hyuk, who has raised awareness amid his strong performance in autumn baseball, will be selected for the national team and challenge the title of "Big Game Pitcher." Currently, the national team has many good starting resources such as Won Tae-in (Samsung), Moon Dong-ju (Hanwha), and Lee Eui-ri (KIA), so it is not easy to join the starting lineup. However, it is expected that Shin Min-hyuk, who has bullpen experience during the season, will get a chance.
Meanwhile, the APBC national team, including Shin Min-hyuk, will depart for Tokyo on the 14th and play its first match against Australia on the 16th.