Will he be the next "Yoo Young Chan?"
In the second draft held in November last year, Lee was selected in the third round. Lee, who joined the NC Dinos as the 81st pick in the second round, ninth round in 2020, pitched in eight games in the Futures League in 2021, but after being discharged from the military, LG boldly selected him after seeing him throw in the fall education league.
Woo Kang-hoon is a side-arm pitcher from Lotte in a one-on-one trade with Son Ho-young on March 30. After graduating from Yatago, he joined Lotte in the second and fifth rounds of the 2021 draft, and made his first team debut last year after completing active military service, and made an impressive pitching against LG to make his name known to fans.
In fact, Lee Jong-joon and Woo Kang-hoon did not plan to be in the first team in the early days of the season. While building skills by pitching in the second team, they should come up in mid-to-late seasons when their main players are sluggish or injured, but as LG's main bullpens fell out due to sluggishness and injury from the beginning, they will come up even sooner rather than later.
We don't have high expectations right now. Currently, they are in the chasing group. Their goal is to gain experience in the first team. They don't want to block the opponent team's batters.
But it does its part unexpectedly.
Lee Jong-joon joined the first team on the 10th, but failed to decide when to take the mound, and made his debut in the first team against the Lotte Giants in Jamsil on the 18th. He took the mound in the top of the ninth inning, trailing 2-9. He allowed a double on the left-field line after being hit by a 145-kilometer fastball thrown to the leadoff Son Ho-young. He started the game with no outs and runners on the second base, but ended the game scoreless by catching Kim Min-sung with a fly to the left field, Seo Dong-wook with a swing, and Park Seung-wook with a fly to the center field.
His second appearance was important to his team. At the bottom of the eighth inning, when his team was trailing 4-5 in the second game of the doubleheader against the SSG Landers in Incheon on Sunday, Lee gave one hit and no run. He allowed a fly to center field with a fastball of up to 149 kilometers to strike out Lee Ji-young and Park Ji-hwan, and allowed a hit to right field to Jihoon Choi, but grounded Choi to third base. As Lee allowed no run in the eighth inning, LG scored one run in the top of the ninth inning to create a 5-5 draw.
When he was in the Lotte Giants, he moved to the first team and was traded, and when he came to LG, he was registered once before going down again. When he took the mound, his control was not stable.
Then, he returned to the primary team on Wednesday. He gave Baek rest as he said his elbow was not good, and made Woo cry, who was praised for his good condition.
Woo almost set an unusual record on Monday. He became the winning pitcher in Game 1 of the doubleheader against the SSG Landers in Incheon. Coming up as the second pitcher in the bottom of the sixth inning with his team trailing 5-8, Woo grounded out leader Lee Ji-young to shortstop, and allowed a walk to pinch hitter Choi Joon-woo, but managed to garner a double play and a scoreless Jihoon Choi in front of the second baseman. Afterwards, LG won the game 10-8 when Kim Bum-seok's come-from-behind full base hit in the top of the seventh inning, and Woo garnered his first win since his debut.스포츠토토
In the second game, however, he almost became a losing pitcher. Taking the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning when the score was tying 4-4, Woo threw a pitch that hit his body while competing with leader Kim Sung-hyun. At the 2B2S, he pitched a fastball of 151 kilometers in the sixth pitch. Heredia faced a right-handed hit and was on the verge of being runners on the first and second bases before being replaced by Lee Woo-chan, and Lee gave up one run on Han Yu-seom's right-handed hit, giving Woo a run. Woo is on the verge of losing the game with the score 4-5.
Only six times have a pitcher recorded one win and one loss in the first and second games of the doubleheader. Woo almost became the seventh pitcher. Fortunately, as LG tied the game 5-5 at the top of the ninth inning, Woo's loss disappeared.
Lee Jong-joon and Woo Kang-hoon have attractive fastballs. Lee Jong-joon threw 149km of balls, and Woo Kang-hoon threw 151km. It comes out when the team is still losing in the chasing group, but if you gain confidence by gaining experience like this, you can gradually become a must-win group. Last year, Baek Seung-hyun and Yoo Young-chan also became a must-win group.