LG has 6 people, Lotte has 2 people, Samsung has 1 person, and Hanwha has 0 people.
Basically, there can be no team-specific arrangements in the composition of the national team regardless of the sport. There should be only skill priority. In the case of the national baseball team, it is correct to select the best players for each position. The 30-person final entry, announced on the 4th, largely adhered to this principle.
However, due to the nature of short-term international competitions, there may be teams with more specialists and fewer teams. For this reason, it is difficult to say that a team that sent a lot of players to the national team is necessarily highly competitive, and that the opposing team is not necessarily competitive.
Still, if you look at the 30-man final entry of the WBC national team in March, the difference in competitiveness between the team that sent more players and the team that sent less in the end is indirectly revealed. 토토 The WBC is a tournament that thoroughly organizes the strongest members. Excluding Ha-seong Kim (San Diego Padres), Ji-man Choi (Pittsburgh Pirates), and Tommy Edman (St. Louis Cardinals), 27 players are KBO leaguers.
Among the 27 people, LG is the largest with 6 people. Followed by KT with 4, Kiwoom, KIA, Doosan, NC with 3, SSG and Lotte with 2. And Samsung has one, and Hanwha has zero. The fact that the defending champion SSG sent only two players to the national team is due to the nature of the team and has a structure with more veterans and more top-tier players than the league’s top class. There is a reason for being number 1 in team payroll.
On the other hand, Lotte, Samsung, and Hanwha have one thing in common: they are the teams with the lowest attendance rates in the recent postseason. Lotte participated only once in 2017 in the last 10 years from 2013 to 2022. After ending the dynasty era in 2015, Samsung played fall baseball only once in 2021 for the last seven years from 2016 to 2022. Hanwha also hovered near the bottom except for 2018.
In fact, Lotte, Samsung, and Hanwha have relatively few top-class players by position compared to other clubs. Still, Lotte and Samsung native aces Won Tae-in and Park Se-woong, and Lotte closer Kim Won-joong were recognized for their abilities. Won Tae-in and Park Se-woong also went to the Tokyo Olympics.
In the end, the fact that LG sent 6 players to the national team means that there are as many outstanding or attractive players as pitching and ball-lifting. Kim Yun-sik, Jung Woo-young, Ko Woo-seok, Oh Ji-hwan, Kim Hyun-soo, and Park Hae-min all have no shortage of qualifications for the national team.
For Lotte, Samsung, and Hanwha, there is no other way than to raise the team average and naturally increase individual competitiveness in the process. Whether it’s rebuilding or buying free agents, the ultimate goal is to win the Korean Series. This winter, Samsung started to improve its constitution by making a fresh start under the coaching system of Park Jin-man instead of Jeong-dong Han.
On the other hand, Lotte and Hanwha are the winners of the 2022-2023 FA market. Lotte boldly invested in external free agents such as Yoo Kang-nam and Noh Jin-hyuk, and Hanwha’s Chae Eun-seong, Lee Tae-yang, and Oh Seon-jin. It is unknown how much they will actually raise the average of the two teams. However, the two teams have interpreted that the future value is high. For free agents, the real value is to increase the average of the team as well as themselves. The free agent who proved that is the way to get the super high amount.
Looking back at history, there were cases where players who returned from the WBC in March couldn’t find their pace in the pennant race. In that respect, the density of preparation for the 2023 season can rather increase for Lotte, Samsung, and Hanwha, who have minimized WBC borrowing. Even if it is regrettable for the three teams, you can grit your teeth and prepare for the season.