"Legend" Yang Jun-hyuk's direct comment, "If you play against Taiwan 10 times with all your might, you will lose 6 times. All the players are the same... We need to invest more in fostering."

"Legend" Yang Jun-hyuk's direct comment, "If you play against Taiwan 10 times with all your might, you will lose 6 times. All the players are the same... We need to invest more in fostering."

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Yang Joon-hyuk (55), the best legendary batter in Korean professional baseball, expressed his thoughts on the elimination of the Korean national baseball team in the opening round of the Premier 12.

The Korean baseball team, led by head coach Ryu Joong-il, ranked third with three wins and two losses in Group B of the opening round of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier 12. In Group B, where Korea belongs, Japan, which recorded all five games, ranked first, and Taiwan, which had four wins and one loss, advanced to the Super Round as second place.

Yang Jun-hyuk expressed his feelings about watching the tournament through his YouTube channel "Yangshin Yang Jun-hyuk" on the 19th. "I'm a little disappointed that I was eliminated with three wins and two losses, but I think the players did a good job," Yang said. "Japan expected to go up, of course, and Taiwanese baseball seems to have made a complete strides. To be honest, if (Korea and Taiwan) get together 10 times, (Korea) will lose six times and win about four times."

In fact, South Korea recently met Taiwan in international competitions and is losing one win and four in five matches, falling far behind in its opponent's record. It lost the preliminary round of the 2018 Asian Games, the 2019 Premier 12 Super Round, the 2023 Asian Games preliminary round, and the Premier 12 group stage match on the 13th. The only victory is in the 2023 Asian Games final (2-0).

"Although our country has also made progress, it feels a little stagnant," Yang said. "The quality of Taiwanese baseball has improved a lot, but almost all of our young players have been sent overseas. As we have learned more about advanced baseball such as minor leagues and the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), we have definitely become more powerful," Yang said, referring to the background of Taiwanese baseball's growth.

"Since last year's Asian Games, Lin Yu-min has taken the mound in the match against Korea for three consecutive times. Some pitchers pitch 150 kilometers per hour other than Lin Yu-min. In a way, he has become superior to us," he said. "It was a difficult lineup for Ko to handle as six to seven left-handed batters were starting, rather than right-handed hitters that we thought he would hit hard. He lost both in strength and in starting."

"Now we really have to start anew," Yang said. "It is not a frog in a well, but rather send it to a foreign country, whether it is the Major League or the Japanese League, to foster players. In the case of high school baseball, we have made it a system that almost does not allow players to enter a foreign country (a grace period of two years when they return to Korea)," Yang said. "We say we are good, but I think what we are in when we are on the global stage is that we have a systemic problem (in that sense)."

"We don't have a definite starting pitcher. (In the past) we had certain starting pitchers such as Koo Dae-sung, Jung Min-tae, Kim Kwang-hyun, and Ryu Hyun-jin. This time, we had very few pitchers. We should have a top-rated player who can clearly block the pitcher," he said. "Batters were also complacent. Kim Do-young (had one). Nevertheless, I think we did a good job of having three wins and two losses, but we need to show him clearly in the national competition. If we just think about it lightly, he will definitely suffer next year or the year after."

"A player is a player, but we need to invest more in development," Yang said. "Players are devastated when you go to amateur league. There are no more and more players. We need to consolidate our players in Little Baseball, elementary, middle and high schools. We need to continue investing in amateur league," Yang said. "Players don't grow up if they try to do everything in 80 high school baseball games. Only players ranking 20th and 30th (from professional clubs) should be taken, while the rest should be taken from college players."

"Players who are at the lower end of the draft should go to college. Players' skeleton grows until the second or third grade of college. That is when they improve their skills the most. In both Japan and the U.S., college students are selected. If this is the case (of rookie drafts focused on high school students), it will be repeated (repeated). Systemically, we need to reform," he said. "We need to make changes in the way we supply and demand players." In addition to the draft, we need to make active investments to nurture players by expanding budgets for amateur players and donating players to their alma mater.

"In the end, we need to train more good players. We need to cultivate top-rated players and make players like Ryu Hyun-jin and Kim Kwang-hyun," Yang said. "We are not ignoring our players right now. If we have three wins in this framework, our players did a good job," Yang said. "In Japan, we are preparing for an international competition four to five years ago just because we are a 'Samurai Japan'. We need something like that. We don't need to see who did a good job and who didn't do a good job." 토토사이트

Lastly, he said, "We should prepare from now on, not vaguely asking them to gather in the next international competition, but also check and care about (players) during the season. The national team should continue to prepare from the beginning (for the international competition)," and left a message of advice and encouragement, saying, "It's a pity (for the Premier 12), but I hope our players will cheer up so that we can show good performances next time."