"I'll recover from the injury perfectly even if I'm a little late"
"I'm going to reduce my slider and increase the proportion of fork balls and curves"

Doosan Bears' "Young Gun" Choi Seung-yong (23) vowed to play as a full-time starter this year without ups and downs.

Choi Seung-yong played in 34 games (111 innings) between the starting pitcher and the bullpen last year, recording 3 wins, 6 losses, 1 save, and an ERA of 3.97.

Last year, Choi Seung-yong was listed in the starting rotation in the belief of Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop, but he showed a jagged appearance.

Since then, he has taken the mound as a bullpen pitcher, gradually improving his physical condition, and displayed good pitching in the second half. Choi had one win, one save and an ERA of 1.90 in 15 games in the second half.

He was selected as a pitcher for the Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) national team and showed impressive performance as a key bullpen pitcher for Korea.

Manager Lee Seung-yeop confirmed the first, second and third starters led by Raul Alcantara, Brandon Wardell and Kwak Bin this year. He has effectively picked Choi as the fourth starting pitcher.

However, Choi was diagnosed with a broken elbow due to fatigue in his left elbow just before the Australian spring camp. Choi is currently taking rehabilitation training in Icheon instead of going to the spring camp.

Choi Seung-yong, who recently interviewed Newsis over the phone, said, "I'm not wearing a cast, and I'm not using my arms as much as possible. I'm currently doing lower body training, and I'm going to have a checkup in two to three weeks, and if there's nothing wrong, I'll schedule the training."

"I'll have to wait and see the progress, but I think I might be a little later than usual to prepare. But I try not to be impatient," he said.

"I wanted to go abroad and play baseball in a warm place," Choi said after failing to participate in the spring camp for the first time this year. "I feel sorry to remain in Korea like this."

He also recalled Lee's advice. "I met him briefly when I was working out at Jamsil Stadium. The manager told me not to think in a hurry. He told me to prepare slowly and come back with a perfect appearance even if I am a little later than going down to the second team because I was sick after rushing in," Lee said.

He played the most innings as a solo player last year and displayed good pitching in the second half. However, he also had some regrets.

"I received a lot of attention and expectations from the coach and fans before the start of last year's season, but I did not meet expectations in the first half of the season. I had a lot of mental difficulties because my performance was not as good as I had prepared. However, my performance improved in the second half of the season, which gave me confidence," he recalled.

Choi Seung-yong, who has been mentioned as a candidate for the fourth starter, should compete with Choi Won-joon and Kim Dong-joo for the starting position.

Regarding this, he said, "I am confident that it ended in a good memory in the second half of last year. I am grateful that the coach gave me a good evaluation, too. But I feel sorry for the coach for the injury. I think competing with my teammates is about strengthening the team. I think it is positive for the team. I think I need a competitor to motivate myself and work harder."

I want to play in the starting lineup rather than the bullpen." "I think it's right to throw the ball where the team wants. But I think it's the starting pitcher that suits me better," he said.

He stressed that he wants to change his pitching pattern a little this year.

Choi said, "I'm looking forward to the 2024 season. After I went to APBC last year, I thought that I wanted to play better baseball. Originally, slider accounted for a large portion of the ball type that I have. This year, I want to reduce the number of sliders and increase the proportion of splitters that can be used by right-handed hitters. I want to throw a lot of curves that allowed me to perform well in APBC. I want to increase the proportion of curves and splitters this year. Since I am doing lower body training, I am also looking forward to increasing my speed."

The goal is to be a full-time starter.

Choi said, "Only when I get good results, I think the coach will trust me as the starting pitcher. I want to show my steady performance. I want to play full-time this year as a starting pitcher," adding, "I need to play full-time to know for sure what I really lack and what kind of training I need to do to get good results." 토토사이트

We asked fans who were worried about their injury to cheer for us. Choi said, "I'm sorry to have caused you any worries. I'll come back healthy as soon as possible and show you a good performance. Please give me a lot of support."