“I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad season of baseball. I think I’ve hit rock bottom, and now I have to go up.”
These are the words of SSG Landers’ submarine pitcher Park Jong-hoon (33), who has been struggling lately.
Jong-hoon is the KBO’s leading submarine pitcher. He was a stalwart of SSG’s starting staff for four consecutive seasons between 2017 and 2020. In 116 games (114 starts) over four years, he posted a 47-37 record with a 4.25 ERA.
After earning his first double-digit win total (12) in 2017, Jong-hoon went 14-8 with a 4.18 ERA in 30 games in 2018. In 2020, he was a steady presence in the starting rotation, going 13-11 with a 4.81 ERA.
In 2021, he continued to perform well, going 4-2 with a 2.82 ERA in nine games before undergoing Tommy John surgery in June.
SSG believed he was a solid starting pitcher and gave him a multi-year contract. Before he became a free agent in December 2021, 온라인카지노 the team signed him to a five-year, $6.5 billion contract.
However, he struggled after returning from elbow rehabilitation. He went 3-5 with a 6.00 ERA in 2022 and 2-6 with a 6.19 ERA in 2023.
“I had two very bad years,” Park said.
In 2022 and 2023, I trained on Mondays (when there were no games). I felt sorry for my family, but I trained without taking a day off,” he said. “Still, the results weren’t good, so I thought, ‘If I’m working so hard, why not? ‘ I also told myself, ‘I have to do more.
SSG removed Park Jong-hoon, who was selected in the second round of the draft in November last year, from the 35-man protected list. It came as a bit of a shock to Jong-hoon, who was very attached to the team.
“At first, I was surprised to hear that I was removed from the disabled list. “Honestly, I wondered if it was real,” he says, “but afterward, I think I would have made the same choice if I were in the club’s shoes. I think it’s about a player’s sexuality,” he confessed.
Jong-hoon, who remained with SSG after no team selected him in the second round of the draft, said, “I’m glad no other team picked me. I think I would have gotten depressed if I had transferred,” he laughed.
After going through a tough time, Park Jong-hoon said, “Recently, I’ve slowed down a bit. I spend time with my family. I feel like I’m getting better and more relaxed,” but he’s still beating himself up with dreams of a comeback.
To recapture the feeling of his best days, he lost 14 kilograms.
At the beginning of the interview, Park Jong-hoon asked, “Have I changed at all?” “When I was doing well, I weighed in the low to mid-80s,” he said, “but as I gained muscle, my weight fluctuated around 100 kilograms. “But I realized that flexibility is more important than strength,” he explains, “and I’m putting the puzzle together to get back to where I was.
“My mother-in-law used to say, ‘This is how much you weighed when you had good results.’ I changed my diet, eating only raw food in the evening,” he said, adding, “I lost weight quickly because I changed my eating habits.”
On the 10th, Jong-hoon left for the U.S. to train with Shin-soo Choo at his home in Dallas, Texas.
He said, “I’ve trained at his house before. It’s a great environment to work out. I have everything I need to train at home,” he said. “I can do weight training, I can do Pilates. 바카라사이트 추천 You can also play catch. I wanted to throw the ball quickly in a warm place.”
Jong-hoon’s goal this year is to stay in the starting rotation.
“In the past two years, I’ve been left out of the rotation before certain games because of my poor performance. I became angry and disappointed with myself as I became a figure of avoidance.” “I think I’ll be able to say that I’ve found my trust if I fulfill my pitching schedule regardless of the opposing team. I’m determined to stay positive and bounce back.”