Lotte Giants pitcher Choi Jun-yong appeared on MBC’s “King of Mask Singer” and expressed his desire to win the Lotte title this season. Choi, who once considered turning to a batter, also expressed his ambition to make a new year as a pitcher.
Choi Jun-yong, who appeared on MBC’s “The Masked Singer,” which aired on the afternoon of the 7th, said, “I want to win the championship as soon as possible because the Lotte Giants have not won the championship for a long time,” and vowed, “I will prepare a lot so that I can become the main player when I win.”
Choi Jun-yong joined the Lotte Giants in 2020 as the first designation. His excellent fastball of up to 152 km/h is excellent. He played in 190 games in four seasons of the KBO and pitched 195 ⅔. He recorded 9-11, 15 saves, 48 holds, and a 3.50 ERA.
Choi Jun-yong ranked first in the 2021 JoongAng Ilbo survey as the “Best Fastball Pitcher of the Year” selected by 30 top hitters in the KBO League. Lee Jung-hoo (San Francisco Giants), who was ranked first in the batting average at the time, said, “I don’t often swing and miss on fastballs coming into the strike zone, but I have a lot of memories of swinging and miss on Choi Jun-yong’s fastball.” Choi Jung (SSG), the No. 1 home run player, said, “The numbers such as ball speed per minute (RPM) of the ball control and pitch were high, and the ball power I felt was very good.” 안전 토토사이트
Last season, he pitched in 47 games and pitched in 47 ⅔, posting two wins, three losses and 14 holds. He posted a career-high ERA of 2.45. He performed poorly in the first half of this season, but recovered his pitching capability in the second half.
Choi had been suffering from injuries that began in his second year. He was diagnosed with a ruptured rotator cuff. Neither his ball power nor his ball control was able to regain stability. For this reason, he announced that he would give up pitching. In fact, he discussed his plan to change to a batter with new manager Kim Tae-hyung. He participated in batting practice, received a pengo, and tapped “knock” on batters.
Choi regained his confidence by participating in the APBC (Asia professional baseball championship) held in November last year. Manager Ryu Joong-il, the national team’s coaching staff and players all stopped him, saying, “Why would a batter choose such a ball when he has the ball?” Manager Kim Tae-hyung and Lotte’s coaches shared the same view. After much thought, Choi decided to focus on pitching again.
“I want to be successful as a baseball player, so I will continue to be Choi Jun-yong who promotes baseball more.” Meanwhile, Choi appeared on “The Masked Singer” with an undaunted mind and advanced to the third round. “As far as I know, baseball players had the best performance up to the second round, but they set their goal at the third round. I feel great and dazed to achieve that goal,” Choi said.