The bullpen catcher was a former member of the national team..."It's worth helping"
The bullpen catcher was a former member of the national team..."It's worth helping"
Blog Article
In professional baseball, players wear the same uniforms and exchange balls, but there are some who are not official players. They are bullpen pitchers.메이저놀이터
A bullpen catcher is a game assistant who receives balls from pitchers who warm up in the bullpen.
They go to the ballpark first to prepare for training, and during team training, they directly help pitchers practice pitching.
Sometimes he turns into a batting ball pitcher and throws more than 100 pitches every day.
After the training is over, the equipment is organized, and the conditions of the pitchers who pitched the bullpen are checked and a report is prepared.
He is as busy as a player during games. If a player's signature falls off while waiting in the bullpen with pitchers, he or she supports players to warm up according to situations.
After the game, I get off work the latest after organizing my equipment.
As such, bullpen pitchers are essential to baseball teams.
Kt Wiz bullpen catcher Kim Min-seok (27) was a promising player who dreamed of becoming the best baseball player.
He started playing baseball when he was in fifth grade, later than others.
A word recommended by my mother, who was a big fan of professional baseball, changed her life.
Kim Min-seok, who joined Namyangju's Little Baseball Team, went to Anyang Pyeongchon Middle School and took an elite course as a catcher at Impression High School in Jeonbuk.
In October 2019, when he was a student at Yeungnam University, he was selected as a member of the national team.
He played with the national flag at the 2019 Asian Baseball Championship, where he was qualified for the final qualifying round for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Hwang Sung-bin, Choi Joon-yong (Lotte Giants), Jihoon Choi (SSG Landers), and Kang Jae-min (Hanwha Eagles) are teammates of the national team who played together at the time.
Korean ace So Hyung-joon and catcher Kang Hyun-woo, who have grown up as the mainstay of KT, also lived together on the national team.
Kim Min-seok was considered the best rising star, but the narrow professional door never opened.
His name was not called in the 2020 KBO Rookie Draft. He also failed in the test to nurture the players of multiple clubs he applied for.
At this time, kt offered Kim Min-seok a bullpen catcher. Kim Min-seok started his second life without much thought.
"The bullpen catcher is a position with a strange charm," said Kim Min-seok, who met at Suwon KT Wiz Park before the end of 2024. "Although we do not receive direct lighting and support, it is an important role that no one can play."
"When kt proposed a bullpen catcher, I ran right away," he said, adding, "Many people don't know how valuable it is to be able to help players near the dream stage.
Kim Min-seok emphasized that in order to become a good bullpen catcher, he needs a unique spirit of sacrifice, athleticism, and ability to catch, as well as excellent communication skills.
"During training, we give feedback to pitchers who threw the ball as honestly and objectively as possible," he said. "It's because pitchers need to be accurate to find something to improve."
"In the game, they tell us to be confident rather than evaluating," he said. "If we get pitches that are less controlled and less powerful that day, we will try to make them as pure as possible and deliver them well. If you say you're happy, you can use the ball a lot and adversely affect the outcome of the game."
He also said, "It is important to inspire confidence in the players and tell them so that they can feel my intentions," and added, "It is also necessary to understand the tendencies of all pitchers because each player has a different tendency to accept them."
Kim Min-seok is improving his ability to use computers these days. He aims to conduct a more in-depth analysis of players' capacities and give them broader advice.
"It's rewarding and I'm happy when the pitchers who worked together in the bullpen make the best pitch on the mound," he said. "I want to find a way to help more and become the best bullpen catcher in Korea."