There is no need to repeat Choo Shin-soo’s remarks, which he said was a ‘bitter sound’ for the development of Korean baseball, but An Woo-jin had to bow his head for some reason.
If it were not for the history of ‘Hakpok’, Ahn Woo-jin is a representative pitcher of Korean baseball who would have been selected as the first national team. And if there are no injuries, it would not be too much to say that the position will be occupied by Ahn Woo-jin for the time being.
Now, Ahn Woo-jin is putting on the spike string again, leaving behind the painful loss of the controversial national team.
In the 2022 season, Ahn Woo-jin took first place in ERA (2.11) and strikeouts (224) for the first time since entering the professional league, making a great leap forward as the best pitcher.
The average ERA dramatically surpassed Kim Gwang-hyun (SSG Landers, 2.13) by winning his 15th win (8 losses) of the season with 2 hits and no runs in 7 innings against Doosan in Jamsil, the final game of the season on October 8 last year.
And on that day, he recorded 224 strikeouts with 8 strikeouts, and also rose to first place. Ariel Miranda (Doosan) in the 2021 season is the second-highest record in KBO league history, with 225 strikeouts replaced by Choi Dong-won (former Lotte Giants) in 1984 for the first time in 37 years.
In a recent interview with a broadcasting station, Ahn Woo-jin revealed that among the two titles in the pitcher category, the title he is more attached to is strikeout.
The reason was simple. The average ERA is in the 1 point range (1.82) of Ryu Hyun-jin in 2011, so it is difficult to exceed it, but the strikeout is only 1 difference from the KBO record.
In other words, it means looking at the best in the KBO.
There have been only three strikeout back-to-back rankings so far.
Seon Dong-yeol (formerly Haetae), the KBO 40th anniversary legend, ranked first in strikeouts for the first time in 1986, then skipped a year and took first place in strikeouts for four consecutive years from 1988 to 1991, followed by Ryu Hyun-jin (former Hanwha Eagles, now Toronto Blue Jays) in 2006 In the 2007-2007 season and the 2009-2010 season, he ranked first in back-to-back twice, respectively. Ryu Hyun-jin also ranked first in strikeouts in the 2012 season, and together with Seon Dong-yeol, he recorded the most strikeouts five times.
In addition, the late Choi Dong-won (former Lotte Giants) ranked first in strikeouts twice in 1984 and 1987, Jeong Min-cheol (former Hanwha) in 1994 and 1997, and Lee Dae-jin (former Haitai) in 1995 and 1998.
In other words, if Ahn Woo-jin ranks first in strikeouts in the 2023 season, 먹튀검증 it is the same as saying that he can enter the ranks of legends following Seon Dong-yeol and Ryu Hyun-jin.
On top of that, if he ranks first in strikeouts in the history of the KBO League, it is truly the icing on the cake.
In fact, in the match against Doosan, which was the last appearance of the season last year, Ahn Woo-jin could have surpassed Miranda’s record if he had been more greedy.
An Woo-jin only threw 88 pitches in 7 innings that day. Considering that he threw an average of 100 pitches in 30 games, including this day, he threw 3,003 balls.
Here, the score is also leading 2-0, but it was difficult to guarantee victory. Moreover, at this time, KT Wiz, who had the same win and loss, was leading the Gwangju KIA Tigers match, so if they lost this game, Kiwoom would be pushed to 4th place and had to play a wild card match.
Nonetheless, coach Hong Won-ki replaced Ahn Woo-jin, who was on the verge of setting a new strikeout record or a new record, with Yang Hyun, and as a result, succeeded. Considering that Ahn Woo-jin confirmed the first place in ERA with 7 scoreless innings, it seems that he did not force it any further.
Let’s see what kind of strikeout record Ahn Woo-jin will write in the KBO League in the future.