By Cho Mu-hyun
The nine professional teams of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) have finished their training camps in Japan and the United States and are in the process of returning to Korea.
Eight clubs will now prepare for pre-season practice matches that start on March 17, as the newly formed NC Dinos, who finished a 50-day training in Arizona, will make their debut in the second division this year.
Last year’s Asian Series winners the Samsung Lions, along with the Lotte Giants, Doosan Bears and Nexen Heroes, will leave Japan today.
The SK Wyverns, the 2011 Korean Series runners-up, and the Dinos already returned Wednesday.
The LG Twins and Hanwha Eagles, who have played practice matches against each other in Okinawa, will return on Saturday and Sunday respectively. The Kia Tigers will be the last team to head home, arriving Tuesday due to the ongoing reconstruction of their home stadium, the Gwangju Ballpark.
The round-robin practice matches will have each side play 14 games until April 1, while the season begins on April 7.
The eight first division clubs will determine their final squad line-ups in the pre-season outings.
The Lions, the reigning champions of Asia, won five of eight practice matches against Japanese teams during their training camp. Other managers have predicted that Samsung, headed by manager Ryu Joong-il, will most likely clinch their second straight title, thanks to a strong bull pen and the signing of slugger Lee Seung-yeop.
The club is known to be having trouble deciding the rotation because they have “too many talented pitchers,” drawing envy from other sides.
The Tigers, seen as the only team with the caliber to go up against the Lions, will be led by Son Dong-yeol who makes his managerial debut this year.
Though their submarine pitcher Yu Dong-hoon looks to have found form after a near two-year slump, several Kia players are currently suffering from injury, raising concerns for the season opener against the Wyverns.
The Wyverns are vying for another chance to go up against Samsung in the Korea Series. Lee Man-soo, who was promoted to full-time manager after he led the team to the play-off finals after the sacking of Kim Sung-kun, expressed his satisfaction with the recent training.
“I am confident that the players have grown tremendously after the Okinawa camp. We await the practice matches and season opener with the best fitness,” he said.
The Bears, who hired former Seibu Lions’ manager Tsutomu Ito as head coach in November, are known to have applied Japanese methods to add versatility to their usual offense-based approach.
The Eagles’ pitching line-up is behind only that of the Lions, owing to Park Chan-ho and Ryu Hyun-jin. The Eagles also have slugger Kim Tae-kyun on their roster, and have both strong offense and defense this year.
Kim Si-jin, in charge of the bottom-seeded Nexen Heroes, has acquired closer Kim Byung-hyun and outfielder Lee Taek-kuen, and pledged better performances saying he “owed it to the fans.”
The Giants, who lost their big hitter Lee Dae-ho to Japan’s Orix Buffaloes this winter, have focused on quick set plays to add to their usual offense-based power batting.
The Twins, with starters Kim Seong-hyon and Park Hyun-joon were released due to their involvement in a match-fixing scam, will try to settle their new pitching rotation during the pre-season outings.