Staring at mortality

Korea’s starting rotation is thin after ace Yun Suk-min. / Yonhap

Korea's aging 'golden generation' looks to go out with a bang

By Kim Tong-hyung

Next month’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) will mark the end of an era for Korean baseball.

Handed a squad built around aging, big-name players whose abilities are starting to lag behind their reputations, manager Ryu Joong-il has vowed to polish the fading "golden generation’’ one last time and have them go out on a bang.

But it’s hard to disregard Korea’s lack of depth and dearth of impact players. A quick glance at the rosters of squads like the United States, Venezuela, Dominican Republic and Japan suggests that Korea ― which made it to the final in 2009 ― faces the real danger of slipping from somebodies to nobodies.

"These are the guys I have and I am comfortable with them,’’ Ryu told reporters in Taiwan Wednesday, following a 1-0 loss in a warm-up game against Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) expansion team NC Dinos.

"The pitchers are in better shape than I expected. The batters will eventually come alive.’’

The manager has had to defend a roster daily that continues to generate more talk about who isn’t there than who is. Major League Baseball’s Ryu Hyun-jin (Los Angeles Dodgers), Choo Shin-soo (Cincinnati Reds) and the Tampa Bay Rays’ minor league prospect Lee Hak-ju are among the no-shows.

In attack, Korea can threaten with plenty of speed on the bases but doesn’t have enough power hitters who can change the game with a single swing of the bat.

Lee Seung-yeop (Samsung Lions) still provides sweet hits from the left side of the plate, but at 36, his home runs are coming further apart.

Lee Dae-ho, now playing for Japan’s Orix Buffaloes, is a slugger in his peak and so is the beefy Kim Tae-kyun of the Hanwha Eagles. However, it will be difficult for Ryu to put both Lee Dae-ho and Kim in the heart of the lineup when both are liabilities in defense and better suited as designated hitters.

It wasn’t long ago when Doosan Bear Kim Hyun-soo, another powerful left-handed bat, was being talked as the future of Korean baseball, but he has regressed in the past two seasons.

For Korea to have any shot at the title, the reliever trio of the Lotte Giants’ Chung Dae-hyun, SK Wyverns’ Park Hui-soo and Samsung Lions’ Oh Seung-hwan will have to shine. Their margin for error will be very small since the starting rotation is underwhelming after Kia Tigers ace Yun Suk-min.

Chung and Oh have been brilliant for Korea in the past two WBC tournaments, where the strict pitch-count limits ensure a critical role for relief pitchers. But with both players now in their 30s, and Chung showing a drop off in ball movement and velocity in recent years, Ryu will have to manage his two bullpen aces more carefully than he would prefer.

Park relies more on guile than overpowering opponents and at times can get lit up in a hurry. Not that the KBO provides Ryu with a wealth of quality southpaws to choose from at the moment.

While Japan won the first two WBCs, the United States, which went 7-7 in the past two tournaments, looks to be the team to beat. The Americans will be missing superstars like Justin Verlander, Prince Fielder, Mike Trout and Andrew McCutchen and yet still boast an embarrassment of riches.

The starting rotation led by Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey and followed by Kris Medlen, Ryan Vogelsong and Derek Holland is arguably the best in the competition. The on-base ability of Ben Zobrist and Joe Mauer at the top of the lineup could be dangerous, considering that Ryan Braun, Giancarlo Stanton, David Wright and Adam Jones will follow.

Venezuela will have a formidable lineup featuring Elvis Andrus, Asdrubal Cabrera, Pablo Sandoval, and of course Miguel Cabrera, the best right-handed hitter on the planet. Although Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez skipping the tournament hurts the team, a starting rotation led by Anibal Sanchez and Henderson Alvarez could prove better than adequate.

The Dominican Republic seems second to none in batting firepower with players like Melky Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Edwin Encarnacion and Adrian Beltre but its pitching may not be as strong as some of the other contenders.

It’s reasonable to favor these teams over Japan, who will be missing Suzuki Ichirio, Darvish Yu, Kuroda Hiroki and Aoki Norichika.

The public expectation here is nonetheless high as Korea takes the WBC as seriously as football’s World Cup and the Olympics. The 2009 final between Korea and Japan at Dodgers Stadium remains as arguably the most exciting and intense game ever in international play.

For Koreans, the pain from that loss four years ago is still fresh. It bears further watching whether this year’s team can manage to at least set them up for a letdown.