Pitcher Injuries Dim Olympic Hopes
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
South Korea would love to reach the podium in what looks to be baseball's last Olympic appearance in Beijing, but the lack of pitching depth is casting a gloomy outlook.
The Olympic team, managed by Doosan Bears skipper Kim Kyung-moon, is planning to announce its final 24-man roster by the end of the month.
However, Kim can't afford to be too picky about his choices with some of the country's top starters shelved with injuries or displaying diminished stuff of late.
Pitching has been a traditional strength for the Koreans in international tournaments, but Kim's side is shaping up as a team that needs its offense to carry it.
The most alarming development is the troublesome elbow of Hanwha Eagles lefty Ryu Hyun-jin, a third-year starter who Kim had penciled as the ace of his staff for the Olympics.
Ryu won 35 games in his first two years in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) but threw more than 200 innings in both of those seasons, and team officials are worried that the 21-year-old is showing symptoms of breaking down from the heavy workload.
Following his start against the LG Twins on Friday, Ryu complained of pain in his throwing elbow, which first flared up in a playoff game against the Bears last season, and is currently rehabbing with the Eagles' reserve league squad.
The Eagles came around to the idea of limiting Ryu's innings this season, assuring that he has six to eight days rest between starts, but the pitcher has seen his effectiveness decline recently.
Ryu is 5-3 with a 3.86 ERA this year, which is hardly shabby but not quite up to the standards of a pitcher who went 35-13 in his first two seasons with a 2.60 ERA and 386 strikeouts.
In his last four starts before being sidelined, Ryu lasted more than five innings just once and gave up a total of 16 runs in the process.
Although Kim insists there is enough time for Ryu to recover for the Olympics, it's debatable how much could be asked from a pitcher who hasn't been dominant since last summer.
With Ryu out of the picture, SK Wvyerns second-year starter Kim Kwang-hyun remains the only reliable lefty at manager Kim's exposal.
Although Kwang-hyun's 150kmph-plus fastball and big, 12-to-6 curve certainly make him an intimidating presence, the 20-year-old's inconsistency on the mound is a reason for concern.
After wining his first six starts of the season, Kwang-hyun has failed to pickup a win in his last five starts and gave up 21 runs during that span.
Kim still has decent top-of-the-rotation options in Lotte Giants veteran Son Min-han and the Wyverns' Chey Byung-yong, but both are the type of pitchers who pitch to contact and lack the lights-out stuff of Ryu or Kwang-hyun.
Kia Tigers starter Yoon Suk-min shows a better ability to miss bats, but has yet to prove himself in pressure situations.
Kim is also expected to pick submariners Chung Dae-hyun of the Wyverns and Woo Kyu-min of the Twins, hoping they can confound hitters with their unorthodox pitching motions.
He could also gamble on former Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Kim Byung-hyun, currently out of a job.
A variable factor will be whether manager Kim could retain the services of the Korean players playing in Japan. Despite many of its top players reporting for country duty in Beijing, the Japanese league isn't planning for a break during the Olympics, unlike the Korean league.
This means that Japanese teams will be more reliant on their foreign employees during the tournament period.
Thus, the Yakult Swallows may be reluctant in allowing closer Lim Chang-yong, probably the hardest throwing submariner on the planet, to represent South Korea, and the Chunichi Dragons could feel the same for outfielder Lee Byung-kyu.