Why on earth is Kim Kwang-hyun? "If you care about ABS, do you think darts or baseball?" Did you get upset? Lesson learned from last year's failure → Prove with 8K perfect pitching

Why on earth is Kim Kwang-hyun? "If you care about ABS, do you think darts or baseball?" Did you get upset? Lesson learned from last year's failure → Prove with 8K perfect pitching

Blog Article

ABS (automatic pitching judgment system) is still a hot topic for pitchers this season. ABS, which was introduced for the first time in the world last year and suffered trial and error, downgraded its zone ahead of this season.안전놀이터

Kim Kwang-hyun (37, SSG Landers) started the home game of the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League against the Doosan Bears at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 23rd and threw 99 pitches in five ⅔ innings, allowing seven hits, two walks, eight strikeouts, and two runs to win his first victory of the season.

What was particularly impressive was eight strikeouts that erased difficulties on their own, and five of them were struck out with sharp sliders.

After the game, we had to ask this question. Last year, Kim experienced a lot of trials and errors while experiencing ABS. For Kim, who has strength in low-zone sliders, last year's zone was somewhat disadvantageous as pitchers who have strength in high-zone balls enjoyed the game. In addition, it became more difficult for him as he tried to target according to the ABS zone. This was the reason why he had slumped with 4.93 ERA, his worst since his debut last year.

Ahead of this season, the KBO downgraded the zone and the zone decreased by 1 centimeter based on a 180cm tall hitter. It was a good thing for Kim Kwang-hyun. Asked about this, Lee said, "Yes. Kwang-hyun said he felt a lot about high balls last year. This year, it will be advantageous not only for Kwang-hyun but also for pitchers who can throw slides or curves."

Was it because of this? The slider worked properly and the pitching that I had hoped for was revived. When asked if he felt the lowered ABS zone effect, Kim said strongly, "I will no longer care about ABS or pitch clock. If you pay attention to it, will it be darts or baseball?"

Ironically, Kim Kwang-hyun, who cared more about ABS than anyone else last year, realized it was not the solution. "I had to compete with batters and have a timing fight, but I was pushed by time and got hooked on a square board and played baseball, and I ended up failing so much last year," he said. "I don't know about other players, but personally, I decided not to care about candles and this square board. I would never even think about it. I will compete with batters."

This is the thought that I kept in mind ahead of this season. His remarks at the Okinawa camp in Japan show more clearly why he approached ABS like that. "When I first heard that ABS was being implemented last year, I thought too much about how to throw it," Kim said. "When I practiced, they gave me high ball strikes a lot. So even if I gave up on my style, I practiced high ball a lot, but it didn't fit me in the end."

He also mentioned "darts" at the time. "For me, it was darts. I took away the timing of batters, and sometimes I pushed hard with my strength, but he was fighting ABS," Kim said. "So this year, I think the first thing I want to do is to find out what strengths and weaknesses this batter has in my style and compete like that. Just because ABS has been lowered, if you pay attention to it, it seems to shake a lot during the game."

Through this experience, he paid too much attention to ABS's decision and it worked poorly. Baseball is a game in which a batter enters the batter's box and fights a fierce defensive battle, but trying to pitch only in accordance with the ABS zone is like a dart that throws an arrow at the target with the score engraved on it.

Kim Kwang-hyun, who once again realized the essence of baseball, concentrated on opposing batters rather than ABS zones and distributed the ball, resulting in a satisfactory pitch that gave the team two consecutive wins. And this seems to have served as an opportunity for Kim Kwang-hyun to be convinced that the current method of focusing only on hitters and not on causing him to fail last year is a clear solution.