The 2024 World Baseball Softball Federation (WBSC) Premier 12 national team, led by head coach Ryu Joong-il, got off to a good start by sweeping all of the warm-up matches with the Cuban national team at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 1st and 2nd. Now Ryu Joong-il will leave for Taiwan on the 8th after a practice game with Sangmu on the 6th.먹튀검증

Compared to the recent international competitions, the Tokyo Olympics and the World Baseball Classic (WBC), there have been many changes in the Premier 12 national team. This is why the generational change began in earnest starting with the Hangzhou Asian Games (AG) last year. What stands out the most is that there are not many home run hitters called the "flower of baseball." In the case of the Asian Games, there was an immutable No. 4 hitter named Noh Si-hwan, but only Kim Do-young can expect a home run in the national team.

As the generational change progresses, the style of baseball will inevitably change. In the past, if you could expect a shot to change the atmosphere of the game, you should expect a mid- and long-range hit based on mobility and sophisticated contact skills for the Premier 12 national team. The mobility is good. It is painful that Kim Ji-chan was eliminated due to injury, but there are players who can aim for additional bases at any time, including Kim Do-young, Shin Min-jae, Song Sung-moon, and Kim Ju-won.

Medium- and long-distance hitters are also in the center. Kim Do-young is by far the most important player in the team. This year, Moon Bo-kyung, Na Seung-yup and Yoon Dong-hee ranked fifth with 35 doubles each, while Song Seong-moon and Kim Hui-jip are also middle- and long-distance hitters. Ryu Joong-il is well aware of this, and his performance that enabled him to take advantage of these advantages in the last friendly matches with Cuba was intact.

South Korea won 2-0 against Cuba in its first showdown with the Cuban team, as the batters did not have much strength. From the first inning to the end of the game, a frustrating game was played without a decisive shot despite the runner's success in every inning, but the solidity of the mound was confirmed along with the squeezing baseball through mobility. And in the second confrontation, the dull sense of the game was completely revived.

Unlike in the first game, the starting players allowed a total of three runs in the second game. However, the Korean batter's box was full of hits. Korea had a whopping 14 hits, including Yoon Dong-hee who drew the first arch, and eight of them were long balls with more than two hits. Notably, he garnered six hits and three outs in the eighth inning to score eight runs in total, which was encouraging.

In an interview after the game, Cuban coach Armando Johnson threw his tongue at South Korea's mobility baseball. "When I saw the Korean team, I thought they were ready," the coach said after losing two games. "Young players have shown good performance mainly in terms of quality," adding, "Korean pitchers, including baserunning, stood out."

"In particular, third basemen and shortstop stood out regardless of their main players or backup players. There were many good left-handed hitters. It was difficult to strike out. He had good pioneering skills and was very difficult to target. As a result, our (Cuba) players also gave away a lot of walks as more and more pitching was running away. I couldn't memorize what the name was, but two or three of the left-handed hitters were also memorable for their contact and power," he added.

Although it is a generational change of the national team that has been semi-compulsory, the colors based on medium and long-range hits and mobility are gradually gaining ground. As the performance at ABPC, including the Hangzhou Asian Games, was certainly not bad, the generational change is expected to gain more momentum if the team performs satisfactoryly once again in the Premier 12.