NC prospect, the reason why he enlisted despite the director’s dissuade “I thought I would have one more year…”
Taekyung Kim (22), the young gun of the NC Dinos, chose to enlist despite performing at his best after his debut last season. There are regrets, but I pledged to improve for 18 months.
In a recent phone call with Star News, Kim Tae-kyung said, “After enlisting in the Sangmu baseball team, I will pay more attention to pitch and ball control, and I will prepare well physically and go out.”
On January 16th, Kim Tae-kyung will enlist at the Army Training Center in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam-do, to fulfill his military service obligations. After serving in the military in the Sangmu baseball team, he will become a soldier until July 15, 2024.
Kim Tae-kyung, who graduated from Gimhae Samsung Elementary School-Naedong Middle School-Masan Yongma High School and joined NC as the first choice in 2020, has pitched in 16 games, the most since his debut in the 2022 season. His performance was also compliant with 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 hold with an ERA of 3.25.
Kim Tae-gyeong, who was named as a starting candidate before the season, mainly appeared as a long relief player in the early stages. However, after spending July in the Futures League, he was given a chance as a starter after getting his first win in his debut against Sajik Lotte on August 7 (5 innings, 1 hit and no runs). Since August he has shown stable pitching, going over five innings four times in six starts.
Looking back on his past year, Kim Tae-gyeong said, “I didn’t expect to do that.” At the same time, he said, “I thought I would do well without regrets, but luckily it worked out.” In particular, regarding his performance after August, he explained, “Before that, the balance was not well matched, but in the second group, I worked with the coaches to improve the number of rotations and pitches, and it became a good match.”스포츠토토
When was the ‘turning point’ that brought Kim Tae-kyung to the next level? He definitely picked the Gocheok Kiwoom Match on September 18th. At the time, he replaced Shin Min-hyeok (24) as a starting pitcher and won the starting game, recording 4 hits, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts and 1 run in 5⅓ innings. In particular, he won a decision victory in a face-to-face match with Ahn Woo-jin (24), who ranked first in earned run average (2.11) and strikeouts (224) this year.
Kim Tae-kyung, who recalled the game that day, explained,스포츠토토 “I thought luck was greater than skill before, but after the match with Kiwoom, I felt like I had grown a notch as a pitcher.” He continued, “He thought a lot about game management, etc., so he came to know the direction of growth in the future.”