The LG rookie catcher Kim Bum-seok (19) has been praised by his manager.
Kim Bum-seok was named to the first team roster for the first time on the 3rd before the Jamsil NC game. He made his professional debut at the same time as he was added to the first team roster. Kim Bum-seok pinch-hit for Lee Joo-hyung in the bottom of the sixth inning when the team was down 3-7 with runners on first and second base. Finally getting his first at-bat as a professional, Bum-seok faced NC pitcher Kim Young-kyu and retired on a two-pitch grounder to shortstop. Then, in the ninth inning, he batted leadoff and faced a different pitcher, Lim Jung-ho, but could only manage a grounder to third base.
Although he was silent with two strikeouts, his commanders saw the positives. “I only saw two at-bats, but I saw enough promise in the way he handled himself at the plate and the way he swung,” LG manager Yeom Kyung-yup said of Kim.안전놀이터
Kim is being touted as the next big thing in Korean baseball. He played in 25 games in the National High School Baseball League last year, batting .337 (28-for-83) with 10 home runs, 31 RBIs, 24 doubles and a 1.227 OPS. He was the starting catcher at Gyeongnam High School, where he helped lead the team to the Golden Lion Tournament title, and batted fourth for the Korea Under-18 National Baseball Team.
He was selected with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the KBO League Rookie Draft in September last year. At the time of his selection, LG general manager Cha Myung-seok said, “I picked him because he’s Kim Bum-seok. The proper name Kim Bum-seok will become synonymous with Korean baseball,” he said.
He was unable to participate in the first team spring training due to shoulder discomfort and started this season with the second team. He performed well in the Futures League. In 34 games, he batted .376 (109-for-41) with six home runs, 24 RBI, 13 runs scored, nine doubles, 19 walks, a .439 slugging percentage and a .633 on-base percentage. His batting average was second in the entire Futures League, his home runs were third, and his RBIs were tied for fourth. It was a fierce bat for a high school rookie.
Manager Yoon Kyung-yeop sees Kim’s real season coming next year. “For Kim Bum-seok, the real season is next year. From now until the final training and spring training, our goal is to develop him into a player who can play in the first team next year.” “For now, he is experiencing the first team, and in the future, we will have him fill in the basics of defence with coach Park Kyung-wan and batting with coach Lee Ho-joon. We need to develop him into a player who can enter the first team.”
“If Bum-seok develops, we will have more cards in our deck. (Park) Dong-won could be the designated hitter. Bum-seok can be the designated hitter. “We want to develop Bum-seok to that level so that we can give Dong-won a lot of rest, so that even if we have Bum-seok, it won’t be a problem for the team. That will make our batting lineup stronger,” he stressed.