KIA will send young prospects to Canberra Cavaliers of the ABL in the 2023-2024 season, which will open on November 17. 스포츠토토 Geelong Korea has become the window for KBO League players to advance to the ABL. Geelong Korea, founded in 2018, participated in the ABL in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, respectively. After missing for two seasons due to COVID-19, he played 40 ABL games again in the 2022-2023 season.
Geelong Korea was a team of 10 teams in the KBO League. In addition to the players selected by Geelong Korea, prospects from each of the 10 teams joined to form a team. Players who played on the U.S. and Japanese stages played in Geelong Korea uniforms to quite a few ABLs, enjoying the same effect as overseas education leagues. KIA also had Choi Ji-min, Kim Seok-hwan, and Kim Kyu-sung join Geelong Korea last season.
However, as Geelong Korea fell into the ABL from this season, each team faced a situation where they had to find a new way to foster them. Hanwha Samsung Doosan chose to form a combined team and compete in the Japanese education league, while some of the rest of the teams also chose the education league schedule set up by KBO.
KIA has long worked hard to participate in the ABL. Officials visited Australia and contacted Canberra, and invited them to Gwangju. Through exchanges, players selected from KIA this season agreed to join Canberra. The Yokohama DeNA BayStars, a member of the Central League of the Japanese professional baseball, is also known to participate in the cooperation.
It is not just sending players to Australia. Not only the number of games played, but also the number of at-bats and innings can be played according to the conditions we offer, KIA general manager Shim Jae-hak said. Not only the players, but also the coaches and exclusive trainers will be with us.
KIA is greatly strengthening its development as it enters the system of general manager Shim. The pitching academy, which has been underway at Hampyeong Challengers Field since last year, has developed into an all-round development under the coach Son Seung-rak second division of Futures. Efforts are being made to foster customization by looking at and analyzing detailed indicators of two-tossers. Choi Ji-min, who went through Hampyeong Academy and Geelong Korea last year, overcame control instability and settled in the first team full-time this year, and won the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
In addition to joining Canberra, KIA will engage in various training and training in connection with the finishing camp for the rest of the year. It will be divided into Gwangju and Hampyeong until the end of this month, with training and practice matches at the same time. Players who will join the upcoming APBC Asian Professional Baseball Championship national team roster will also train together to adjust their condition. In addition to young players, players selected in the 2024 KBO Rookie Draft are expected to join and show their skills during the closing camp in Okinawa, Japan next month.