Genius Pitcher Hides 170Km [EN]: Chapter 10

#9. Spring Training

﹂That anonymous official is probably the head coach.

﹂Or the hitting coach.

﹂Or maybe the pitching or catching coach?

﹂Could even be one of the front office staff, surprisingly.

﹂Damn it, I don’t know. There are too many crazy bastards. Is this really going to be okay? Looks like he’ll be ostracized by the coaches and become a vegetable manager, unable to do anything?

﹂Lee Dae-jun has quite the temper too.

﹂What good is having a temper when they’re not kids? Is he going to beat up all the coaches?

﹂Ugh, I don’t know. I’m happy about Lee Dae-jun… but as a manager, it’s questionable? Besides, he left the team on bad terms.

﹂One thing’s for sure, the team will never function properly in that state. It’s going to be a mess because of the power struggle.

If you were to pick the single most influential person in a baseball team, it would probably be the manager.

Most managers are former players, but sometimes they come from the front office, like scouting or stats analysis, and occasionally they’re even foreigners from other countries.

If the general manager is responsible for assembling the team’s roster, the manager is in charge of moving and operating that roster.

Out of the 50 million people in this country, only 10 are allowed to be professional baseball managers.

The Warriors, with Park Jae-cheol as their general manager, have now appointed the controversial Lee Dae-jun as their new manager.

Even fans who had been clamoring for the firing of everyone from the manager to the coaches while the team was scraping the bottom of the barrel found it hard to accept—it was truly a groundbreaking move.

Regardless, the Warriors, having completed the selection of a new general manager and manager, entered the off-season in earnest.

The first thing the new general manager and manager did was to begin serious trade discussions for catcher Hwang Seong-min, shortstop Song Gi-tae, and pitcher Han Jin-woo, all of whom had already been put on the market.

Their FA [Free Agent] status was unbelievably terrible, and their personalities, which had already become infamous among other teams, made it impossible to accept any offers.

However, General Manager Park Jae-cheol declared that he would accept even those offers, and Manager Lee Dae-jun agreed.

Getting rid of the trash was the most important thing, after all.

Startled by this atmosphere, the three overpaid FA players requested help from the coaches they trusted most.

“No! General Manager! How can this be? You’re selling off our team’s starting catcher, shortstop, and closer!”

In a state of emergency, even the infighting between factions was temporarily suspended.

The head coach, pitching coach, and hitting coach, representing each faction, stormed into the general manager’s office and vehemently protested to Park Jae-cheol.

However, Park Jae-cheol, who had already anticipated this situation, nonchalantly picked at his ear and replied.

“Oh dear… the coaches must be very upset that I’m selling off a catcher with a batting average in the low .100s, a shortstop who barely managed to hit .200, and a closer with an ERA [Earned Run Average] in the 7s?”

“That’s… this year, the team’s performance was so bad that the players were affected and went into a temporary slump…!”

“Ah, that’s enough. I was going to call you three in anyway, so it’s good you came.”

“What? You were calling us? Why?”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“…?”

“Your relationship with the Warriors ends here. Please clear your desks quickly for your replacements. All three of you coaches.”

“……”

The head coach, hitting coach, and pitching coach were speechless at the unexpected situation.

Their minds went blank.

Of course, they had expected some organizational restructuring, but they never imagined that they, the heads of the team’s three major factions, would be dismissed simultaneously.

Is this guy out of his mind?

What about the aftermath of firing them? What about the other coaches, front office staff, and players who were essentially one with them?

“…Can you handle this, General Manager?”

“I wouldn’t be doing it if I couldn’t handle it, would I? The team owner has already approved it, so don’t act pathetic and pack your bags quickly. The off-season is starting, so you’ll need to move fast if you don’t want to become unemployed.”

Park Jae-cheol had played as a major leaguer for over 10 years, reaching the pinnacle as a baseball player.

He had already amassed enough wealth to live comfortably for the rest of his life. In other words, he had nothing to lose.

When Park Jae-cheol didn’t budge in the face of their protests, the three coaches turned and disappeared somewhere.

The next day, the aftermath they had predicted arrived.

﹂Look at the state of the team…

﹂I guess I’ve been watching baseball for too long… I’m seeing all sorts of things.

﹂lol, you guys were originally telling them to fire all the first and second team managers and coaches. You got your wish.

﹂No, even so, how can you fire all the coaches at once…

﹂They didn’t fire all of them. They fired the manager and three coaches, and their faction members left on their own in collective protest.

﹂lololol, the work is really refreshing, though.

﹂Hey, you crazy bastard. Is being refreshing the issue now? Even if it’s a mess, there needs to be coaches. Who’s going to teach the kids?

﹂Other than signing Han Su-hyeok, nothing is working properly;;;

﹂It’s a good thing. This team needed to be overhauled.

After firing the first-team manager, head coach, hitting coach, and pitching coach, the first-team catching coach and quality control coach, the second-team manager, pitching coach, and catching coach, as well as the deputy head of the scouting team, the manager of the operations team, the head of the data analysis team, and the head statistician from the front office, all resigned and left the team.

In other words, they intended to screw them over. And in reality, it had quite an impact.

The coaching staff and the entire front office organization collapsed simultaneously.

However, the team owner and general manager had prepared for this.

﹂Crazy lol

﹂Burp~ My stomach feels refreshed.

﹂As expected of a former major leaguer. His class is world-class.

﹂First-team head coach, isn’t that the guy who was Park Jae-cheol’s manager when he was in the minor leagues?

﹂Yeah, that’s right.

﹂Oh… how did he bring someone like that in as a coach?

﹂Anyway, if it’s like this, all the old, rotten water will be cleared out and it’ll be a completely new team.

﹂Warriors players are about to be forced to advance to America… the pressure of English…

﹂Only the interpreters are going to die, what English. They can’t even play baseball well.

﹂Rumor has it that Han Su-hyeok is almost at a native speaker level.

﹂What can’t he do?

“Hyung [older brother/male friend], this is a lot more intense than I thought?”

“I don’t know either… I came to my senses and it had turned out like this. That Park Jae-cheol is more amazing than I thought.”

“Hmm…”

That’s how the storm-like time passed.

Thanks to General Manager Park Jae-cheol’s active efforts, Han Jin-woo, the overpaid FA closer, was traded to Busan.

They received one of the pitching prospects who had played in the second team last season, a player who was evaluated as being able to debut in the first team within a few years, even though it would be difficult to use him right away.

However, Song Gi-tae and Hwang Seong-min, the other two overpaid players besides Han Jin-woo, ultimately failed to be traded.

No matter how cheaply they tried to pass them off, the cards the other teams offered were simply unacceptable. In the end, the trade for these players was put on hold.

Among the foreign players who played for the team last season, Ryan Stark and Brooks Parker, both pitchers, survived.

They were the players who recorded ERAs in the 3s while the team was stuck at the bottom of the league last season.

Everyone agreed that it would be difficult to find better players than them right now.

However, they released the first baseman who had only hit ground balls throughout the season and instead signed a huge foreign player named Max Walker who could play outfield.

He’s said to be a medium-to-long-range hitter with good contact, but I don’t remember him.

In addition, the Warriors also attempted to recruit new external FAs.

Due to budget constraints, very expensive players were impossible, but they made offers to players with relatively good cost-effectiveness.

Of course, they were coldly rejected, saying they didn’t want to go to the last-place team.

Hmm.

We’ll see.

Having replaced everyone from the general manager to the manager, and most of the coaching staff and several front office positions with new faces, the Warriors departed for Arizona in the United States for spring training.

It was only natural that four rookies, including myself, were included in the spring training roster due to the team’s thin player base.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Dae-jun.”

Manager Lee Dae-jun, standing in front of the team for the first time, greeted them with a moved expression.

It was understandable.

He had played for this team for 15 years, but he had been forced to leave without even receiving a proper retirement ceremony or a coaching offer, and now he had returned triumphantly as the first-team manager.

Most of the players, including myself, gave him sincere applause.

Except for the two overpaid players who had lost their lines because of him.

“Hey, are you Han Su-hyeok?”

“Yes, Coach.”

“Good, you’re fluent in English. Can we see that talent that the Seattle guys were after?”

“Of course.”

“Hehe, everyone step back. Our rookie is going to give us a batting demonstration.”

Noah Anderson, the new hitting coach for the team, led me to the batter’s box with a sly expression.

Then, the eyes of the players and all the staff who were warming up on the field focused on me.

It’s a familiar sight.

It was exactly this atmosphere when I first joined the Mariners before my regression. Of course, there were mostly looks of contempt there.

“Hey, any friends want to throw some balls? It’s a chance to flatten the nose of this year’s home run king. Anyone, any brave volunteers?”

This time, Jackson Sullivan, the newly appointed pitching coach, shouted loudly at the pitchers.

The players’ faces began to brighten little by little at the encouragement of the foreign coaches, who had nothing to do with the existing factions.

This is a crisis and an opportunity.

It was a crisis for the players who had been part of the team’s mainstream, but it was clearly an opportunity for those who had been pushed back by them.

“I’ll give it a try.”

“Good, Rocket. Let’s do it.”

Hong Young-sik, who had played as the Warriors’ first-team bullpen last season, went to the mound with an excited expression.

I don’t know how he was in the bullpen with an ERA of 5.15 and a WHIP [Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched] of 1.8, but he’s a key bullpen pitcher for this team.

I think he’s four years older than me?

His fastball speed reaches 150 km/h, but his control is poor. He’s a typical fastballer, and he seemed eager to impress the new manager and coaches by catching me.

“Hmm.”

“Hey, Han Su-hyeok, take it easy. Don’t put too much pressure on your shoulders, rookie.”

Hwang Seong-min, wearing a catcher’s mask, said to me in a growling voice as I entered the plate.

It’s ridiculous.

In the first practice batting of the top prospect they brought in with a contract of 1 billion, the team’s senior is trying to kill his spirit.

How many juniors has this jerk killed the spirit of in this way?

“Yes, well… I’ll take it easy, senior.”

I want to slap him in the back of the head and tell him to get out of my team right now, but.

Hmm.

I have to somehow package that idiot well and use him as a trade card with another team.

I have to be patient.

But I need to make sure he can’t talk carelessly in front of me.

Athletes, in some ways, have a very simple brain structure.

They start exercising as early as 10 years old and live with the thought of beating their opponents in their heads until they are over 20 or 30 years old.

As a result, they naturally hold their heads high in front of the weak and shrink back in front of the strong without realizing it.

In simple terms… once I show him what kind of player I am, he won’t talk carelessly in front of me.

Even if there is a clear hierarchy between seniors and juniors, this is the world of professionals where everything is evaluated by skill.

Hong Young-sik senior starts his windup with a serious expression.

Tighten the loosely loosened grip, accurately adjust the balance between the left and right feet, and roughly time it to a 145 km/h fastball.

A huge uppercut swing that starts low and rises upwards, reminiscent of golf.

Thwaaaaaack!

“Wow…”

The baseball hit by the bat soared high into the sky and began to fly far away.

I glanced back and saw Hwang Seong-min staring at the ball with his mouth wide open.

Whew, I feel a little better now.

* * *