Genius Pitcher Hides 170Km [EN]: Chapter 204

#203. The Chosen One

“Is that him?”

“Looks like it.”

“Hmm, he looks a bit smaller than he does on video. He hit over 60 home runs with that body?”

“He’s also playing shortstop, so it must be hard for him to bulk up too much.”

“Really? Not a pitcher and designated hitter like Ohtani, but a fielder?”

“He won’t last long.”

“Right, doing two things is already crazy, but even defense? He’s too greedy.”

“But he hits and throws well, though. I’m not sure he’s *that* great to the point where we need to worry so much?”

In the American dugout before the Olympic final against Korea, superstars with price tags of tens of millions of dollars each were looking towards the Korean dugout with serious expressions.

There, Han Su-hyeok, who would be starting today, was warming up in some kind of strange posture.

“Is that yoga? Or some kind of Eastern martial art?”

“I don’t know, but he looks pretty flexible. Damn, should I lose some weight too?”

Although they lost to Han Su-hyeok’s grand slam in the last WBC [World Baseball Classic] final, it didn’t really resonate with most of the American players who didn’t participate in the game.

In the first place, baseball is a sport designed so that even the best team is bound to lose 3 out of 10 times, and they just thought that day happened to be one of those 3 for the American team.

The evaluation of Han Su-hyeok was the same.

Players like Ty Johnson, who had faced him directly in the WBC, experienced the pressure Han Su-hyeok exuded firsthand, but unfortunately, about half of the current Olympic team had not experienced the WBC.

During the last WBC, the American team was composed of only the most renowned players in the league, a veritable all-star team.

But there were pros and cons.

First, the advantage was that the individual skills of the players were impeccable.

Then the disadvantage?

Because they were selected based on name value alone, the team composition was a mess.

Positions overlapped, so there were no specialized defenders in some positions, the hitters were all aiming for home runs, and there were only two left-handed pitchers on the team.

In that respect, even though the players’ name value might be less than at the WBC, the Olympic team might be stronger in terms of overall team strength.

A team where superstar-level players like Ty Johnson accounted for about half, and the other half was filled with relatively young players with about 5 years of Big League experience.

Of course, young is relative.

Unlike the Korean team, which was full of rookies under the age of 25 due to military service issues, the mainstay of the American team was players in their late 20s to early 30s.

Having broken through the difficult gates and climbed up to the Big League, just finishing their service time,

Players who were not yet legends in terms of career but were physically at their peak.

The only concern of such players was,

Han Su-hyeok.

Major League Baseball, the sport representing America, and Ty Johnson, the player representing that Major League.

Because he brought up Han Su-hyeok whenever he had a chance since the last WBC, various curiosities and rivalries had accumulated.

“Hmm… I still don’t know. I’ll have to face him to find out.”

“What’s certain is that in terms of physicality… well, it’s a bit ambiguous.”

Halfway through the season, Han Su-hyeok was maintaining a body of 193cm in height and 96kg in weight.

Just by looking at it, his proportions were good, and his fit was great, making him look like the best body for an athlete, but in reality, it was a physique that could seem a bit ambiguous for playing baseball.

This was because it was a body that maximized the power of muscles through bulking up, while minimizing fat to maintain flexibility and speed.

What the American players were questioning now was that part.

In order to run a long race and put power into hits and pitches, they inevitably had to increase fat on their bodies.

For a height like Han Su-hyeok, maintaining a weight of at least 110kg would be more helpful in playing. If he were a hitter, the number of home runs would increase, and if he were a pitcher, the velocity and quality of his pitches would increase.

Of course, Han Su-hyeok knew that too.

The reason he was maintaining this body was because of the team’s situation where he had to play shortstop.

Although the defense between 3rd base and shortstop had become much more stable with the recruitment of Min Ju-hyun, the Warriors still didn’t have a starting-level shortstop to replace him.

Unless Yoo In-cheol, who was gaining experience in the minor leagues, improved significantly, he would have to play shortstop.

Also, in order to break the other teams’ tactics of openly trying to walk Han Su-hyeok, he had to maintain the speed to run at any time.

In the end, Han Su-hyeok’s well-trained muscular physique was the most optimized body for hitting, fielding, running, and pitching at the same time, created with great effort by him and Jacob.

Of course, the American players wouldn’t know such detailed circumstances.

As some American players who encountered Han Su-hyeok for the first time looked at him with eyes mixed with curiosity and competitiveness, the stage for the Olympic final for the gold medal began.

* * *

‘I don’t like it…….’

As of 2027, there are approximately 3,500 high school baseball teams in Japan, giving them a player pool that is incomparable to Korea, which has only 70 teams.

But even Japan pales in comparison to the United States.

There are 17,000 registered high school baseball teams, and unlike Korea, where college baseball is virtually meaningless, there are actively run college leagues, players produced by baseball academies, and players flocking from nearby Central and South American countries.

Among such a huge number of amateur players, only a very small number can be drafted by the 30 Major League teams.

However, even if you break through such a needle-hole competition and get drafted, debuting in the Big League is another matter.

Even among first-round draftees, it is not uncommon for them to end their careers without debuting in the Big League.

Some baseball fans don’t realize how difficult it is to debut in the Big League [Major League Baseball].

To explain it very simply:

The 26-man roster, which can be said to be the equivalent of the KBO’s [Korean Baseball Organization] first team in Korea, is where players who couldn’t make it and were on the periphery would come to the KBO and reign as aces.

Once a player has set foot in the Big League, it means that he is a player who deserves respect in and of himself.

In that sense, Andrew Davis, who started for the American team today, could be said to be a player blessed by God.

After being drafted by St. Louis in the first round, he destroyed the minor leagues in just one year and was called up to the Big League, and the following year, he immediately took over the team’s ace position.

Not only his skills but also his distinct features and flowing blond hair were innate,

A next-generation Major League star who has all the elements to be loved by American baseball fans.

Such Andrew frowned and looked at the scoreboard.

1. Center Fielder Seo Hyeong-ju

2. Right Fielder Lee Chan-ho

3. Pitcher Han Su-hyeok

4. 1st Baseman Lee Su-young

5. Left Fielder Kang Woo-chan

6. 3rd Baseman Ahn Chi-wook

7. Shortstop Ahn Tae-gyu

8. Catcher Jang Deok-soo

9. 2nd Baseman Son Jae-hoo

This is the lineup of the Korean team they will face today.

To be honest, the only players among them whose names he has ever heard are Han Su-hyeok and Lee Chan-ho.

He watched the game videos of the Korean hitters and carefully reviewed the data given by the scouting team.

So the conclusion he came to was this:

At best, Triple A level.

If it weren’t for Han Su-hyeok, he wouldn’t have felt any tension at all.

But the coach and the veterans thought differently.

Robert Wilson, the American coach who took the helm of the Olympic team once again following the last WBC, said this:

‘Do you know why I decided to make you the starter for the final?’

‘Well, because I’m the most reliable?’

‘It’s because you’re more likely to listen than the morons who are so full of pride as Big Leaguers that they don’t listen to anyone around them. Listen carefully. Erase the difference in league level from your head. Because there is a monster on that team that makes all that meaningless. Keep in mind, if I see even a hint of carelessness, I’ll pull you off the mound right away.’

Anyway, he had no intention of throwing carelessly, no matter who the opponent was.

So he just said he understood and left the spot.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Ty Johnson, his teammate and the player he respected the most, called him separately.

‘Hey, Andrew.’

‘Yes, Ty. What’s up?’

‘Don’t go easy on that guy. Damn, I want to tell you to just avoid him, but you’re not going to listen anyway. Anyway, no good pitches. No matter how confident you are in your pitches, don’t put the ball in the zone recklessly. Got it?’

He couldn’t tell the difference between that and telling him to avoid him, but he couldn’t talk back to the legend who had almost confirmed his first-ballot Hall of Fame induction.

This time, he just said he understood.

The antipathy towards Han Su-hyeok that had been built up while preparing for the game was making him annoyed.

‘No matter how great he is… he can’t hit a home run in every at-bat.’

The pitcher is always at an advantage in the battle between the pitcher and the batter.

The history and statistics of baseball, which spans over 100 years, prove that.

If you compete 10 times, the pitcher wins at least 7 times.

Number 1 on the Korean team, who is quietly watching him from the on-deck circle far away.

No matter how great that guy is, he can’t be free from that law.

‘First, these guys…….’

But facing Han Su-hyeok is a problem for later.

He has to deal with the hitters in front of him first.

Number 1, Seo Hyeong-ju, Number 2, Lee Chan-ho.

Putting aside the rookie center fielder who is only in his second year of debut, he has to pay a little attention to Lee Chan-ho, who is batting second.

At least he is at the level of applying for posting to the Major League.

Of course, he can’t even be compared to himself.

Andrew Davis’s mind was already on Lee Chan-ho and Han Su-hyeok, even though he was facing Seo Hyeong-ju.

“Play!”

With the umpire’s declaration of the start of the game, Andrew Davis went into his windup.

Blonde hair sparkling under the lights, and refreshing features that are pleasing to the eye.

Imagining his cool appearance being captured by the relay camera, Andrew threw the ball powerfully.

He was confident that this would be the photo that would be on the front page of the sports newspaper tomorrow.

Swoosh

And he immediately regretted it.

He was talking about not going into the follow-up motion quickly because he was trying to look cool unnecessarily.

Thud

“Fuck!”

Seo Hyeong-ju, who lightly brought his bat to the 100-mile fastball coming into the low outside course, started running towards first base like crazy.

Andrew, who belatedly switched to defense, caught the ball and threw it to first base, but,

“Safe!”

Seo Hyeong-ju’s foot had already stepped on first base.

It was the first match for Andrew Davis, the next-generation ace of the Major League, who was confident that he would be the winning pitcher in today’s game against Korea.