[IS Focus] 0.429 pitching average…Yoon Young-chul, a slider that needs to be improved.

바카라KIA Tigers rookie pitcher Yoon Young-cheol (19) made his first career start on rest. He was hit hard and shaky, but it’s encouraging to see him complete five innings on 80 pitches. He also did his homework.

Yoon started the 11th game of the 2023 KBO League season against the Kiwoom Heroes at Gwangju-Gia Champions Field on April 28 and gave up four runs on six hits in five innings. The game was tied after he left the mound, and he did not record a win or loss.

Yoon shut down the Kiwoom bats until the third inning. But in the fourth inning, he gave up four runs on five consecutive hits, starting with the leadoff batter, Kim Hye-sung. He was unable to protect the two runs his team’s bats provided.

Encouragingly, she was able to stay on the mound. After facing five consecutive hits in the fourth inning, he retired all three batters (Lee Ji-young, Shin Jun-woo, and Kim Soo-hwan), and in the fifth inning, he gave up a two-out double to Lee Jung-hoo, but struck out Lee Won-seok.

Yoon gave up seven runs on 11 hits against the NC Dinos on April 17. It was the most hits and runs allowed in his debut. Manager Kim Jong-kook decided it was time to give Yoon a break and removed him from the first team roster. The game against Kiwoom on the 28th was Yoon’s comeback game. He didn’t pitch badly considering his time off and the large number of runs he gave up in his previous outing.

We also checked one homework assignment. His pitch mix. Yoon excels at deception (hiding the ball when pitching). His changeup is almost like a four-seam fastball. This means that hitters have a hard time recognizing the pitch.

The problem is that the slider pales in comparison to the power of the changeup. The slider-fastball combination didn’t work well in the fourth inning either. Against Kim Hye-sung and Lee Jung-hoo, he showed his slider first and followed it up with a fastball, but they were both hit by pitches. The hits against Lim Ji-yeol and Song Sung-moon were also sliders.

There were many pitches that went into the strike zone even if the catcher was sitting outside. Since there was not much movement and drop, batters could not take advantage of the timing of the fastball, and many batters were caught with the tip of the bat.

It’s risky for a lefty to throw a changeup against lefties. That’s why many lefties utilize sliders.

On this day, Yoon had a .429 slugging percentage with his slider. While his BABIP on the season is still low (0.130), his slider has improved and is now at 0.275.

The rookie pitcher deserves high praise for having an accurate fastball and a solid deciding pitch (changeup). He’ll need to sharpen up his slider to get to a higher level.