Lotte Giants manager Kim Tae-hyung (57), who had a disappointing first season, said, "What will happen to the second round of wrap-up training after taking the helm.메이저사이트

"We will prepare for what we lacked this year until the spring camp," Kim told Star News at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on Sunday. "I think it will be better than this year," he said, expressing his commitment to start the final camp.

Lotte will hold its final camp at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan and Sangdong Baseball Stadium in Gimhae, Gyeongnam from the 10th to the 24th of next month.

Forty-seven players, including coach Kim, will participate in the camp, including 12 coaching staff and 35 players, and 2025 rookie players will start training with the first-tier team from the 15th. In addition to training, the team will include practice games with the KIA Tigers at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on the 14th, and the Futures Education League (23 participants) at Munsu Baseball Stadium in Ulsan and the KBO Baseball Center in Gijang-gun, Busan, from the 15th.

Lotte ended the 2024 season with 66 wins, 74 losses and four draws (winning percentage 0.471) and seventh place in the regular season. As a result, Lotte failed to advance to the postseason for the seventh consecutive year until this season since it went straight to the semi-playoff in 2017 at the third place. It is the darkest period in the club's history since 2001-2007, when it was the so-called "8888577."

Lotte, which started its opening four-game winning streak, was at the bottom of the league with eight wins, 21 losses and one draw (winning rate of 0.276) through April. Even the three-time Korean Series champion had no choice. "I thought it would be difficult for me when I entered the exhibition game. I tested the infielders because I thought it would be difficult for me to compete with them," manager Kim said. "Players must have been very busy, but the player who captures the opportunity well (from there) will be the starting player."

In fact, Lotte was able to operate the season stably in May thanks to the infield lineup of first baseman Na Seung-yeop, second baseman Ko Seung-min, third baseman Sohn Ho-young and shortstop Park Seung-wook. In June, the team ranked first overall with a 0.609 win rate, and succeeded in turning the tables with 14 wins and eight losses (0.636) in August. Excluding the March-April period, the winning rate is over 50 percent.

However, the fact that he failed to advance to the fall baseball league will be regrettable in the end. "In the end, it is hard for a manager to lose. It will be even harder to lose than to win," Kim said.

In the final training, the first step to prepare for next year after the disappointing 2024 season, manager Kim said through the club, "We plan to train intensely for pitchers and fielders because it is meaningful when the players earn something in the final camp," signaling a "strong training." In response, he said, "There is nothing special, and I am trying to take more training in areas that are needed and lacking."

Notably, Kim is paying close attention to the team even when referring to the pitchers alone. Lotte ranked at least seventh with a team ERA of 5.05. Notably, its earned run average earned run average (ERA) in relief fell to ninth with 5.36. "We will continue to match the pitchers we lacked this year until the (Spring) Camp," Kim said. "We need to prepare throughout the season by supplementing the things that we lacked, breaking balls and other parts that we didn't do, and we need to start the camp."

"I want to see rookies, too. I want to see rookies who have seen them for a few days and think they are okay, and I want to see some players I haven't seen before," Kim said. As for rookies' participation in the training, he said, "We need to ask the players. In particular, pitchers should check if they can throw balls."

Manager Kim will hold his second final training session at the Lotte Giants. "It's not much different from last year. I think a year has passed and we have already seen the outline of the fielders and pitching staff," Kim said. "We will figure out whether the players who are rehabilitating after surgery will return to the camp and how long they will be able to perform next season, and then we will try to better prepare the next pitchers by ranking them in order."