Three veterans who used the Doosan Bears as a springboard for their growth are inspiring younger players. Infielders Park Jun-young (26), Kang Seung-ho (29), and Park Kye-beom (27) are the main characters.

All three players were selected by Doosan to change uniforms. Park Jun-young is the compensation for catcher Park Se-hyuk (4 years, 4.6 billion won), who moved to the NC Dinos as a free agent ahead of this season. Ahead of the 2021 season, Kang Seung-ho and Park Kye-beom joined Doosan as compensation for free agents Choi Joo-hwan (SSG, 4 years, 4.2 billion won) and Oh Jae-il (Samsung, 4 years, 5 billion won), respectively. The total price of the three free agents was 13.8 billion won. Doosan prepared for the future by filling the spots of the leaked power with young, unproven beasts with a market value of 13.8 billion won.

During their golden era from 2015 to 2021, when they reached the Korean Series for seven consecutive years and won three titles, Doosan was building one of the league’s strongest infields. The combination of Heo Kyung-min at third base, Kim Jae-ho at shortstop, Oh Jae-won (now retired) at second base, and Oh Jae-il at first base was literally unstoppable. The pitchers on the mound couldn’t be more reliable, and the hitters at the plate struggled to break through the Doosan infield unless they hit the ball to the outfield.

However, the golden age cannot last forever. With the keystone duo of Kim Jae-ho and Oh Jae-won entering their late 30s and Oh Jae-il leaving for free agency, Doosan was forced to prepare for a generational shift. Doosan looked for ways to add infielders in their mid-to-late 20s to bridge the gap between the veterans and the younger players who still need more development in the Hwasubun system. Park Jun-young, Kang Seung-ho, and Park Kye-beom are the three players they brought in.바카라사이트

The three compensation players have brought a healthy dose of tension to Hwasubun baseball, just as Doosan hoped. This year, Park Kye-beom was the first to stand out. At the beginning of the season, Kim Jae-ho, Lee Yoo-chan, and Ahn Jae-seok, who were competing for the shortstop position under Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop, shook things up. Park, who had been calmly preparing in the second team, joined the team in May and became a big help in the batting order. His presence at shortstop gave Kim Jae-ho time to improve his form, while Lee Yoo-chan moved to second base to take some of the pressure off the defense.

In June, when the team’s bats were at their quietest, Kang Seung-ho came in from the second team and exploded. He had two home runs and 10 RBIs in 19 games in June and two home runs and 12 RBIs in 10 games in July, adding weight to the bottom of the order. This gave Lee, who struggled with fitness issues in his first full season, time to adjust his conditioning.

Park is the final runner in this year’s compensated player success myth race. In terms of impact, he is the most intense of the three. Park underwent shoulder surgery last year and only received his first call-up to the first team on July 7 after rehabilitation. Despite being the slowest to get going, he has been a big part of Doosan’s 10-game winning streak, batting .467 (7-for-15) with one home run and eight RBIs in five games with the first team. He also doubled (3) and tripled (2), giving him an on-base percentage of 1.133.

Lee commented on Park’s performance, saying, “He keeps looking good, but he needs to fail once. I want to see how he responds when he fails,” he said, warning against hasty praise, but adding, “Second team coach Lee Jung-hoon said he thinks he has a very good player, and he said, ‘I think he’s got something.’ When he hits good balls, he responds well to changeups, and his defense is stable, so I think he will be helpful to the team.”

For all three, it’s too early to rest on their laurels. They still have a ways to go before they can be labeled “mainstays. Kang Seung-ho has played second and first base, Park Kye-beom has played shortstop and second base, and Park Jun-young has played shortstop and third base and is in the process of establishing himself as a multi-position player.

Still, it’s clear that Hwasubun is providing a good impetus to a baseball program that seemed to take a pause after Kim Jae-hwan and Park Gun-woo (now NC) in 2016. Lee has been working steadily this year to develop Doosan’s handpicked talent, including Kim Dae-hyun, Ahn Jae-seok, Lee Yoo-chan, Song Seung-hwan, and Hong Seong-ho, into mainstays. With the exception of Lee Yoo-chan and Hong Seong-ho, most of these players have not performed as well as expected due to injuries and sluggishness and are still in the second team, but their growth will make Doosan’s future brighter. That’s why it’s good to see the likes of Park Jun-young, Kang Seung-ho, and Park Kye-beom seizing the opportunities that have come their way, even if they aren’t perfect.