Go Woo-seok talks about his return to Korea.
The San Diego Padres held their official training camp for the 2024 MLB World Tour Seoul Series on March 16 at the Gocheok SkyDome in Seoul. The Padres, who will play a season-opening two-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 20-21, will also have practice games against Team Korea on the 17th and the LG Twins on the 18th.
“I slept well,” Go Woo-seok laughed after the training session. He laughed about being back in his homeland and having to deal with jet lag again.
“I like to read media articles,” said Go, who signed with San Diego in January and attended his first major league camp. “I read all the articles about seniors who have gone before me. I read all the articles about seniors who went to the major leagues before me, and I think that helped me a lot when I first went to camp.” “The environment is very different from Korea. In terms of training, the amount of training is actually higher in Korea. But in the major leagues, everything is evaluated, even if it’s just a drill, so the players don’t take drills lightly. Everyone is really nervous about training. Everything is evaluated, and the evaluation accumulates,” he said of spring training.
Some players have become close over the course of the camp. Like Ko, Yuki Matsui is a Japanese pitcher who joined San Diego this offseason. As former national team closers in Korea and Japan, Go Woo-seok and Matsui are competitors and understand each other better than most. “I think I talk to Yuki the most (besides Kim Ha-seong),” says Koo, “He has a good personality. He talks in English, and I try to mix in Japanese,” he laughs.
One of the players he can count on is veteran ace Darvish Yudo, who has already had a stellar career in the major leagues. “I show him the videos I’ve seen and ask him how he throws these pitches and how he feels when he throws these pitches,” he said.
“Not really,” said Ko, who appeared to lose some control in recent exhibition games. My velocity is the same as usual. I’m still throwing around 93-95 miles per hour.” “I just need to wake up more in the sensory part of throwing the ball, which I feel is a little lacking. I don’t have a lot of time to work on it, but I’ll try to make up for it and go out there and pitch.”
“The pitching coach showed me the power analysis of the hitters before the practice game with the LG and the national team,” he said, “I was really surprised. It was written down what I thought about the hitters when I was in the LG. I don’t think we’re 토토 going to have a meeting because it’s a scrimmage, but I was surprised at how accurate it was,” he laughed.
San Diego will play two exhibition games. “I haven’t heard when I’ll pitch yet. I’ll probably find out soon,” he said, adding, “(Oh) Ji-hwan called my brother and said, ‘I’m just going to take three swings and miss, so throw three balls down the middle.
The two exhibition games are not only a final physical check before the opening game, but also a friendly matchup between the Major Leagues and the KBO. It’s not a high-pressure game. But it’s important for Go Woo-seok. The opening roster has yet to be finalized. With an ERA of 12.46 in five exhibition games, he’ll need to be on top of his game.
“Actually, the manager called me before I came to Korea to say that the roster was announced, so I was nervous because I thought the 26-man starting roster had been announced,” Go said, “but the manager said, ‘Congratulations. Let’s go to Korea together. “I thought, ‘It’s good that I’m going to Korea with you, but there’s still one spot left,'” he recalls.