The same was true of Aaron Wilkerson (34), a foreign pitcher who recently joined Lotte. Based on his experience playing for Hanshin in the Japanese professional baseball league last year, Wilkerson challenged the Korean stage this time. Lotte signed a contract with Wilkerson for a total of $350,000.
Wilkerson could easily acquire information about Korean baseball. First of all, among the players who played with Hanshin last year, Raul Alcantara and Mel Rojas Jr., who have thick bones in the KBO League, were colleagues. Among them, Alcantara returned to Doosan ahead of this season and is playing as an ace.
“Alcantara and Rojas Jr., who played together in Hanshin, told me a good story,” Wilkerson said. “In particular, Alcantara wanted to stay in Korea longer than Japan.” “I told him that there would be no problem adjusting because the Korean and American baseball styles are similar,” he said.
Wilkerson, who left the Japanese stage after last season and returned to the U.S., played for the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators under the Oakland Athletics. The Las Vegas coaching staff had a memorable foreign player who once played for Lotte, so it was Brian Cory.
Corey joined Lotte in 2011 and pitched in 25 games regardless of starting and saving, recording 4 wins, 3 losses, 3 saves, 1 hold and a 4.23 ERA. However, Corey continued to be sluggish in the summer, and in the end, Lotte pulled out the sword of replacing foreign pitchers. When Lotte announced Corrie on waivers in July of that year, their relationship ended like that.
Cory, who is already 50 years old, is living his second baseball career as a leader. He is currently a pitching coach in Las Vegas and has given various advice to Wilkerson, who challenged the Korean stage. Wilkerson laughed, saying, “I only heard good things from pitching coach Corey, who I met while playing in Triple-A this year, but I didn’t hear bad things.”
Wilkerson, who has just worn Lotte’s uniform, is set to make his KBO league debut by performing live pitching at Sajik Stadium on the 22nd. There were a total of 30 pitches, and he used five pitches: fastballs, cutters, sliders, changeups, and curves. The maximum speed was 145 kilometers.
Lotte manager Larry Sutton, who watched Wilkerson’s live pitching, said, “Wilkerson showed a very good performance in live pitching. The ball control looked good, and all the pitches he had were controlled. He also showed aggressive entering the strike zone. “He is a player with a very good sense of fingertips,” he praised, not hiding his expectations.
BY: 스포츠토토핫