The Tokyo Dome in Japan will be rocking once again this November. The 62-man preliminary roster for the Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) 2023 has been finalized.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) 토스카지노 announced on Monday that it has finalized the 62-player preliminary roster for the national team to compete in the Asian Professional Baseball Championship 2023, which will be held at the Tokyo Dome in Japan this November.

The Asian Baseball Championship was held for the first time in 2017 with the aim of providing prospective players with international competition experience. The tournament was originally scheduled to be held every four years, but was pushed back by two years due to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The tournament will now be held for the first time in six years. As the tournament is dominated by young players, the preliminary roster is composed of players aged 24 or younger (born after January 1999) or within their third year in the game.
There are 30 pitchers and 32 fielders on the roster. In the last edition of the tournament, there were only 42 players on the preliminary roster, but this time, the number has increased by 20 to 62.

The pitchers are Song Young-jin, Lee Rin, Choi Min-joon, and Oh Won-seok (SSG), Jang Jae-young and Lee Myung-jong (Kiwoom), Jung Woo-young and Park Myung-geun (LG), Kim Min-hyun, Park Young-hyun, and Son Dong-hyun (KT), Jung Hae-young, Lee Lee-ri, Yoon Young-chul, and Choi Ji-min (KIA), Kim Si-hoon, and Song Myung-ki, Shin Min-hyuk, Lee Yong-joon, and Kim Young-gyu (NC), Lee Seung-hyun (2002) and Won Tae-in (Samsung), Jin Seung-hyun, Choi Jun-yong, and Kim Jin-wook (Lotte), Kwak Bin, Chung Chul-won, Lee Byung-heon (Doosan), and Moon Dong-joo and Han Seung-joo (Hanwha). There are eight left-handed pitchers and 22 right-handed pitchers.

At the catcher position, seven players were named to the reserve roster: Cho Hyung-woo (SSG), Kim Dong-heon (Kiwoom), Han Jun-soo (KIA), Kim Hyung-joon (NC), Heo In-seo (Sangsung), and Lee Jung-geun and Son Sung-bin (Lotte). Han Jun-soo is the only left fielder.

Seventeen infielders were named to the reserve roster, including Jeon Eui-san (SSG), Kim Hwi-jip, Kim Hye-sung, Lee Ju-hyung (Kiwoom), Lee Jae-won and Moon Bo-kyung (LG), Kang Baek-ho (KT), Kim Do-young (KIA), Kim Joo-won (NC), Lee Jae-hyun and Kim Ji-chan (Samsung), Han Dong-hee (Lotte), No Shi-hwan, Jung Eun-won, Moon Hyun-bin (Hanwha), and Han Tae-yang and Na Seung-yeop (CEO). Seven are right-handers and 10 are left-handers.

Eight outfielders were called up to the reserve roster: Park Chan-hyuk (Kiwoom), Kim Hyun-joon and Kim Sung-yoon (Samsung), Yoon Dong-hee, Ko Seung-min, Kim Min-seok (Lotte), Kim Dae-hyun (Doosan), and Choo Jae-hyun (Commerce). Three are right-handers and five are left-handers.

South Korea’s baseball team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. /AFPBBNews=News1

The South Korean team at the 2017 Asian Baseball Championship.
In the first edition of the tournament, South Korea finished as runners-up with a record of 2 wins and 2 losses. In the final against Japan, the team held on for four innings, but three runs in the fifth inning caused them to falter and they lost 0-7. It is no exaggeration to say that Kim Ha-seong (San Diego), Lee Jung-hoo (Kiwoom), Koo Ja-uk (Samsung), Park Min-woo (NC), Park Se-woong (Lotte), Koo Chang-mo (NC), and Ham Deok-ju (LG), who were the mainstays of that team, are now leading Korean baseball. Since then, the tournament has raised the profile of the Korean baseball program as it has hosted the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, the 2019 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier 12, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC).

The APBC 2023 will feature South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. The final roster of 26 players, including three wild cards (players born on or after January 1, 1994), will be finalized in mid-October. The team will face Australia on Nov. 16 at noon, followed by the fateful Korea-Japan game at 7 p.m. on Nov. 17. They will then face Chinese Taipei on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. for the third game. After three days of full league play, the team will compete in either the third-place game or the final game on the final day of the tournament, depending on the results of the preliminary rounds. Naturally, South Korea’s goal at the APBC is to win the title. To do so, they must defeat Japan. Korea suffered a first-round exit at the 2023 WBC in March at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. This time around, they have a great opportunity to avenge that loss in the heart of the Japanese archipelago. The best-case scenario would be to carry the good vibes into the APBC 2023 following the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou next month.

Preliminary roster for the Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) 2023. /Table=Courtesy of KBO

Preliminary rosters by club. /Table=Courtesy of KBO