Tolhurst, a foreign pitcher for the professional baseball LG Twins, jokingly said he would try a "two-way" role this season after wearing an Austin uniform and throwing bullpen pitches.
On the 29th (Korea time), Tolhurst threw bullpen sessions at spring camp in Scottsdale, Arizona, with Wells, who was recruited as an Asia quota player.
After finishing the bullpen session, Tolhurst said, "I threw about 25 pitches. I wanted to test the four pitches I have. Overall they seemed to come in well. I checked the directional tendencies of the locations for each pitch."
After the bullpen session, Tolhurst talked at length with pitching coach Kim Kwang-sam. Tolhurst explained, "Originally I was told to pitch at about 60% effort today, but I worked on the bullpen a few times in the off season. The coach jokingly asked, 'Why did you increase it so much?' about the slightly higher intensity."
He also said, "He said positively that my release point seems a bit more consistent than during the season." When asked to rate his bullpen session that day, Tolhurst said, "About an 87 out of 100. I was satisfied, but it's not yet complete."
But that day Tolhurst threw bullpen pitches wearing an Austin uniform with the number 23 on it. It seems the LG players' training uniform that day was the home uniform, and Tolhurst probably forgot to bring his home uniform.
After the bullpen session, Coach Kim Kwang-sam finished his conversation with Tolhurst and praised him, saying, "Ohtani was good," and Tolhurst smiled sheepishly.
When asked about the story of wearing the "Austin uniform" while throwing bullpen pitches, Tolhurst made the joke seriously. He said, "We talked in the off season and decided to try being a two-way player. We'll see if I can help on the bases or as a designated hitter. But I will focus on pitching, and if the team always needs me in the field or at the plate, I will be ready," he said jokingly.
Tolhurst told LG fans, "I'm so happy to be back with LG. I really want to meet the fans soon. Of course my goal is that our team wins the Korean Series again back-to-back."
Tolhurst joined LG last August after L.A. Jeremiah Hernandez was released and served as a replacement player. He played in eight games with a 6-2 record and a 2.86 earned run average, greatly contributing to LG's regular-season championship. In the Korean Series he started games 1 and 5, going 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA and became a key figure in the title. He delivered perfect outings of six innings with two runs allowed and seven innings with one run allowed.
Tolhurst re-signed for a total of $1.2 million (signing bonus $200,000, salary $800,000, incentives $200,000).
<
[OSEN]