"He studies so hard."
KIA Tigers ace James Neill (33) handled his first outing without issue. It was a true first game befitting a championship ace who had reliably guarded the mound for two years. In particular, he reduced the proportion of sweepers and faced hitters using a variety of breaking balls. His pitching showed the will to remain the ace in his third season.
On the 1st, he started in a practice game against Hanwha Eagles at Gin Town Baseball Star Stadium in Okinawa. Over two innings he faced seven batters, threw 21 pitches, gave up one hit, struck out two and allowed no runs. He issued no walks. His top speed was 147 kph. He had planned to throw about 40 pitches but stopped at 21. He checked all pitches: four-seam and two-seam fastballs, cutter, changeup, curve and sweeper.
In the first inning he retired Shim Woo-joon with a fly out to left field; he induced a grounder to short from Peraza and a grounder to first from Kang Baek-ho to end the inning. In the second inning, the leadoff batter Chae Eun-seong got a single to left, but he struck out Han Ji-yoon and Ha Ju-suk in succession and retired Kim Tae-yean with a grounder to short to finish his appearance. He handed the baton to Kim Si-hoon starting the third inning.
He threw the pitches and to the locations he wanted. After the game he said, "Overall the game content was good. I tried to use almost all of my pitches, and I am satisfied that I could use both set and windup. Since it was the first game, I might not have thrown a lot of strikes, so I'm also satisfied that I threw a lot of strikes."
He added, "I thought it had improved a lot compared with around this time last year. In my first year when I came to the KBO I thought I had to work on my changeup, and today the changeup went in well. I felt I needed a slow pitch in my pitching mechanics, so I wanted to throw a lot of curveballs, and that was also satisfactory." He had added a new pitch.
Neill did not rest on being the championship ace in the 2024 season and made changes for 2025. As hitters began to attack his powerful sweeper, he practiced changeups and cutters and added them to his repertoire, lowering his earned run average from 2.53 to 2.25. This year he sought greater diversity in breaking balls. Neill explained, "I'm not a pitcher with overwhelming velocity compared with other foreign players. Now that hitters know my main weapon is the sweeper and have adjusted to it, I have to mix my pitches smartly. I'm also trying to be efficient with my pitch count."
Before Neill, the Tigers' greatest foreign pitchers were Aquilino Lopez and Hector Noesi. They were foreign aces who led championships in 2009 and 2017, respectively. Lopez earned two Korea Series wins and Hector recorded 20 wins in a season. However, the year after their championships they did not show ace-level performance. Lopez won four games and Hector won 11, but their ERAs rose into the 4.00s.
Neill showed even more power after the championship. That was possible because he studied KBO League hitters and sought change and development. Manager Lee Beom-ho, whom he met at the king stadium, also applauded, "A player who truly studies is different. He came to camp and has been studying very hard. This year we will definitely reduce the sweeper ratio. Instead he will throw curveballs or throw a lot of changeups."
Neill said, "I threw 21 today and felt so exhausted that I thought I couldn't go up in the third inning. I want to make my body condition such that after pitching three innings in the next game I could still go up for a fourth inning." He added, "Ideally I want to sweep every title, but I think if I show the parts I can deliver each game, pitch well and take responsibility for the innings, the titles will follow." The confidence of an ace you can trust was evident this year as well.
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