The end of winter, the day when spring begins, and perhaps the opening of professional baseball is one of the best examples. Daegu Samsung Lions Park, which was happy with its victory and advance to the Korean Series in the fall of 2024, is also ready to be with its fans ahead of the first game. What are the conditions that the Samsung Lions proudly announce their goal of winning the championship and reach higher levels than in 2024? Here are the three conditions for winning the championship in Daegu MBC Sports+.먹튀검증

Samsung, which had held its spring camp with an evaluation that it has become more solid than 2024, has raised expectations due to the performance of four rookies including Bae Chan-seung. There were also hopeful predictions that the new starting resources, expectations for Furado and Choi Won-tae, and the power of home runs, which had been cool in 2024, will continue. All these expectations turned into concerns at the news of the main players' injuries that continued from the middle of the camp.

A case in point is Kim Moo-shin, who had high expectations as the core of this season's bullpen. He will not be able to take the mound in 2025 due to elbow ligament bonding surgery. Samsung, which has been agonizing over its absence in the bullpen, has been burdened by the absence of playoff MVP Reyes and multiple wins Won Tae-in from the opening series. The fact that the two starting pitchers are scheduled to return to the mound at the end of March is a comforting factor, and the timing of the injured players' return to the mound is expected to be the biggest variable for Samsung's bid to win the title.

Kim Young-woong and Lee Sung-kyu, who also played as the team's center hitters in the lineup, left Okinawa due to injuries, adding to the depression. The injuries of the players who collaborated with 50 home runs in 2024 also had a bad effect on the weight of the lineup. Fortunately, Kim Young-woong returned to the team ahead of the opening, and Lee Sung-kyu is also likely to return within two to three weeks. 

Samsung, which suffered throughout the fall baseball due to the injury suffered by the team's captain Koo Ja-wook in the second round of the playoffs, is more worried and concerned about the injury, and it is comforting that Koo Ja-wook hit a home run in the Okinawa practice game with a quick recovery and regained his normal condition by starting defensive training again. The time when the injured recover and operate their normal power has emerged as an important variable for Samsung.

Samsung, which recorded 78 wins, two draws and 64 losses in 2024, finished the regular league with a nine-game gap with the winning team, the KIA Tigers. Again, the gap between the first and second place in the regular league is a big variable for the fall baseball, which remains the biggest obstacle to the team's bid to win the championship. Samsung's poor performance at the beginning of the league last season was crucial for Samsung to overcome this gap.

Early last year, when Samsung had high expectations by holding the opening two consecutive games against KT Wiz in Suwon, Samsung showed a severe slump by giving up one draw and two losses in Jamsil and all five games in Daegu, which continued from the home opener. Samsung, which even gave up its first away game in Gwangju, began the 2024 season with a fall in the bottom ranks with eight consecutive losses at the beginning of the league. Of course, it announced a quick recovery with five consecutive wins, but the early gap finally caught up in the pursuit of the top spot. 

It would not be an exaggeration to say that it depends on whether Samsung will show its power to win the championship at the beginning of the league, which will be an important point to overcome the disappointment of 2024. It is expected that an important path will unfold from the beginning to achieve the goal of winning, whether it will be able to bring the atmosphere from the beginning.

Another Achilles' heel for Samsung, the runner-up team in 2024, is the terrible performance it experienced against KIA. In the 16 games it played against KIA during the regular season, Samsung had 4 wins and 12 losses. Given that it had an advantage over six teams in matches against Kia, and garnered seven wins each from the SSG Landers and KT, which were inferior to each other, this gap is directly related to the ranking.

Samsung, which collapsed with one win and four losses in the Korean Series, only had one win in Daegu and failed to catch a single game in Gwangju. This trend continued into the 2025 exhibition games, which is also painful for the team to lose all of its two away games in Gwangju last weekend. It has lost seven consecutive away games in Gwangju since August 11, 2024.

Another reason Samsung should overcome Kia is the strongest candidate for this season's championship. Kia and LG, which have been evaluated as 100 percent advancement in fall baseball by almost all experts and general managers in the baseball community, and Kia must overcome from its opponent's match to the fall of 2024. Only when it surpasses Kia, then will it be able to win the title. Regarding this, General Manager Lee Jong-yeol also recognized it as one of the major goals of the season and said, "We are thoroughly preparing for that."

Can Samsung go beyond KIA and try to become the president even stronger than 2024? 144 dramas, the first installment of which will begin soon.