Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and other Dodgers stars predict winner of chicken wing eating contest

As the new season dawns upon the LA Dodgers, the team has been ramping up its preparations in hopes of being the first team to defend its World Series championship since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.

Apart from on-field preparations, the team doesn't forget to cool off and spend time doing fun activities together. One such event is its annual chicken wing eating contest. In a video posted on the team's Instagram account on Monday, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and other Dodgers stars predicted this year's winner.

"I'm going to go Bazooka for the obvious. He's a big human being," Betts said.

"Bazooka, because he's big," Ohtani said.

The two MVPs, along with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Miguel Rojas, picked Brusdar Graterol to ace the competition. Rojas also predicted that the reliever would consume 70 wings in 45 minutes.

The competitors cited Graterol's size as his advantage in the contest. He is listed at 6-foot-1, 265 pounds.

However, LA skipper Dave Roberts picked Blake Treinen. Hyeseong Kim also went on a different route and picked Ohtani to win the event.

Dodgers coaching staff shower Hyeseong Kim with praise

In an interview with the press after the LA Dodgers' training session, Dave Roberts had nothing but words of affirmation for newly acquired KBO star Hyeseong Kim.

"I think that he can certainly win ballgames with his defense alone," Roberts said on Monday.

Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates added that Kim has the fundamentals of a great player but would still need to get acclimated to the league.

"Obviously, he was a great player in Korea and has all the components, so it's just making some tweaks here and there," Bates said.

When asked which position he prefers to play, Kim had an interesting answer.

"I'm not tied down to a single position, so I'm practicing at every single position that I get a chance to," Kim said. "I'm going to prepare whenever I'm called on to play any position that Doc would want me to play."

Pundits and analysts predict that Kim would fill the void at second base left by Gavin Lux. However, he has shown promise in all infield positions as he has won the KBO Fielding Award twice.