American undervaluation or bad luck for Ha-Sung Kim (San Diego Padres)?
Since 2019, 카지노사이트 Major League Baseball has selected its All-MLB team at the end of the year based on a 50/50 split between fan and expert voting. Instead of the traditional Silver Slugger and Gold Glove for each position, it is similar to the KBO’s Golden Glove. The two leagues are combined to create a first and second team.
Among Korean major leaguers, Ryu Hyun-jin was named to the Second Team for the second consecutive year in 2019, when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and 2020, in his first season with the Toronto Blue Jays. For starting pitchers, there are five on the First Team and five on the Second Team, but they are still symbolic of the top 10 starting pitchers of the season.
Position players are even more difficult to honour, with only one first-team and one second-team selection. So, what are the chances of Kim Ha-Sung (San Diego Padres), who is in his third year in the majors, being named to the All-MLB second base team?
Ha-Sung Kim of the San Diego Padres/Getty Images Korea
MLB.com released the results of its experts’ midseason mock voting on Thursday. At second base, Luis Arajuez (Miami Marlins) was selected to the First Team and Marcus Semien (Texas Rangers) to the Second Team.
Arajuez was a sensation in the first half of the year, hitting around the .400 mark, but has lost a lot of power, but still leads the majors with a .367 batting average. MLB.com reports that Ararez is on pace to reach 200 hits for the first time in his career.
Kim Ha-seong is also hitting well at .286, but he lacks the impact of Araez. In terms of batting average alone, Kim is fourth in the majors behind Araez, Whit Merrifield (Toronto Blue Jays, 0.302), and Bryson Stott (Philadelphia Phillies, 0.297).
Ha-Sung Kim/Getty Images Korea
Semien’s second-team selection is a surprise. His .281 batting average ranks sixth among major league second basemen and his .816 OPS ranks fifth among major league second basemen. His batting average and OPS are lower than Kim’s (0.830), but he still made the second team. For reference, Kim has the fourth-best OPS among major league second basemen. However, Semien has a slightly better cumulative stat line with 18 home runs and 72 RBIs than Kim’s 15 home runs and 42 RBIs.
In any case, this is where the keywords unlucky and undervalued come to mind for Kim. Kim’s 5.9 WAR per Baseball-Reference is good enough to rank second in the majors. He doesn’t play baseball for the prize, but it’s a result that’s hard to ignore.
Ha-Sung Kim of the San Diego Padres./Getty Images Korea
For now, we’ll have to wait and see. There’s still a month and a half left in the regular season. In any case, the competition is higher for the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, so it’s hard to make the Second Team with a modest performance. Still, MLB.com noted that Kim and Stott received the experts’ votes at second base in its mock poll.