Endlessly undervalued. In the latest position-by-position rankings from Bleacher Report, Ha-Sung Kim (San Diego Padres) was not among the top 10 second basemen.
Bleacher Report compiled and reported its position-by-position rankings for the past seven days. We combined the National and American Leagues to create the top 10 in the majors, and Luis Ararez (Miami Marlins) is the No. 1 second baseman. Ketel Marte (Arizona Diamondbacks), third Marcus Semien (Texas Rangers), fourth Ozzie Albies (Atlanta Braves), fifth Nico Hourner (Chicago Cubs), sixth Yairo Estrada (San Francisco Giants), seventh Bryson Stott (Philadelphia Phillies), eighth Glavier Torres (New York Yankees), ninth Jonathan India (Cincinnati Reds), and 10th Mauricio Duvon (Houston Astros).안전놀이터
You have to give credit to Arajuez (.383), a National League All-Star and the major league leader in batting average. He deserves to be recognized as the best second baseman in baseball for his defense, fielding, and bat. While he’s still a long way from his dream .400 average, a .388 average is still a very good number.
In the end, it’s a hit-first, name-first lineup. In his notes, Bleacher Report also explains the OPS+, RBI, and WAR of the top players. In terms of OPS, Kim ranks 12th among all major league second basemen with a 0.760 OPS. His Adjusted Runs Created per FanGraphs is 43, which ranks 10th overall, and his Weighted Slugging Percentage is 0.335, which ranks 7th. Not top of the line, but not bad either.
Furthermore, Kim’s defense is still overlooked. According to FanGraphs, Kim leads all major league second basemen with a DRS of 11 and an OAA of 10. Even if these two metrics aren’t a perfect measure of defense, they’re still pretty impressive. The DRS runner-up, Andres Jimenez (8, Cleveland Cavaliers), is also not in Bleacher Report’s top 10. The OAA runners-up are Semien and Horner, both at 8. They are ranked third and fifth by Blitchaport.
The sky isn’t falling because Kim isn’t in the top 10 second basemen on Blitcher’s list, and it doesn’t take away from the good things about him. However, it does lead to the conclusion that he needs to hit better to be recognized.
His stats show that his bat isn’t going anywhere, but if he wants to be recognized across the country and get a better contract in the future, the answer is the bat. As soon as his bat gets better, he’ll be treated differently.