Ha-seong Kim (28, San Diego Padres) is hitting the market every day in the summer. He is now being evaluated as one of the top five players in the league. On the 18th (Korean time), American media ESPN had time to guess the MVP candidate rankings of both major leagues (MLB) this season through ‘AXE (Award Index)’. AX is an index developed by ESPN columnist Bradford Doolittle, and is a standard for evaluating players through several formulas.
According to this, the American League is already going to the solo system of Ohtani Shohei (LA Angels). In AXE, which sets the league average at 100, Ohtani recorded 168.1, showing a large gap with Corey Seager (Texas, 139.1) in second place. The media also predicted his award with the logic that “Ohtani is definite (He’s a lock)” and “MVP voters prefer players with excellent batting.”
However, the National League does not show that much gap. Currently, Ronald Acuña Jr. (Atlanta), who is showing outstanding batting performance, such as 3rd in league batting average (0.335), 10th in home runs (27), 1st in stolen bases (55), and 3rd in OPS (0.005), is the most likely. . Acuna is leading the way with an AXE of 147.1, but it’s not far behind second-place Mookie Betts (LA Dodgers)’s 145.7. Betts also hit 31 homers, approaching his own record of 35 set last year. Next, Freddie Freeman (LA Dodgers) ranked 3rd and 4th with 143.9 and Matt Olson (Atlanta) ranked 3rd and 4th with 133.9 respectively. He recorded 133.8, showing a gap of only 0.1 to Olsen. As of the 18th, Olsen hit 43 home runs, which is surprising in that he is ranked first in the major leagues.
As of the 18th, Kim Ha-seong has played in 117 games of the season and has a batting average of 0.281, 15 home runs, 42 RBIs, 67 points and 27 stolen bases, and an OPS of 0.813. Recently, the pace has fallen somewhat, but the baseball statistics website Baseball Reference’s WAR (contributed to victory over substitutes) is 5.7, ranking third in the league. In particular, the defensive WAR ranks first with a 2.0. Even in the first half, Kim Ha-seong was a player who could not stand out. Although he received good reviews over the past two years for his excellent defense, he recorded a batting average of 0.258 and OPS 0.760 until the All-Star break, showing a slightly better batting performance than last year (0.251 batting average, 0.708 OPS). In the 2022 season, he hit 11 home runs in 150 games, but this year, he hit 10 home runs in 85 games in the first half, and it was noticeable that the pace had improved.
However, Ha-seong Kim became a completely different hitter in the second half. He appeared in 32 games until the 19th and has a batting average of 0.333, 5 home runs, 11 RBIs and 11 steals, and an OPS of 0.931. He is playing the role of a table setter properly by pulling out an excellent on-base percentage (0.427) based on his advanced pitching strategy. In particular, from the 23rd of last month to the 8th of last month, he consistently succeeded in getting on base at least twice in every game, tying the record of consecutive multiple on-base (15 games) by an Asian player set by Ichiro Suzuki in 2007. 스포츠토토 Also, from Pittsburgh on the 25th of last month to Arizona on the 12th of this month, he achieved hits in 16 consecutive games, tying the record achieved by Choo Shin-soo (41, now SSG) in 2013 when he was in Cincinnati. During this period, Kim Ha-seong showed a good sense of hitting with 24 hits in 58 at-bats and a batting average of 0.414.
As a result, the gaze on Kim Ha-seong as the National League MVP candidate is also increasing. On the 9th, MLB.com, the official homepage of the major leagues, held a mock vote for the MVP of both major leagues and named Kim Ha-sung. Although Acuña swept 45 out of 48 votes for the first place, Ha-seong Kim was also included in the rankings and was selected. On the 16th, Fangraph, a baseball statistics site, also brought out Ha-seong Kim’s name, saying, “Acuña, Freeman, and Betts, some players are showing great performances.” At this rate, Kim Ha-seong is more likely to rank the highest in Korean MVP voting. Previously, Choo Shin-soo (SSG) received the first vote when he ranked 14th in the American League MVP in 2010 while he was in Cleveland. Afterwards, Ryu Hyun-jin (36, Toronto) accepted the results of 19th in the National League in 2019 and 13th in the American League in 2020. No one made it to the top 10.
At that time, Choo Shin-soo received one 6th place vote both times. Kim Ha-seong, who is currently recording the highest player value in the league, is highly likely to receive at least one vote of 5th or higher, surpassing Choo Shin-soo.