In the meantime, in the American Major League, an Asian infielder’s Gold Glove was regarded as a dream. It was thought that a wide range of defense and dynamic play would be impossible due to long-established habits and physical limitations. In that sense, last year’shortstop’ Kim Ha-seong (28, San Diego Padres) was the first Asian infielder to be among the top three finalists for the Major League (ML) Gold Glove, which was a monumental case.
Because of that, Ha-seong Kim’s second baseman move due to San Diego’s Xander Bogarts was felt regretful. However, it is cruising toward a new history. It is the first gold glove for a Korean major leaguer, which was unfortunately missed last year.
Now that the game has been completed on the 5th, Ha-seong Kim is running first in the second baseman category in all major leagues in various defensive indicators. The traditional sabermetrics metric DRS (Defensive Run Save, how many runs saved) is singled out at +5, while the latest defensive metric OAA (Outs Above Average, how many out counts you catch above league average) is tied for first place with +3.
It’s especially early in the season, but it’s impressive that he’s running first in the OAA index. OAA was the decisive defensive indicator that watered Kim Ha-sung’s shortstop Gold Glove award last year. Unlike last year, Kim Ha-seong ranked 4th with a difference of 1.4 points from 1st place in SDI (SABR Defensive Index), and tied for 2nd place with 1st place and 5 points in DRS, OAA was 1st place and 7th place with 15 points. Among the three final candidates for the National League shortstop Gold Glove, Dansby Swanson (Atlanta at the time) was the last with 23 and Miguel Rojas (then Miami) with 23 and the final winner was OAA’s Swanson.
But this year is off to a good start. He’s been above league average in every aspect of second base, especially in the space between first and second base, where he caught two more than the average second baseman. In addition, with 78%, he is successful in defending more than the probability (75%) calculated by mechanically entering numbers such as batting speed and direction, and one of the reasons is the fastest throwing speed among all second basemen in the major leagues.
According to Baseball Savant, an American statistical site, Ha-seong Kim’s throwing speed of 85.9 miles per hour (138.2 km per hour) recorded this year is the first among all second basemen in the major leagues who have recorded more than 100 throws. The difference with the second baseman’s average throwing speed (128.7 km) is clear, and even compared to the shortstop position, only six players threw faster than Kim Ha-seong.
The defense index is less accurate than the batting index, but the more indicators that rank first, the better. This is because various defensive indicators are provided as a reference to players and coaches when voting. For Gold Glove winners, 25% of the SABR defensive index SDI is reflected, and the remaining 75% is accounted for by the votes sent by each team’s manager and coach to players other than their own team.
In addition, Kim Ha-seong is showing stable performance not only at second base, but also in other positions that appear occasionally during breaks for the main players. In the home game against the Cincinnati Reds on the 4th, he started as a third baseman and showed a defense that was as good as the starter, easily connecting not only a 142.7 km/h assault hit, but also a double hit. If the current performance continues, the Utility Gold Glove division, which was newly established last year, can also challenge.토토사이트
Thanks to these performances, Kim Ha-seong is firmly established as the best defensive player in San Diego. On the 3rd, the US media Yardbacker mentioned Kim Ha-seong as the representative of San Diego while introducing the best defense player in the 30 major league teams. Yardbacker explained, “Ha-sung Kim was phenomenal all year at San Diego last year in terms of defense.”