Fangraphs: Hyun Soo Kim

[weams]

Hyun Soo Kim is having an interesting first season in MLB. Signed by Baltimore out of South Korea, the 28-year-old outfielder struggled so mightily in spring training that the club wanted to send him to the minors. As was his contractual right, he refused.

Kim played sporadically in April, then began to hit. But not for power. After homering 28 times last year with Doosan, in the KBO, he's gone yard just three times as an Oriole. That doesn't mean he's been unproductive. The left-handed hitter is slashing .331/.413/.457 in 172 plate appearances.

As Jeff Sullivan wrote a month ago, the left-handed hitter has prospered by hitting a lot of hard ground balls. Despite his impressive batting average and 136 wRC+, he's not pleased with the plethora of well-struck worm killers.

"When I'm late, there are a lot of ground balls," Kim told me in mid-June. "It would happen in Korea, too. I'm a little dissatisfied, because it means I'm not hitting on time. I want to hit line drives."

Kim added that the lack of power isn't due to a more-contact-oriented approach. He's "swinging hard"; he's simply not in tune with his timing. Quality of pitching is part of the reason.

"The velocity here is higher than it was in Korea," explained Kim. "At the beginning, I tried to hit the same, but I've had to make some adjustments. I used to use a toe-tap, now I don't use a toe-tap anymore. That was too hard for me. Now I'm lifting my leg to try to get better timing."

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/sunday-notes-rangers-barnette-orioles-kim-oswaldo-arcia-more/

Scott Coolbaugh adjustments?

[Can_of_corn]

Been waiting for a piece on Kim.

Scott Coolbaugh adjustments?

Or just a professional hitter making adjustments.

Hitting Coaches don't generally have a big impact on players at this level.

[OregonBird]

Right now I think he could be the best "hitter" we have. Good ABs, generally doesn't get himself out, beats a shift, etc.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Can_of_corn]

Right now I think he could be the best "hitter" we have. Good ABs, generally doesn't get himself out, beats a shift, etc.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It's funny how teams keep shifting on him.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn he hits for a better average against the shift, if for less power.

[weams]

Been waiting for a piece on Kim.

Or just a professional hitter making adjustments.

Hitting Coaches don't generally have a big impact on players at this level.

In a league far superior to anything he had ever encountered, they might.

[weams]

Maybe getting in shape helped him turn on those much harder MLB pitches too.

[Spy Fox]

I think the power will continue to improve, though I doubt he will be more than a 15HR guy in MLB. Average power with average defense and his level of on-base ability is very valuable especially in front of our big HR hitters. He's an important part of our equation right now.

[Jagwar]

It's funny how teams keep shifting on him.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn he hits for a better average against the shift, if for less power.

It's not just that they shift on Kim. They shift on him, and then pitch him away with fastballs. What are they thinking?

[LA2]

Any report on his injury?

[Can_of_corn]

Any report on his injury?

He told Buck he had a similar injury in Korea and it was only a few days.

Hopes to be back after the break.

[backwardsk]

Any report on his injury?

He said, through his interpreter, that he felt stinging in his leg.

[bobmc]

Another positive write-up from Camden Chat:

"Sure, Kim's BABIP is .371. That's high and may regress a bit before the year is out. But even if it does, his plate discipline means he’ll still reach base. And he’ll still hit the ball hard — his exit velocity averages 92.1 MPH, ranking in the 89th percentile of 435 players with at least 30 batted balls.

Kim's ISO of .112 is far better than the .056 mark when I last wrote about him. In the intervening three months Kim has clocked nine more doubles and recorded his first three major-league home runs. That ISO won't win any MVP awards, but it's passable.

The reason it's not higher is that Kim is a ground-ball machine. His rate of 55.6% puts him in the 94th percentile this year. Ah, but the GB% rating on FanGraphs is based on subjective interpretation. As Jeff Sullivan explained in June, Statcast's launch angle shows Kim's subjective grounders are objectively much closer to line drives. Hence the high-BABIP, low-power results: Kim is hitting the ball hard into the ground, but not directly into the ground. This approach has led to success."

http://www.camdenchat.com/2016/8/3/12364588/hyun-soo-kim-orioles-al-east

[Can_of_corn]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/hyun-soo-kim-is-getting-comfortable/

Interesting piece, not as stat driven as a lot of Fangraphs pieces. Decent amount of dialog with Kim.

In the field, Kim is also finding his footing. His defensive numbers so far are bad, but subjective reports before his arrival in the US were more positive. Kim admitted that “batted balls are coming much harder, they feel like they are coming in faster,” so he’s had to work on getting better first steps. Maybe better defense is coming.

Off the field, there’s still a language barrier. And a cultural one. “Home game days are about the same, there are not many differences,” said Kim of Korea versus America. “But when we are away, in Korea they all have to move together in a collective way. The whole team eats together and moves together. But here, it’s more of an individual thing. You do whatever you like.”

I suggest everyone gives it a read.

If we still had sigs I would sig this:

As Kim himself says, “It’s really hard to predict anything. The game of baseball is very hard.”

[25 Nuggets]

Early in the season some board members wanted the scout in Korea fired for promoting Kim. :rolleyestf: