Major League Baseball’s network ranks players in January every year under the title of “Best player at the moment.” Rankings of players from the top 10 are announced sequentially, and finally, “TOP 100” is selected for all players. Since the rankings have been made every year for nearly 20 years, history has been built up quite a bit.
The ranking is based on the analysis of the “Shredder” system, which is a projection of the Major League Baseball network itself. It is known that the system closely reflects players’ performances over the past two years. They are “TOP 10,” which means it is very difficult to rank within top 10 in a single position in the Major League. There are many cases in which players enter the league briefly for a year and then disappear without a trace in the next year. However, there is a Korean player who was even listed as “TOP 5” in the rankings. It was Choo Shin-soo (42, SSG) in 2014.
Major League Baseball’s network rode a time machine 10 years ago before unveiling its 2024 left field ranking “TOP 10” on the 24th (Korea time). The move is aimed at evoking fans’ nostalgia by bringing up memories of which players were in the “TOP 10” 10 years ago before the 2014 season began.
At that time, Choo was ranked fifth overall in the left field section. While Choo used to play mostly in right field when he was playing for the Cleveland Indians, he used to play in center field or left field more often during his first year at the Cincinnati Reds. As a result, he was listed as a left fielder by Major League Baseball in 2014.
They were the top 5 players who could hardly disagree more. Choo played in 154 games in 2013, posting a batting average of 0.285, an on-base percentage of 0.423, a slugging percentage of 0.462, 21 homers, 54 RBIs, 107 runs, 20 steals, and an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of 0.85. It is remembered as the most splendid period of Choo’s Major League career. He was also ranked 12th in the National League MVP voting. It was the time when he showed off his prowess as a on-base machine through the Cincinnati Reds’ leadoff.
In the two-year performance from 2012 to 2013, he also achieved a good batting average of 0.284, an on-base percentage of 0.399, 37 homers and an OPS of 0.850. None of the left-fielders in the league had such a good on-base percentage. Perhaps he was a player who should make the list.
At that time, four players were higher than Choo Shin-soo’s, including Matt Halladay of St. Louis, Bryce Harper of Washington, Alex Gordon of Kansas City and Justin Upton of Atlanta. They were all famous as outfielders representing the league.
Halladay was a slugger with 49 home runs in two years, 196 RBIs and a 0.878 OPS during the period in 2012 and 2013. Harper was seeing rising superstars by showing off his relentless swing. Gordon hit 20 home runs in 2013, and above all, was one of the best defenders of the time. Upton was also a slugger who could hit 30 home runs, and was well into his prime at the time. 마카오토토주소
Korean fielders have yet to rank among the top 10 players. Unfortunately, Kang, who coincides with Choo, has never been included. I thought Kim Ha-sung would rank high in the second baseman category, but he was excluded in the second baseman category, drawing complaints from local fans. The rest of the Korean fielders did not have strong performances that would match the ranking. Attention is also focusing on whether there will be a player who will continue this trend.