If it weren't for Kim Do-young, who would be the MVP of this season.
Every year, after the regular season, voting for the season MVP and the Rookie of the Year takes place. Inside and outside the baseball world, the view that "this year's MVP is Kim Do-young" is dominant.
His batting average for this season was 347 (third), 38 homers (second), 109 RBIs (joint seventh), on-base plus slugging percentage (third), 647 (on-base plus slugging percentage), 1.067 (on-base plus slugging percentage, first), 143 runs (first), 40 steals (fourth), just as his senior Lee Jong-beom did, he was a "baseball genius" himself. Notably, his 143 runs is a new record in the 43-year history of the KBO league.
The 40 (homer)-40 (homer) attempt, which enabled the team to reach the peak in 2024, failed unfortunately. Eric Thames was the only one who achieved the feat in 2015.
Even so, as long as the KIA Tigers have won the regular season with Kim Do-young's strong performance, there are virtually no players beyond that status.
This year's competitors were not easy. "Kongline" refers to players who were blocked from the top spot by comparing them to Hong Jin-ho, a former professional gamer. If not for Kim Do-young, they would not have won MVP in this year's event.
The most notable player was Koo Ja-wook. He hit a career-high with a batting average of 343, 33 home runs and 115 RBIs, and 1.044 OPS (second place). "I don't know why I was obsessed with the number of home runs. There are so many home runs while emptying my mind," he said, looking back on past times.
His team's performance in the second place of the regular season also stands out. His team, the Samsung Lions, advanced to the fall baseball league for the first time in three years since 2021, and Koo Ja-wook shone all the more with his leadership not only for his individual performance but also for the entire team.
However, there is no "No. 1" title. If Kim Do-young is excluded from the current record table, the only OPS that Koo can take is the No. 1 spot. And OPS is not a category for KBO awards.
KT Wiz Rojas was also not easy. If votes were cast after the postseason as in the past, the share of votes would have increased further. In the tiebreaker game against SSG Landers, he hit two home runs and four RBIs, effectively driving KT to the fall baseball league by himself. In the wild card game against the Doosan Bears, he also led his team to victory by scoring two runs from eight times at bat.
His performance this season is also stellar. As he has been in charge of leadoff since the middle of this season, he has not displayed as good a swing as in previous years. Still, he has placed himself at the top of all batting categories, with a batting average of 329 (seventh), 32 homers (joint sixth), 112 RBIs (fifth), and 0.989 OPS.
Rojas also does not have a No. 1 title, but he is one of only four players this season who has achieved "3-4-5" (3% batting average, 40% on-base plus 50% slugging percentage) or higher, which is a sample of excellent batters along with Kim Do-young and Koo Ja-wook. The other is Song Seong-moon of Kiwoom (34% batting average, 19 home runs and 104 RBIs, OPS 0.927) who spent the season in the Great Pentecostal region.
What if Kim Do-young does not exist? Unlike those who performed well in all areas of batting, those who specialized in "title" could receive more attention. It was an oddly divided season of title winners by field.
The "homer king" is NC Davidson. He had a batting average of .36 (ranked first) with 119 RBIs and an OPS of 1.003 this year. Although he failed to hit 3-4-5 (on-base percentage of .37 percent) and failed to come into the spotlight due to NC's elimination from the fall baseball league, he was one of the most brilliant foreign hitters this year.
The "RBI King" LG Austin is also facing challenges. He posted a batting average of 319 with 32 homers (joint sixth) and 132 RBIs (joint first) with an OPS of 0.957. 메이저사이트
Other contenders include SSG Eredia (36th in batting average) and Lotte Reyes (202nd in most hits), who competed for the top spot in the batting average until the end of the season. Notably, Reyes broke Seo Kun-chang's 10-year-old record of 201 hits in the last game of the season in 2014, setting a new record of 202 hits. In 2014, Seo defeated outstanding competitors such as Park Byung-ho and Kang Jung-ho to win the MVP award.