KBO Player Rates & Ranks Report #1 - For the Week Ending 4/21/2025
I rated & ranked every KBO player and here are the results...
Document : KBO Rates & Ranks Report #1
Level : Professional - International
Source : https://www.fangraphs.com/
Offensive Date Data pulled : Monday, April 21, 2025 10:52 AM ET
Pitchers Date Data pulled: Monday, April 21, 2025 10:52 AM ET
Overview : From an offensive perspective, I rated and ranked 170 KBO position players using stats for the follow dates 2025 Season Start - 4/21/2025. Players were assessed using a neutralized Run Value system to measure their overall offensive production, broken down into two core components:
“The Run Tool”— Captures the value generated from non-hit plate appearances (walks, stolen bases, etc.)
“The Hit Tool”— Measures a player’s offensive impact via hitting.
“Overall” — A sum of the Run Tool and the Hit Tool, representing overall offensive contribution.
Each player is rated & ranked in these three categories: Run Tool, Hit Tool , and Overall
Top 10 Players by Run Value
Dong-won Park 박동원 - Dong-won is a 5'10" / 202 lbs 35 year old RHH catcher. The 15 year KBO vet is this weeks #1 Overall Rank - #1 Hit Tool Rank - #19 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #1 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 11.59% and HR Rate of 7.25%. He is striking out a fair amount with a SO rate of 19.28%, but walking a decent clip, 14.46%. We tip our caps to this weeks #1 Overall Rank Mr. Dong-won Park.
Austin Dean 오스틴 - Austin is a 6'0" / 215 lbs 31 year old RHH outfielder. The 3 year KBO vet is this weeks #2 Overall Rank - #2 Hit Tool Rank - #13 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #2 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 15.58% and HR Rate of 9.09%. He is only striking out at a 10.87% clip and walking at a 17.39% rate. Running into a little patch of bad luck, his BABIP is 60-70 points lower than his previous 3 years BABIP. We tip our caps to this weeks #2 Overall Rank Mr. Austin Dean.
Patrick Wisdom 위즈덤 - Patrick is a 6'2" / 220 lbs 33 year old RHH infielder. The first year KBO player is this weeks #3 Overall Rank - #5 Hit Tool Rank - #8 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #3 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 13.16% and HR Rate of 10.53%. He is punching out a bit more than I would like to see 23.96% clip , but walking at a pretty high rate 19.79%. We tip our caps to this weeks #3 Overall Rank Mr. Patrick Wisdom.
Bo-gyeong Moon 문보경 - Bo-gyeong is a 6'0" / 196 lbs 24 year old LHH 1B/3B. The 5th year KBO player is this weeks #4 Overall Rank - #4 Hit Tool Rank - #21 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #4 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 9.52% and HR Rate of 5.95%. Striking out 17.00% of his plate appearances, walking at good rate 16.00%. Probably pretty fair to say he’s been the beneficiary a few lucky bounces or well placed hits with a .391 BAPIP, 60-70 points higher than his 4 years prior. We tip our caps to this weeks #4 Overall Rank Mr. Bo-gyeong Moon.
Ji-chan Kim 김지찬 - Ji-chan is a 5'4" / 141 lbs 24 year old LHH 2B. The 6th year KBO player is this weeks #5 Overall Rank - #10 Hit Tool Rank - #7 Run Tool Rank. His Run Tool is carrying his #5 Rank a bit, 5 net stolen bases at 100% success rate, and 2 hit by pitches. His Hit Tool is not carried by tons of power, with an XBH rate of 8.51% and HR Rate of 0.00%. That said he’s got a 7.41% strike out rate (#1 in the KBO). His .419 BABIP is 70-80 points higher than 3 years prior. We tip our caps to this weeks #5 Overall Rank Mr. Ji-chan Kim.
Jae Hyeon Lee 이재현 - Jae is a 5'11" / 181 lbs 22 year old RHH SS. The 4th year KBO player is this weeks #6 Overall Rank - #22 Hit Tool Rank - #3 Run Tool Rank. His Run Tool is carrying his #6 Rank a bit, 1 net stolen bases at 100% success rate, 3 hit by pitches and 20.95% BB Rate (#2 in the KBO). His Bat has some pop, with an XBH rate of 11.25% and HR Rate of 5.00%. His .327 BABIP is 30-40 points higher than 3 years prior, which could be sustainable if he keeps up his BB rate. His walk rate has skyrocketed this season, but has been gradually increasing for a few years. The strikeout rate is running a bit of a temp at 22.86%, but Jae is someone I would really keep an eye on. I don’t love the Fielding % in prior years .941 & .948, this year .980 is good to see. We tip our caps to this weeks #6 Overall Rank Mr. Jae Hyeon Lee. Solid baseball looking body.
Seung Yeup Na 나승엽 - Seung is a 6'3" / 181 lbs 23 year old LHH 1B. The 3rd year KBO player is this weeks #7 Overall Rank - #12 Hit Tool Rank - #14 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #7 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 13.95% and HR Rate of 5.81%. Striking out 14.29% of his plate appearances, walking at good rate 16.19%. He has been cutting down the strikeouts and gradually increasing his BB Rate. We tip our caps to this weeks #7 Overall Rank Mr. Seung Yeup Na
Si-hwan Roh 노시환 - Si-hwan is a 6'1" / 211 lbs 24 year old RHH 3B. The 7th year KBO player is this weeks #8 Overall Rank - #7 Hit Tool Rank - #28 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #8 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 12.77% and HR Rate of 8.51%. Striking out 21.90% of his plate appearances is a little high, but he’s walking at a decent rate 9.52%. We tip our caps to this weeks #8 Overall Rank Mr. Si-hwan Roh .
Kang-nam Yoo 유강남 - Kang-nam is a 6'0" / 194 lbs 24 year old RHH C. The 14th year KBO player is this weeks #9 Overall Rank - #11 Hit Tool Rank - #26 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #9 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 10.20% and HR Rate of 4.08%. Striking out 25.00% of his plate appearances is high, but he’s walking at a decent rate 10.00%. We tip our caps to this weeks #9 Overall Rank Mr. Kang-nam Yoo .
Ruben Cardenas 카데나스 - Ruben is a 6'1" / 185 lbs 27 year old RHH OF. The 1st year KBO player is this weeks #10 Overall Rank - #14 Hit Tool Rank - #24 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #10 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 10.94% and HR Rate of 4.69%. Striking out 22.78% of his plate appearances is high, but he’s walking at a good rate 15.19%. We tip our caps to this weeks #10 Overall Rank Mr. Ruben Cardenas.
That’s it for the Top Ten Player Breakdown. In addition to the Full List of Rates & Ranks, there is a tab showing the schedule for the top 10 players.
There is also tab in the Spreadsheet for Players Ranking Grouped by Age
Pitching : There is limited data on pitchers in KBO, so I had to use implied probabilities numbers for some XBH values to understand run value, which is why I use the *. From the pitching perspective, I rated & ranked 170 KBO pitchers for 2025 Season Start - 4/21/2025 with a minimum requirement of 0 IP. I will increase the minimum innings requirement as the season goes on. The pitchers are rated the same way in terms of run value but instead of Plate appearance or At Bat, I use Batter Faced.
Top Pitchers by RV/TBF :
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