Strato League Nostalgia
"Nostalgia for Infinity"
San Diego Naranjeros
Future of the Franchise
Jung Ho Kang
Fangraphs has an article which outlines that Kang should be considered the best SS in baseball. They do include Correa in this evaluation.
Best. Short. Stop. In. Baseball.
They liken his second half of 2015 to Josh Donaldson and Chris Davis at a more premium position. Hitters like Kang don't pop up very often at Short.
Fangraphs goes into some detail. His ground ball rate dropped from 55% down to 45% in the second half, as well as his pull rate, from 51% to 39%. The article cites this as a major contributor for Kang being able to adjust to big league pitching and drive the ball up the middle and to the right consistently.
His hard rate increased from 25% to 40% and his contact rate in general went up from 75% to 81%. He started adjusting to the pitches he was seeing and learned to use the whole field while making a great amount of contact.
This guy hits. And has learned to hit hard. Fangraphs says he is the best Short Stop in baseball. and San Diego tends to agree.
Team MVP
Adam Wainwright
Waino is a bonafide ace, a stud who has shown he can carry and anchor a rotation. He had an explosive beginning to his career, which in 2009 saw him win 19 games and was third in NL CY award voting. The following year saw him best those statistics. In 2010 he won 20 games and was second in NL CY voting. Both years saw him strike out over 200 batters.
But his road to success was derailed in 2011 with Tommy John surgery. And while his return in 2012 was less then steller, his 2013 and 2014 saw him return to form with a third and second place in the NL CY award again.
So if your keeping track, that's four top 3 Cy Young finishes in five season's pitched. Match that track record up against any other pitchers not named Kershaw and see how he stacks up.
But with any post TJ players, there are concerns. He had a bout of arm fatigue at the end of 2014, which led to a surgery in October in the same year to "trim cartilage" in his elbow. So if he's healthy, he's one of the best in the game; if he's not, then cross your fingers.
