Players · K · Pitcher · 2021

Kwang Hyun Kim

St. Louis Cardinals National League Central

Age: 33
B/T: L/L
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 195 lb

Born: July 22, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea
MLB debut: July 24, 2020

dbWAR: 1.7
IP: 106.2
ERA: 3.46
FIP: 4.34
K/9: 6.8
FIP−: 102

Kwang Hyun Kim was a starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2021 he struck out 80 batters over 106.2 innings across 27 appearances, 21 of them starts, going 7-7. His ERA of 3.46 was 18.9% lower than the league average of 4.27 — 8th of 19 on his team, and 178th of 567 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.34 FIP suggests that his ERA had some help behind him. He missed bats on 22.0% of swings (9.7% of every pitch he threw), walked 8.6% of the batters he faced and struck out 17.7%. His 1.0 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2021.

FIP4.34

K/96.8

WHIP1.28

WAR1.0

WAR by season

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

																				Trend
2021	STL	27	21	106.2	7	7	1	98	41	80	39	3.46	4.34	1.28	6.8	3.3	81	102	1.0
2020	STL	8	7	39.0	3	0	1	28	7	24	12	1.62	3.88	1.03	5.5	2.8	36	87	0.7

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

																					Trend
2021	STL	18	29	3	0	2	0	0	9	.115	.148	.154	.038	.176	0.0%	31.0%	.139	-4.3	-25	0.0	—

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2021. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	103	90	14	0	12	26	.156	.252	.200	.218	25.2%
vs RHB	349	315	84	12	27	54	.267	.331	.422	.327	15.5%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2021.

Loading 19 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2021.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Pitch sequencing

What Kwang Hyun Kim throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamSliderChangeupCurveballSinker

Select a count to see exactly what Kwang Hyun Kim throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	41.0%	731	89.1	2,131	39.5%	10.8%	156	.295	.802
Slider	37.6%	671	83.5	2,113	49.9%	27.4%	162	.204	.594
Changeup	11.8%	210	80.4	1,603	35.7%	27.7%	57	.246	.751
Curveball	8.9%	158	69.6	2,141	43.7%	38.0%	27	.185	.474
Sinker	0.8%	14	89.0	2,076	21.4%	16.7%	5	—	—

Kwang Hyun Kim's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

Head to head

Put Kwang Hyun Kim beside up to three others.

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Kwang Hyun Kim

Similar players

Nearest 2021 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

José SuarezLAA

ERA: 3.75
FIP: 4.12
SO: 85
WAR: 1.2

Very close

Wade MileyCIN

ERA: 3.37
FIP: 3.97
SO: 125
WAR: 2.9

Very close

Adrian HouserMIL

ERA: 3.22
FIP: 4.33
SO: 105
WAR: 1.7

Very close

Kyle GibsonTEX

ERA: 3.71
FIP: 3.87
SO: 155
WAR: 3.0

Very close

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.