MLB Hitting Stars and Fails - Advanced Metrics Leaders for Barrel % (Week 20)

Hello RotoBallers and welcome to our site. The Beater’s advanced metrics leaders article for Week 20 It’s the 2024 fantasy baseball season! Today, we’ll take a look at the following players: Byron Buxton, Michael Bush, Matt Chapman, and more. As another week of baseball comes to a close, I’ll recap which hitters have had the most impactful hitting performances over the past few days.

For the first 11 weeks of the season, we’ve been discussing Statcast’s Barrels per Plate Appearance statistic, or Brls/PA%, but now we can move on. The weekly leaderboard for Brls/PA% is basically set, so now we can shift our focus to Barrel Percentage over the last seven days.

Statcast’s Barrel Percentage statistic, or Barrel%, works by dividing the total number of barrels by the number of ball events hit in a given period. The higher the Barrel%, the more often a batter makes ideal contact with the baseball. By narrowing our range, we can focus on the players who made the best and worst contact over the past week. We’ll look at other stats as well, but Barrel% will be the main focus of this piece. Take advantage of the rest of our Statcast analysis for fantasy baseball, including the weekly Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds.

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Barrel % Leaders

Major Players

The Minnesota Twins’ hard-hitting forward is king of this week’s leaderboard Byron BuxtonBuxton has had his hot and cold spells at times but he is in great form at the moment.

Buck hit a big HR and hit the rosebuds!!!!

Reply using #PullTheBuds And #MNTwinsGiveaway For your chance to win when a Twins player hits a home run into the bullpen!

Official rules: https://t.co/B2rSLMNdqc picture.twitter.com/pOyWnn24nP

— Minnesota Twins (@MinnesotaTwins) August 3, 2024

The 30-year-old batted .278/.435/.667 with two home runs, six runs scored and four RBIs last week. Buxton always had the tools to be an elite outfielder in the league, but he hasn’t been able to put together a full season, primarily due to injuries. The Twins outfielder was placed on the disabled list earlier this season with a knee injury, but that hasn’t stopped him from having one of the best seasons of his career.

Buxton has played in 100-plus games just once in 10 seasons, and if all goes well, he has a chance to do it again this season. However, the Minnesota hitter left the game yesterday after hitting the wall to make a catch. Buxton ran away under his own power, so hopefully this suspension is precautionary, but it’s something to watch. Most of Buxton’s contact quality metrics are in the 80th percentile or above, and his plate discipline stats are in the 20th percentile or below. The former second overall pick is on the roster in most leagues, but if you can stomach the possibility of losing him to injury, look to get him.

Cubs first baseman takes third place on this week’s leaderboard Michael BushBusch finished the week with a 31.3% barrel production percentage, so that’s worth focusing on here.

Busch is slashing .280/.333/.680 with three home runs and six RBIs over the last seven days. Despite his good form, the young hitter may not be a reliable hitter. The 26-year-old former Dodgers prospect has an xBA of just .224, well below his .260 true batting average this season. Busch also has a strikeout and whiff rate above 30% this year. The Cubs’ first baseman is a solid powerhouse with 15 home runs, but he could be a victim of regression in the batting average department. I’d try to sell high if possible.

It’s time to talk about San Francisco Giants veteran third baseman Matt Chapman. Chapman is one of the hardest-hitting players in the league this season, and it’s about time we mention him here.

The 31-year-old is slashing .391/.440/.739 with two home runs, five runs scored and five RBIs in his last 25 at-bats. Chapman’s glove has been more valuable than his bat throughout his career, but that doesn’t mean he’s a slouch at bat. Chapman has 172 home runs and a .241 career batting average in eight seasons. His most impressive stat this season is his 95th percentile exit velocity of 92.9 mph. The Giants’ hard-hitting center also has a 12.9 percentile barrel rate of 87th percentile. Oracle Park is not a hitter-friendly environment, but Chapman still has the talent to move the needle.

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper He had a really bad week, let’s see if there’s anything to worry about in his hitting profile.

Heading into Sunday night’s game, it was thought Harper would finish the week without a home run or RBI, but that wasn’t the case. Despite batting .138/.219/.276 last week, the Phillies’ slugger finished the week on a high note with a three-hit game, including a two-run home run. Despite having a tough week at bat, Harper is still one of the most talented hitters in the league and extremely valuable in fantasy. If a buy-low opportunity opened up in your league last week, be sure to take advantage of it.

The last kicker I want to highlight is Isaac Paredes. The Chicago Cubs recently acquired former Tampa Bay Ray, let’s take a look at how he’s been doing during his transition to the new team.

Paredes has hit .120/.241/.200 with four homers in the last seven days. The hard-hitting third baseman has yet to acclimate to Wrigley Field, and his batting metrics don’t offer much reason to be optimistic. His .215 xBA is 23 points lower than his .238 true batting average. Paredes’ 84.8 mph exit velocity ranks in the 2nd percentile among qualified hitters this season. Now is the time to sell Paredes high, considering his 16 home runs this season and 31 last year.

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