David Peralta (OF, ARI) - 2016 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers

BALLER MOVE: Target in early-to-middle rounds

CURRENT ADP: 135

ANALYSIS:  David Peralta was one of the most under-the-radar breakouts during the 2015 season, hitting .312/.371/.522 with 17 homers and nine steals as he played his way into the Diamondbacks' starting left field gig. Only four other hitters managed to hit .300 while also producing an ISO of .200 or better – Bryce Harper, Paul Goldschmidt, Joey Votto, and Nelson Cruz. Pretty good company for a guy who used to be a pitcher.

Examining his peripherals, there are no major red flags. A .368 BABIP is on the high side, but Peralta hits a lot of line drives and makes hard contact with regularity, particularly to the opposite field. He’s also fast, as demonstrated by his 19 triples in just under 800 at-bats at the major league level. So the skills are there to maintain an above-average mark.

Peralta made significant strides in the area of plate discipline last season, trimming his O-Swing% and nearly doubling his walk rate. The strikeouts went up a bit as well, but at just under 21 percent, they weren’t enough to bite into his value. The home run output we saw in 2015 is probably his ceiling, as Peralta isn’t much of a fly ball hitter. His 26.6 FB% was 122^nd out of 143 qualified batters. Either way, Peralta’s gap power and speed should allow him to continue racking up extra-base hits in the cleanup spot behind Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock.