Hitters Advanced Metrics Leaders for Barrel% - Fantasy Baseball Studs and Duds (Week 13)

June 18, 2024

Statcast batter leaders in Week 13 of the 2024 MLB season, according to Barrel%. Joshua Costello evaluates hitters who could be fantasy baseball adds or drops according to advanced sabermetrics.

Hello, RotoBallers, and welcome to our hitters advanced metrics leaders article for Week 13 of the 2024 fantasy baseball season! Today we will be taking a look at players like Jose Siri, Luis Robert, Michael Conforto, and more. As another week of baseball wraps up, I will recap which hitters had the most impactful plate appearances in the past few days.

For the first 11 weeks of the season, we discussed Statcast's Barrels per Plate Appearance stat, or Brls/PA%, but now we can transition. The weekly leaderboard for Brls/PA% has primarily stabilized, so now we can shift our focus towards Barrel Percentage in the last seven days.

Statcast's Barrel Percentage stat, or Barrel%, works by dividing the total number of barrels by the number of batted ball events within the given period. The higher the Barrel%, the more often the hitter makes ideal contact with the baseball. By narrowing our range, we can zero in on the players who have made the best and worst contact within the past week. We will also examine other stats, but the Barrel% will be the main focus of this piece.

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Barrel% Leaders

Notable Players

With a new leaderboard comes a fresh batch of names and faces to break down. The king of this week's leaderboard is Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Jose Siri.

Despite having an excellent Barrel Percentage, Siri's overall profile is less than desirable. Siri is a perfect example of the importance of context. Barrel Percentage is a stat indicative of success, but other factors must also be considered.

One of Siri's most glaring contributors to his lack of success is his 36.2% strikeout rate. It is difficult to be an impactful batter when more than a third of your at-bats end without a ball in play. Another factor to consider would be where he hits the ball. Ground and fly balls are the batted balls most likely to become outs. Siri has a combined ground ball and fly ball rate of 82.1%. Despite barreling up the ball often, Siri is not an exciting add.

Luis Robert Jr. is another name worth mentioning this week. The Chicago White Sox star recently returned from injury and has been tearing the covers off baseballs ever since. Despite only batting .174 in the past week, Robert Jr. has crushed three home runs in his last 29 plate appearances. The 26-year-old has demonstrated tremendous power during his MLB career but has also shown his weaknesses.

Among the most pressing issues is his tendency to sell out for power, which has resulted in his 37.8% strikeout rate this season. The Sox slugger also has 87th percentile sprint speed, which makes him a threat on the bases. His .226 xBA is by no means impressive, but it is 40 points higher than his actual batting average, suggesting some positive regression in his future. Robert Jr. is a proven power-speed threat and is a buy-low candidate.

It's time to talk about the Philadelphia Phillies hitter with the 99th percentile bat speed, Kyle Schwarber. The weather is starting to warm up, and so is he.

Well hello there Schwarbs!#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/YHoUWeP7yE

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) June 14, 2024

The 31-year-old slashed .417/.500/.833 with three home runs and seven RBI in the last seven days. Schwarber is one of the premium power hitters in the game of baseball. The former Cubs slugger has deposited at least 46 home runs into the stands in the past two seasons and seems well on his way to repeating that feat. Schwarber's xBA of .248 is also identical to his actual batting average this season. Schwarber is nearly universally rostered, but you can try to buy high if you need power.

The past week was an abysmal showing for Miami Marlins first baseman Josh Bell. The towering slugger could not get anything going at the plate, and his season-long stats are not pretty either.

In the last seven days, Bell slashed .000/.087/.000 with zero RBI and zero runs scored in 23 plate appearances. Bell managed to get on base via the walk two times in the last six games and was left hitless in that span. It is also hard to predict things getting much better for Bell in the future, as his xBA of .234 is lower than his actual batting average. The Marlins slugger is a drop candidate.

The last hitter I want to highlight is Michael Conforto. The San Francisco Giants outfielder was among the Statcast darlings to begin the season, but he has since faded into mediocrity. The past week proves that Conforto is best left on the waiver wire.

The 31-year-old slashed .056/.105/.056 with zero home runs and zero RBI in his last 19 plate appearances. During that span, Conforto also owned a 47.4% strikeout rate. In his previous five games, Conforto collected one hit, one walk, and nine strikeouts. His hot start to the season made Conforto an interesting short-term add, but now is as good a time as any to let him go.

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