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Hello, RotoBallers, and welcome to our hitter's advanced metrics leaders article for Week 27 of the 2024 fantasy baseball season! For the last week of the season, we will be taking a look at players like Shohei Ohtani, Michael Harris II, Michael Toglia, 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 toward Barrel% 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. Take advantage of the rest of our Statcast analysis for fantasy baseball, including weekly Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds.
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Barrel% Leaders
| Player | BBE | Avg Exit Velocity (MPH) | Max Exit Velocity (MPH) | Brls | Barrel% | |
| Shohei Ohtani | 25 | 98.5 | 114.7 | 9 | 36.0 | |
| Triston Casas | 14 | 89.8 | 108.1 | 5 | 35.7 | |
| Matt Olson | 21 | 93.1 | 106.7 | 6 | 28.6 | |
| Aaron Judge | 14 | 97.6 | 112.1 | 4 | 28.6 | |
| Michael Toglia | 11 | 84.7 | 105.6 | 3 | 27.3 | |
| Fernando Tatis Jr. | 19 | 96.3 | 114.8 | 5 | 26.3 | |
| Rhys Hoskins | 12 | 91.1 | 106.1 | 3 | 25.0 | |
| Kyle Schwarber | 20 | 86.4 | 109.0 | 5 | 25.0 | |
| Pete Alonso | 20 | 92.4 | 113.3 | 5 | 25.0 | |
| Teoscar Hernandez | 17 | 90.4 | 114.1 | 4 | 23.5 | |
| Junior Caminero | 17 | 90.2 | 111.8 | 4 | 23.5 | |
| James Wood | 22 | 94.3 | 111.4 | 5 | 22.7 | |
| Colton Cowser | 18 | 97.3 | 107.8 | 4 | 22.2 | |
| Ketel Marte | 19 | 95.3 | 112.8 | 4 | 21.1 | |
| Michael Busch | 19 | 94.7 | 109.3 | 4 | 21.1 | |
| Connor Norby | 19 | 89.9 | 105.4 | 4 | 21.1 | |
| Trevor Story | 10 | 84.4 | 105.2 | 2 | 20.0 | |
| Jonathan Aranda | 20 | 87.5 | 108.1 | 4 | 20.0 | |
| Davis Schneider | 15 | 89.5 | 105.3 | 3 | 20.0 | |
| Shea Langeliers | 15 | 96.0 | 113.7 | 3 | 20.0 | |
| Heliot Ramos | 21 | 93.1 | 108.1 | 4 | 19.0 | |
| Connor Wong | 16 | 81.6 | 107.1 | 3 | 18.8 | |
| Jorge Soler | 22 | 92.0 | 112.0 | 4 | 18.2 | |
| Michael Harris II | 33 | 95.2 | 112.4 | 6 | 18.2 | |
| Spencer Steer | 11 | 89.5 | 104.1 | 2 | 18.2 | |
Notable Players
This week's leaderboard king is Los Angeles Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani. By many accounts, Ohtani has been the best hitter in baseball this season, so it's only right that we look at his profile one last time.
The Dodgers superstar has one of the reddest Statcast pages among all qualified hitters in baseball. Coming in at the 98th percentile or better in the top half of stats on his profile is an incredible feat and shows that he's earned his stats this season.
Ohtani slashed .500/.550/1.111 with six home runs, seven stolen bases, 12 runs scored, and 19 RBI over the past week. His incredible week helped push him over the edge to become the first member of the 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases club.
It has been an incredible season for the Dodgers slugger, who was slipping into the second round during draft season. Ohtani will likely be a first-round pick next season.
Taking the fifth spot on this week's leaderboard is Detroit Tigers first baseman Michael Toglia. Toglia has made numerous appearances on the leaderboard this season, so let's see what his profile looks like.
The 26-year-old slashed .120/.241/.320 with one home run, four runs scored, and two RBI in the past week. Toglia also recorded a 48.3% strikeout over his last 29 plate appearances.
Toglia's profile shows he is a strong power hitter, ranking in the 94th percentile for xSLG and 98th percentile for Barrel%. The young slugger does struggle with his strikeout rate and xBA, but hopefully, those numbers will improve with time.
Toglia has 25 home runs and nine stolen bases this season, which makes him a valuable power hitter to target when the draft season comes around next year.
It's time to talk about Atlanta Braves outfielder Michael Harris II. The 23-year-old came in at 24th on the leaderboard, but he had the second-most barrels over the past week.
The first thing that stands out when looking at Harris' profile is his 91st percentile xBA of .284. His actual batting average of .261 is over 20 points lower than expected this season, which means he's been a bit unlucky.
Over the past week, Harris has hit .405/.450/.784 with four home runs, 10 runs scored, and seven RBI. Over his last 40 plate appearances, Harris has a 5.0% walk rate and 10.0% strikeout rate.
The young Atlanta slugger did not meet his nearly 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases mark from each of the last two seasons, but there are reasons to be optimistic about Harris' potential moving forward.
Cincinnati Reds outfielder Spencer Steer had a lackluster week at the plate. Nevertheless, he finished the week at 25th on the leaderboard, so we should examine his profile.
In the past seven days, Steer slashed .167/.318/.500 with one home run, two runs scored, and three RBI. The Reds slugger also had a 31.8% strikeout rate over his past 22 plate appearances.
The 26-year-old does not have an impressive Statcast profile, as most of his quality-of-contact metrics are below average. Steer's walk rate is in the 86th percentile, but other than that, he is not a desirable fantasy asset.
The last hitter I want to highlight is Nico Hoerner. The Chicago Cubs second baseman finished outside the top 25 leaderboard this week, but he still deserves a look due to his impressive week.
Hoerner is not a player who jumps off the page from a power standpoint. In fact, he is well below average in multiple power metrics. Despite his power deficiencies, Hoerner remains one of the best contact hitters in the league.
Over the past week, the Cubs second baseman slashed .458/.519/.500 with zero home runs, five runs scored, one RBI, and two stolen bases. Hoerner's contributions as a base stealer are another aspect of his game not reflected by his batting profile.
Hoerner's ability to get on base often and steal over 20 bases every season makes him a valuable real-life and fantasy player. His 88th percentile xBA shows that his decent batting average every season is no fluke. Hoerner is an underrated fantasy asset.
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