Hitters Advanced Metrics Leaders for Barrel% - Fantasy Baseball Studs and Duds (Week 15)

July 2, 2024

Statcast batter leaders in Week 15 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 15 of the 2024 fantasy baseball season! Today, we will be taking a look at players like Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, Mitch Garver, 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. Take advantage of the rest of our Statcast analysis for fantasy baseball, including weekly Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds.

Barrel% Leaders

Notable Players

This week's king of the leaderboard is none other than New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge. Let's look closer at Judge's Statcast page to see how dominant he has been.

Judge, unsurprisingly, has one of the most impressive Statcast pages out there. The Yankees slugger is 98th percentile or better in xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, average exit velocity, bat speed, barrel rate, hard-hit rate, and walk rate. Judge is undoubtedly one of baseball's most valuable players, and his impressive week has certainly helped his MVP case.

Judge slashed .476/.560/.810 with two home runs and 10 RBI in the past seven days. Since he is universally rostered, there is little to no fantasy advice to be given on Judge. Still, his hot season has proved that he is a no-brainer first-round talent regardless of format until proven otherwise.

Taking the second spot on this week's leaderboard is Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh. This past week, Raleigh produced four barrels from his 11 batted balls, resulting in a 36.4% barrel rate. The Mariners catcher may not always make contact, but when he does, it is typically loud contact.

Regarding raw power, Raleigh is among the very best at his position. The 27-year-old owns a 96th-percentile hard-hit rate and a 93rd-percentile barrel rate. Raleigh's 92.2 mph average exit velocity is also 89th percentile among qualified hitters this season. The Mariners slugger slashed .250/.478/.625 with two home runs and five RBI in the past week, which is about the best you can expect from him. Raleigh is rostered in most leagues and likely all categories leagues, since that is the format where he is most valuable.

It's time to talk about the other Seattle Mariners catcher with the 94th-percentile chase rate, Mitch Garver. The veteran slugger found his way onto the leaderboard this week, and he is a case worth discussing.

Garver goes yard in back-to-back games 👊 pic.twitter.com/32PwFciu64

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) June 26, 2024

The 33-year-old slashed .190/.292/.476 with two home runs and four runs scored in the past seven days. To go along with his mediocre slash line, Garver also posted a 45.8% strikeout rate in his last 24 plate appearances.

Garver's sub-.200 batting average in the past week is no surprise since he is batting .172 this season. It does not look good for the Mariners DH since his xBA of .187 is in the first percentile among qualified hitters this season. Garver's only redeeming qualities are his 94th-percentile chase rate and 96th-percentile walk rate. The Mariners DH is not worth rostering.

New York Mets third baseman Mark Vientos couldn't wait until the Fourth of July to start the fireworks. The 24-year-old slugger had a massive week and is worth highlighting.

OMG! Vientos to dead center! #LGM pic.twitter.com/S9UAjp0sFb

— New York Mets (@Mets) June 29, 2024

In the past seven days, Vientos slashed .333/.400/1.000 with four home runs and six RBI. On Sunday, the young slugger also had a clutch RBI knock to cut the lead in half against the Houston Astros. Vientos isn't a qualified hitter yet, but if he were, he would rank highly in several quality-of-contact metrics.

The third baseman is batting .295 with 10 home runs this season, and despite his xBA of .269, some Statcast indicators suggest he should continue to be successful. Vientos owns a .521 xSLG and 15.5% barrel rate, which would both be among the top 20 among qualified hitters. Vientos is rostered in nearly half of leagues, and he should be grabbed in leagues where he is available.

The last hitter I want to highlight is Marcus Semien. The Texas Rangers second baseman has been in a rut this season, and this past week has been no different. Semien slashed .094/.094/.125 with one RBI in 32 plate appearances. The Rangers slugger also had a .031 ISO and 0% walk rate in the last seven days.

The 33-year-old is having a down year by his standards, but there are reasons for optimism. Semien is batting .235 with a .384 SLG through 374 plate appearances, but his xBA and xSLG are .266 and .417, respectively. Positive regression should be on the horizon for the Rangers second baseman, which means the buy-low window is open.

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