| Player | BBE | Barrels | Brls/BBE | Brls/PA | K% | BB% |
| Khris Davis | 357 | 65 | 18.2% | 10.7% | 27.2% | 6.9% |
| Miguel Cabrera | 437 | 72 | 16.5% | 10.6% | 17.1% | 11.0% |
| Gary Sanchez | 128 | 24 | 18.8% | 10.5% | 24.9% | 10.5% |
| Nelson Cruz | 381 | 68 | 17.8% | 10.2% | 23.8% | 9.3% |
| Mark Trumbo | 386 | 67 | 17.4% | 10.0% | 25.5% | 7.6% |
| David Ortiz | 393 | 62 | 15.8% | 9.9% | 13.7% | 12.8% |
| Byungho Park | 123 | 23 | 18.7% | 9.4% | 32.8% | 8.6% |
| Ryan Howard | 207 | 33 | 15.9% | 9.1% | 31.5% | 7.5% |
| Giancarlo Stanton | 248 | 43 | 17.3% | 9.1% | 29.8% | 10.6% |
| David Wright | 74 | 15 | 20.3% | 9.1% | 33.5% | 15.9% |
(Minimum 70 Batted-ball Events)If this article had been written after the 2015 campaign, Giancarlo Stanton would have been the runaway leader in Brls/PA with a 16.0 percent mark. J.D. Martinez was second at 11.6 percent. Even with another injury-marred season (rib, hip and groin ailments slowed him at various points), Stanton still finished in the top 10 in 2016. It's easy to see why owners annually look past his injury history in the early rounds on draft day.
Ryan Howard's appearance on the list isn't entirely surprising given his skill set, though David Wright's is. There are two particularly interesting names on the list above – Gary Sanchez and Byungho Park.
Sanchez tore the cover the off the ball for 53 games after the Yankees promoted him last summer, hitting .299/.376/.657 with 20 homers (32 extra-base hits) over 229 plate appearances. While there is clear regression coming in the form of a more normal HR/FB% (40.0 percent in 2016!), Sanchez's high barrel rate is very encouraging, especially when you consider that the lowest HR/FB% for any of the players on the list last season was 17.5 percent (Wright). In early drafts, Sanchez has been taken off the board within the first 40 picks on multiple occasions. For those in deeper leagues, Park is more intriguing than Sanchez because the acquisition cost is minimal (he was taken with the 432nd overall pick in the mock draft for this publication). The high strikeout rate is a concern, but it's in the realm of what Chris Davis or Chris Carter will do in a typical season. Moreover, Park was a first-year player making the adjustment to MLB and life in America, and improvement in Year 2 isn't out of the question. Cheap power is valuable, even if it comes with a .220-.230 batting average.The Next 10| Player | BBE | Barrels | Brls/BBE | Brls/PA | K% | BB% |
| Chris Carter | 315 | 56 | 17.8% | 8.7% | 32.0% | 11.8% |
| Mike Trout | 368 | 57 | 15.5% | 8.4% | 20.1% | 17.0% |
| Nick Castellanos | 290 | 37 | 12.8% | 8.3% | 24.8% | 6.3% |
| Evan Longoria | 447 | 57 | 12.8% | 8.3% | 21.0% | 6.1% |
| J.D. Martinez | 314 | 42 | 13.4% | 8.1% | 24.8% | 9.5% |
| Trevor Story | 221 | 33 | 14.9% | 8.0% | 31.3% | 8.4% |
| Chris Davis | 313 | 53 | 16.9% | 8.0% | 32.9% | 13.2% |
| Pedro Alvarez | 208 | 30 | 14.4% | 8.0% | 25.8% | 9.8% |
| Freddie Freeman | 385 | 54 | 14.0% | 7.8% | 24.7% | 12.8% |
| Tommy Joseph | 216 | 27 | 12.5% | 7.8% | 21.6% | 6.3% |
Nick Castellanos' presence among the league leaders in this category is noteworthy for a few reasons. First, his overall counting stats took a hit as a result of time lost with a fractured hand during the second half. Additionally, his power surge in 2016 was not accompanied by an increase in strikeouts. Finally, he's unlikely to go before Pick 150 despite his potential as a four-category contributor.
Evan Longoria's resurgence in the power department last season merits further exploration – it's unusual to see a player hit a career-high 36 homers as a 30-year-old after he delivered a total of 43 long balls in his previous two seasons combined. His draft day cost will likely jump 30-50 picks from his 2016 average draft position (119.83).
J.D. Martinez missed time last season after fracturing his elbow in a collision with the outfield wall. Despite the lost time, he's still among the league's best in barrel rate, and as noted above, he was second only to Giancarlo Stanton on the 2015 leaderboard. Even if the discount on Martinez is slight this spring, he should still be drafted as a 35-homer threat, and one capable of being an asset in the batting average department (.299 from 2014-2016).
Trevor Story's high strikeout rate prompted many owners to try and sell-high on the young shortstop after a blistering start to his rookie campaign. He showed signs of improvement as the season progressed, lowering his K% from 36.3 percent and 32.2 percent in April and May, respectively, to 27.7 percent and 28.6 percent in June and July. Further complicating matters in evaluating Story for 2017 is that his season ended with a torn UCL in his thumb, an injury that required season-ending surgery in early August. As evidenced by his high barrel rate, Story made high quality contact at a very good clip, which is even more beneficial with half of his games coming at Coors Field. The drawback in investing for Year 2 is that Story is already fetching a top-40 overall pick in early drafts based on NFBC ADP.
Pedro Alvarez slugged .500 for the first time as a big league player in 2016, but he's always shown a propensity for driving the ball when he makes contact. The real-life value of a defensively limited power-heavy skill set is low in the current landscape, but Alvarez has enough raw power to hit 25-30 homers regardless of his home park, and he can do that even if he's limited to the large side of a platoon for a new American League team in 2017.
Tommy Joseph went unclaimed when the Phillies outrighted him from the 40-man roster during the 2015 offseason, as multiple concussions cost him significant development time as a prospect and ultimately prompted a move from catcher to first base. He tore the cover off the ball as a 24-year-old in the International League before forcing his way onto the roster for the rebuilding Phillies, and Joseph proceeded to become one of the top in-season pickups of 2016. Once the centerpiece of the trade that sent Hunter Pence to San Francisco, Joseph's scouting report as a hitter included the phrase "plus-power to all fields," and that pop was apparent in his first opportunity as a regular last season. In addition to injury risk, Joseph will need to fend off top prospect Rhys Hoskins as the 2017 season progresses, but an improved approach in the second half is encouraging enough to consider Joseph as a cheap source of power on draft day.
This article appears in the 2017 RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Guide. You can pre-order a copy here.
