The fantasy baseball ranking season is in full swing. For me, that typically starts with searching advanced stats leaderboards. Advanced statistics are often more predictive than traditional box score statistics. Thus, they’re an excellent jumping-off point. This series will dive into a variety of my favorite advanced metrics. However, I must caution that no statistic in isolation is the secret sauce for unearthing a hidden gem or burgeoning stud. Instead, they are a piece of the puzzle and best viewed through that lens, using other statistics in conjunction with them to formulate a well-rounded opinion of the fantasy value of players.
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Zone-Contact Percentage (Z-Contact%)
According to FanGraphs, Zone-Contact percentage (Z-Contact%) measures pitches on which contact was made in the strike zone divided by swings at pitches in the zone. In 2021, the league average for Z-Contact% was 84.6%. Additionally, out of 132 qualified hitters, the highest rate was a 96.1 Z-Contact%, and the lowest mark was a 72.7 Z-Contact%.
Understandably, the leaders for Z-Contact% did a masterful job of avoiding strikeouts. According to FanGraphs, the league average strikeout rate in 2021 was 23.2%. The highest strikeout rate for hitters with a top-20 Z-Contact% was 19.4%, one of only two marks of 19.0% or higher. Moreover, only five players had a strikeout rate above 15.0%.
The fantasy baseball ranking season is in full swing. For me, that typically starts with searching advanced stats leaderboards. Advanced statistics are often more predictive than traditional box score statistics. Thus, they’re an excellent jumping-off point. This series will dive into a variety of my favorite advanced metrics. However, I must caution that no statistic in isolation is the secret sauce for unearthing a hidden gem or burgeoning stud. Instead, they are a piece of the puzzle and best viewed through that lens, using other statistics in conjunction with them to formulate a well-rounded opinion of the fantasy value of players.
Dominate with our award-winning fantasy baseball draft software
Zone-Contact Percentage (Z-Contact%)
According to FanGraphs, Zone-Contact percentage (Z-Contact%) measures pitches on which contact was made in the strike zone divided by swings at pitches in the zone. In 2021, the league average for Z-Contact% was 84.6%. Additionally, out of 132 qualified hitters, the highest rate was a 96.1 Z-Contact%, and the lowest mark was a 72.7 Z-Contact%.
Understandably, the leaders for Z-Contact% did a masterful job of avoiding strikeouts. According to FanGraphs, the league average strikeout rate in 2021 was 23.2%. The highest strikeout rate for hitters with a top-20 Z-Contact% was 19.4%, one of only two marks of 19.0% or higher. Moreover, only five players had a strikeout rate above 15.0%.
As a result, four hitters on the forthcoming leaderboard had a batting average of .300 or better, six had a mark above .275, and only two had a batting average south of .260 — the league average last year was .244. Thus, when you’re perusing leaderboards looking for players that might be an asset for batting average, Z-Contact% is an excellent category to check out.
2021 Qualified Hitters Z-Contact% Leaders
The list of leaders above doesn't feature one specific type of hitter. For instance, there are speedy slap hitters, such as David Fletcher (2B/SS - LAA), Adam Frazier (2B/LF - SEA), Nicky Lopez (SS - KC), Raimel Tapia (OF - COR), and Myles Straw (CF - CLE). However, five hitters from above hit more than 20 homers, including Jose Ramirez (3B - CLE) (36), Nolan Arenado (3B - STL) (34), Jose Altuve (2B - HOU) (31), Mookie Betts (2B/OF - LAD) (23), and Jake Cronenworth (INF - SD) (21).
Meanwhile, others like Ty France (INF - SEA), Yuli Gurriel (1B - HOU), DJ LeMahieu (INF - NYY), and Michael Brantley (OF - HOU) are high-probability bets to help your fantasy bottom line in batting average, adding a dash of pop and run production stats. Since 2019, France has had a .281 batting average, Gurriel has had a .296 average, LeMahieu has had a .307 average, and Brantley has had a .310 batting average.
Noteworthy Non-Qualified Hitters in 2021
If you've been following along with this series, you'll notice this list is unusually short. However, most of the top hitters for Z-Contact% were qualified hitters. Thus, these were the only five hitters that merited a mention. Luis Arraez (UTL - MIN) and Alex Bregman (3B - HOU) have made regular appearances in this section. Therefore, I don't have anything to add to my previous analysis about their excellent approaches and bat-to-ball skills.
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Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.
