Fantasy Baseball: Establishing advanced stat benchmarks to help you with player analysis

Advanced statistics have become commonplace in the world of baseball analysis. And while some old-school members of the MLB community criticize their existence, we know that front offices and managerial teams crave advanced data, which means that the use of these numbers will never fade away.

Like many fantasy baseball writers, I commonly use advanced stats to prove points about specific players. And at times, readers can be perplexed regarding the meaning behind certain numbers. For example, when evaluating a hitter, is a 20% strikeout rate excellent, good or below average? Is a 15% barrel rate the sign of a great hitter or a poor one? Today, we will use this space to establish benchmarks for advanced stats, which should make us all better at player analysis.

Please note that today’s chosen stats are all related to a player’s skill. There are other commonly referenced stats such as BABIP, strand rate and HR/FB% that are used to show occasions when a player has been especially fortunate or unfortunate over a period of time. For today, let’s stick with the stats that a player can control.

Hitters

Average Exit Velocity

Elite (100th percentile): 95.0 mph

-There are currently two players with an AEV over 95.0 mph — Oneil Cruz and James Wood.

Good (75th percentile): 90.8 mph

Average (50th percentile): 89.4 mph

Poor (25th percentile): 87.7 mph

Awful (1st percentile): 84.0 mph

-Currently, Steven Kwan has the lowest AEV of any qualified hitter, which explains why he has been a fantasy bust this season.

Barrel Rate

Elite (100th percentile): 21.0%

-There are two players who have topped the 21.0% mark over at least 100 plate appearances — Aaron Judge and James Wood. Mike Trout and Munetaka Murakami narrowly miss the cut.

Good (75th percentile): 11.6%

Average (50th percentile): 8.4%

Poor (25th percentile): 5.5%

Awful (1st percentile): 0.5%.

-There are three qualified hitters with a barrel rate of 0.5% or lower — Nasim Nunez, Kwan and Chandler Simpson. The three players have combined for two home runs.

Strikeout Rate

Elite (100th percentile): 7.5%

-Nico Hoerner and Luis Arráez are the two qualified hitters who set the standard in terms of limiting strikeouts. Even at the top of the list, Arráez separates from the competition, having posted a ridiculous career 5.9% rate and a 4.0% mark this season.

Good (75th percentile): 17.0%

Average (50th percentile): 21.5%

Poor (25th percentile): 25.8%

Awful (1st percentile): 34.0%.

-Having an abysmal strikeout rate is not a death sentence in fantasy baseball, as Kyle Schwarber and Oneil Cruz have two of the highest marks this season. These players can rack up counting stats by wielding booming bats, but they often struggle to post a respectable batting average.

Walk Rate

Elite (100th percentile): 18.5%.

-Among qualified hitters, Mike Trout and Nick Kurtz are the two players who have achieved a 100th percentile ranking so far in 2026. The high walk rate is especially essential for Kurtz, who strikes out often and has some of the worst contact skills in baseball. To his credit, the superstar slugger swings his bat as fast as virtually anyone, which allows him to let the ball travel and draw plenty of free passes.

Good (75th percentile): 11.5%

Average (50th percentile): 9.0%

Poor (25th percentile): 7.0%

Awful (1st percentile): 2.5%.

-We rarely see any of baseball’s best players at the bottom of the walk rate list. Among the 1%’ers, Casey Schmitt deserves credit for having a productive season. The rest of the list is full of players who operate on the fringes of standard fantasy leagues or spend all their time on the waiver wire.

Pitchers

Strikeout rate

Elite (100th percentile): 39.0%.

-The top of this list is dominated by relievers, although Jacob Misiorowski and Dylan Cease manage to crack the top 10. Mason Miller sets the pace for all hurlers with his eye-popping 48.2% mark, with Jhoan Duran sitting second with 39.5%.

Good (75th percentile): 26.2%

Average (50th percentile): 22.6%

Poor (25th percentile): 18.7%

Awful (1st percentile): 12.0%.

-As would be expected, virtually every pitcher in the bottom 5% is unable to crack a mixed-league fantasy roster. Eric Lauer and Merrill Kelly are arguably the closest to making an impact among this group.

Walk Rate

Elite (100th percentile): 3.0%

-As is the case with strikeouts, relievers dominate the top of the control list, led by Tanner Scott, who has made major improvements in the area this year. In terms of starters, Bryce Miller, Tarik Skubal, Nick Martinez and Drew Rasmussen have been the best at limiting free passes.

Good (75th percentile): 6.8%

Average (50th percentile): 8.3%

Poor (25th percentile): 10.4%

Awful (1st percentile): 17.0%

-Being among the worst in walk rate limits pitchers even more than strikeout rate, as the bottom 10% of players are glued to fantasy waiver wires. An injured Cole Ragans is on that list, as his elbow ailment caused his year-over-year rate to nearly double.

To wrap things up, here are the stats from today’s article in the form of a table.

Percentile

AEV (Hitters)

Barrel Rate (Hitters)

K-rate (Hitters)

BB-rate (Hitters)

K-rate (Pitchers)

BB-rate (Pitchers)

100%

95.0 mph

21.0%

7.5%

18.5%

39.0%

3.0%

75%

90.8 mph

11.6%

17.0%

11.5%

26.2%

6.8%

50%

89.4 mph

8.4%

21.5%

9.0%

22.6%

8.3%

25%

87.7 mph

5.5%

25.8%

7.0%

18.7%

10.4%

1%

84.0 mph

0.5%

34.0%

2.5%

12.0%

17.0%