100 Facts for Fantasy Baseball 2024

For the third year in a row, I scoured Fangraphs, various ADP sources, Rotowire’s Auction Value Calculator, and Baseball Savant for 100 interesting facts and pieces of information. You can find those 100 facts below.

These are facts and statistics without analysis. You can take the information and interpret it how you want, but hopefully, this gives you some guidance heading into your drafts.

100 Fantasy Baseball Facts for 2024

Hitters

1. In 2022, 10 qualified hitters were league average or better in all of the following categories – K%, BB%, GB%, AVG, OBP, wOBA, avg EV, Barrell%, HardHit%, and Hard Contact%. In 2023, no players did it.
2. Among qualified batters, James Outman had the largest gap between his batting average and BABIP, with a .342 BABIP and a .248 AVG.
3. Outman also had a 31.9% K rate, which was third highest among qualified batters.
4. The only qualified batter whose AVG was higher than his BABIP was Pete Alonso, who had a .205 BABIP and a .216 AVG.
5. However, Alonso had the largest gap between his AVG and xBA among qualified hitters. His xBA was .244, and he also had a 14.7% barrel rate and a 39% HardHit rate. He had a 15% line drive rate, which was the lowest of his career..
6. According to xBA, the other 9 biggest underperformers were Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Willy Adames, Fernando Tatis Jr., Kyle Schwarber, Max Muncy, Bobby Witt Jr., Trent Grisham, Carlos Correa, and Anthony Volpe.
7. The top overperformer according to xBA was TJ Friedl, whose .278 AVG was 38 points higher than his .240 xBA. He had a .308 BABIP, a 19.6% LD rate, and a 44% pull rate. Cody Bellinger, William Contreras, Austin Hays, Joey Meneses, Xander Bogaerts, Whit Merrifield, Luis Arraez, Yandy Diaz, and Elias Diaz were the other top overperformers.
8. Friedl also outperformed his xwOBA by the largest margin among qualified hitters, with a 60-point difference. Others who outperformed their xwOBA that also outperformed their xBA are Bellinger, Merrifield, Meneses, and Bogaerts. Great American Ballpark is top 5 in wOBAcon and BACON park factors over the last three seasons.
9. The largest gap between wOBA and xwOBA from last season belongs to Tatis, who had a .311 wOBA and a .361 xwOBA. Ronald Acuna Jr. Guerrero Jr. Witt, Adames, Grisham, Alonso, Ty France, Salvador Perez, and Javier Baez round out the top 10.
10. Freddie Freeman had the highest BABIP in baseball among qualified hitters at .370. That tied the second-highest BABIP of his career. He did it with identical line drive and barrel rates to his career averages and had lower pull and HardHit rates than his career averages. He also had his highest strikeout rate since 2019 and his lowest contact rate since 2021. His career BABIP is .344.
11. Alex Bregman is the only qualified batter to be top 10 best chase, zone contact, and contact rates. If you include contact on pitches outside of the strike zone and expand it to the top 15, he is still the only player to qualify.
12. On the other end, three qualified batters were among the 10 worst in chase, contact and O-contact rates: Luis Robert, Nick Castellanos, and Jake Burger.
13. According to Fangraphs, Castellanos was one of the worst 10 performers in baseball against curveballs and changeups, but one of the 10 best against sliders. Burger was one of the 10 best against curveballs but among the 10 worst against changeups.
14. Also according to Fangraphs, Myles Straw saw the most fastballs and was the worst performer in baseball against them.
15. Finally from Fangraphs, Ronald Acuna was among the three best performers against fastballs, sliders, and curveballs. Nobody else was top 10 against more than two types of pitches.
16. Three players have gone 20/20 (20 home runs and 20 steals) in each season since 2021: Trea Turner, Randy Arozarena, and Jose Ramirez. Only Turner and Ramirez had an AVG of .260 or higher in all three seasons.
17. Nine players have 100 or more total home runs since the start of 2021. From least to most, they are Marcus Semien, Yordan Alvarez, Guerrero Jr., Austin Riley, Pete Alonso, Shohei Ohtani, Schwarber, Matt Olson, and Aaron Judge. Judge leads the pack with 138 homers in the last three seasons.
18. Judge also leads baseball in fWAR, wOBA, wRC+, and is top 10 in OBP, RBI, and runs during that span..
19. Additionally, Judge has the highest average EV, the most barrels, the highest barrel rate, and the highest HardHit rate during that span.
20. Freddie Freeman is the only other player who was top 10 in at least six of home runs, RBI, runs, and steals.
21. Since 2021, Semien has played the most games and accrued the most plate appearances in baseball. During that span, he has the second most runs scored and the eighth-highest wRC+.
22. Aside from Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Acuna were the only other players since 2021 to be top 10 in avgEV, maxEV, barrel rate, and HardHit rate.
23. Three qualified players had a higher hard contact rate than medium contact rate last season. They were Corey Seager, Acuna, and Burger.
24. In 2022, Judge was the only one that did it.
25. In 2021, 5 players did it, and in 2019, 47 players did it.
26. The highest batting average in baseball since 2021 belongs to Luis Arraez. Of the 94 players with 1500 PAs since then, Arraez has the third-fewest home runs, the 34th fewest runs, the 10th fewest RBI, and the 24th fewest steals.
27. Eugenio Suarez leads the league in strikeouts since 2021.
28. Joey Gallo has the fifth most strikeouts since then, and the worst AVG at .181. Paul DeJong and Martin Maldonado are the only other players hitting below the Mendoza Line since 2021.
29. Bregman, Juan Soto, and Arraez were the only qualified batters to have a higher BB% than K% last season. Each of them did it in 2022 as well, but Soto is the only one to have done it each year since 2021.
30. Yandy Diaz led baseball in wRC+ vs left-handed pitching last season at 204 wRC+. He was also top 10 in wRC+ vs righty pitchers. The only other players who were top 10 in wRC+ vs both LHP and RHP in 2023 were Mookie Betts and Freeman. Unsurprisingly, each of them was also top 10 in overall wRC+.
31. According to Fangraphs’ baserunning metric, Corbin Carroll was the best baserunner last season and it wasn’t close.
32. Carroll also had the second-fastest average home-to-first base speed, topped only by Ji Hwan Bae.
33. According to Statcast, Witt and Elly De La Cruz tied for the top sprint speed, followed by Bubba Thompson, Trea Turner, Dairon Blanco, Carroll, Jorge Mateo, Tyler Fitzgerald, Blake Perkins, and Jake Young. Turner and Blanco were the only players older than 30 in the top 10 of sprint speed.
34. 89 players improved their HardHit rate from last season to this one. Joc Pederson’s has improved every year since 2018. His 52% HardHit rate last season was 11th best in baseball.
35. Other players seeing year-over-year improvement in HardHit rate include Tommy Edman (better every year since 2020), Correa (since 2018), and Jorge Polanco (since 2017).
36. The biggest improvement in HardHit rate from 2022-2023 belongs to JD Martinez, whose HardHit rate went from 41% to 55%.
37. 85 players improved their barrel rate from last season to this one. Players improving every year since 2020 include Brandon Drury, Jonah Heim, Francisco Lindor, Betts, Adolis Garcia, and Polanco.
38. The following players improved their AVG each season since 2020: Elvis Andrus, Tommy Pham, Christian Yelich, Lane Thomas, Ohtani, and Josh Naylor.
39. The following players improved their wOBA each season since 2020: Willson Contreras, Heim, Harold Ramirez, Josh Naylor, Luis Rengifo, Adolis Garcia, and Isaac Paredes.
40. Last season, Matt Olson led baseball with 54 home runs. He also had the most xHR, according to Statcast, at 50. In 2019, Alonso had 53 home runs with 52 xHR. In 2021, Salvador Perez had 48 home runs and 51 xHR. In 2022, Judge had 64 home runs and 63 xHR, while Schwarber had 52 home runs and 49 xHR. Those are the only marks above either 50 homers or 50 xHR since 2019.
41. Last season, Adolis Garcia and Betts had the most “doubters” – home runs that would be home runs in just 1-7 ballparks- at 16. They both had career-best seasons with 39 home runs.
42. Last season, Schwarber had the most “no-doubters” – home runs that would be home runs in every ballpark – with 26.
43. Isaac Paredes had 31 home runs last season, but 24 xHR.
44. Edward Olivares had 12 home runs and 17 xHR. Those were the biggest gaps in baseball.
45. Olivares had 385 PAs last season. In that time, he had 12 home runs, 11 steals, and a .268 AVG. He improved his K%, barrel rate, chase rate, and contact rate, but his AVG dropped. He also saw his BABIP drop, likely thanks to a decrease in line drive and pull rates.
46. Jose Ramirez has gone 20/20 in five of the last six seasons. The only outlier was the shortened 2020 season. His lowest AVG during that span was .255 in 2019. In 2018, he went 30/30.
47. In Colorado, Nolan Arenado had a .293 AVG and hit at least 31 homers in five of seven seasons (not counting 2020). In his three seasons in St. Louis, he has a .271 AVG, has not surpassed 35 homers in a season, and has seen his home run total decrease in each season.
48. There were four batters in the 90th percentile or higher in at least 10 of the following 11 stats: xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, xISO, barrels, barrel rate, avgEV, maxEV, HardHit rate, K%, and BB%. Those players were Acuna, Judge, Ohtani, and Yordan Alvarez.
49. In 2023, Player A saw 687 PAs and had 20 HR, 84 R, 80 RBI, 1 SB, and a .277 AVG. Steamer projects him for 634 PAs, 20 HR, 89 R, 72 RBI, 3 SB, and a .272 AVG this season. He has an ADP of 50. In 2023, Player B saw 611 PAs and had 17 HR, 86 R, 78 RBI, 6 SB, and a .289 AVG. Steamer projects him for 639 PAs, 25 HR, 87 R, 81 RBI, 5 SB, and a .273 AVG this season. He has an ADP of 89. Player A is Adley Rutschman, and Player B is William Contreras.
50. In 2023, Player A saw 626 PAs and had 17 HR, 84 R, 60 RBI, 38 SB, and a .260 AVG. Steamer projects him for 601 PAs, 16 HR, 71 R, 64 RBI, 24 SB, and a .248 AVG this season. He has an ADP of 80. In 2023, Player B saw 530 PAs and had 14 HR, 63 R, 49 RBI, 23 SB, and a .271 AVG. Steamer projects him for 616 PAs, 17 HR, 75 R, 69 RBI, 22 SB, and a .260 AVG this season. He has an ADP of 145. Player A is Ha-Seong Kim, and Player B is Thairo Estrada.

Pitchers

51. Here is some more fun with Steamer Projections. Player A projects for 185 IP, 8.6 K/9, 3.57 ERA, and has a 67 ADP as SP 17. Player B projects for 184 IP, 8.7 K/9, 3.61 ERA, and has a 92 ADP as SP 26. Player A is Max Fried and Player B is Zach Eflin.
52. Among all qualified pitchers since 2021, only three have been top 10 in six of the seven following categories – K/9, K/BB, K%, K-BB%, ERA, xFIP, and SIERA: Max Scherzer, Shohei Ohtani, and Brandon Woodruff.
53. The lowest BB/9 rate in baseball since 2021 belongs to George Kirby at 1.15.
54. The highest K/9 rate in baseball since 2021 belongs to Spencer Strider at 13.5.
55. Julio Urias has the most wins in baseball since 2021, with 48. He is tied for the 10th fewest losses during that span with 18.
56. The lowest cumulative ERA since 2021 belongs to Justin Verlander, who has a 2.45 ERA, but a 3.87 xFIP.
57. Spencer Strider’s ERA since 2021 is 3.36. He has the lowest xFIP during that span at 2.70.
58. The highest collective fWAR among starting pitchers since 2021 belongs to Zack Wheeler at 17.3.
59. According to Fangraphs, three pitchers had all of their pitches grade positively: Logan Webb, Strider, and Blake Snell. The only pitcher to do this in both 2022 and 2023 as well is Webb.
60. If you move the qualified innings threshold from last season to 130 IP, Ohtani’s 11.3 K/9 rate would rank sixth in baseball. Nick Pivetta would be third with an 11.5 K/9 rate. Ohtani would also have been ninth in LOB% and 10th in ERA. And Pivetta’s 3.36 SIERA would have been fifth-best in baseball.
61. Among qualified pitchers in 2023, Patrick Corbin finished with the third-worst ERA at 5.20.
62. Corbin’s xERA was 6.00, the worst in baseball. His 4.76 xFIP was tied for sixth worst in baseball. His 5.01 SIERA was second worst in baseball.
63. Among qualified starting pitchers, 14 finished with an ERA higher than their xERA. They were Jordan Lyles, Lance Lynn, Strider, Aaron Nola, Pablo Lopez, Freddy Peralta, Dylan Cease, Wheeler, Eflin, Lucas Giolito, Cristian Javier, Mitch Keller, Logan Gilbert, and Kyle Gibson. The biggest gap belongs to Jordan Lyles.
64. 18 qualified starters finished with an ERA higher than their xFIP. They were Lynn, Lyles, Strider, Nola, Gibson, Keller, Cease, Corbin, Giolito, Peralta, Lopez, Eflin, Webb, Sandy Alcantara, Yusei Kikuchi, Wheeler, Framber Valdez, and Miles Mikolas, with the biggest gap belonging to Lynn.
65. Among qualified starting pitchers, the one with the lowest ERA compared to xERA was Blake Snell, whose 2.25 ERA was a run and a half better than his 3.77 xERA. He also possessed the largest difference between his ERA and xFIP.
66. 15 qualified starters finished with a higher ERA than their SIERA including Lynn, Lyles, Strider, Nola, Giolito, Cease, Peralta, Keller, Gibson, Lopez, Eflin, Corbin, Webb, Wheeler, and Kikuchi.
67. Blake Snell had the lowest ERA compared to SIERA.
68. Seven pitchers were league average or better in K/9, BB/9, HR/9, GB%, and LOB% last season. Eflin, Justin Steele, Kyle Bradish, Kevin Gausman, Lopez, Corbin Burnes, and Sonny Gray all did it. All of them except Gray had more wins than losses. Gray and Bradish were the only ones with a sub-3 ERA.
69. Webb, Zac Gallen, Gerrit Cole, Mikolas, and Chris Bassitt are the only pitchers who threw more than 200 IP last season. In 2022, 8 pitchers did it. Cole and Mikolas are the only ones to repeat from 2022.
70. Julio Urias had the seventh-highest flyball rate among qualified starters last season. He also had the fourth-lowest HR/FB rate.
71. From August 1 on, Tarik Skubal was among the best starting pitchers in the league. He threw 58 IP, had an 11.5 K/9, and was among the 10 best pitchers in BB/9 and GB%. His 2.15 ERA during that span was fourth best and his 2.55 xFIP was second best.
72. According to Fangraphs’ pitch values, the best fastball from last season belongs to Zack Wheeler.
73. According to Fangraphs’ pitch values, the best slider from last season belongs to Sonny Gray.
74. According to Fangraphs’ pitch values, the best curveball from last season belongs to Charlie Morton.
75. According to Fangraphs’ pitch values, the best changeup from last season belongs to Logan Webb.
76. According to Fangraphs’ pitch values, the best cutter from last season belongs to Corbin Burnes.
77. According to Fangraphs’ pitch values, the best sinker from last season belongs to Kodai Senga.
78. Last season, just two qualified pitchers were top 10 in Stuff+, Location+, and Pitching+. They were Alcantara and Wheeler.
79. Among pitchers with at least 350 batted ball events against them, Gallen, Valdez, Brady Singer, and Webb were among the 10 worst in avgEV, most 95+ MPH hit balls, and HardHit rate against. Gallen was also among the 10 pitchers with the most barreled balls allowed.
80. Gallen finished with a 3.47 ERA, a 3.49 xFIP, and a 3.67 SIERA. Valdez finished with a 3.45 ERA, a 3.39 xFIP, and a 3.70 SIERA. Singer finished with a 5.52 ERA, a 4.28 xFIP, and a 4.46 SIERA. Webb finished with a 3.25 ERA, a 2.95 xFIP, and a 3.16 SIERA.
81. The highest K% last season belonged to Spencer Strider at 36.8%. He also had the highest K-BB%.
82. The lowest BB% last season belonged to George Kirby at 2.5%. That’s the lowest walk rate for a starting pitcher in a full season since Phil Hughes’ 1.9% walk rate in 2014.
83. Since 2022, Kevin Gausman has the best K% and Aaron Nola has the best BB%.
84. Despite having the second-best K% last season, Blake Snell had the worst walk rate.
85. Snell’s .256 BABIP was the second lowest of his career, despite nearly matching his career LD% allowed and allowing pulled balls at a higher rate than his career average. He allowed more walks than in any other season of his career. He had the highest BB/9 rate of his career, and his LOB% was 8% higher than his career norm.
86. Among qualified starters, Lance Lynn allowed the most home runs last season with 44. Sonny Gray allowed the fewest with eight.
87. Since 2021, among pitchers with at least 390 total IP, Alex Cobb has allowed the fewest home runs, with 33 in 394 IP. Max Fried has allowed 34 in 428 IP. Webb has allowed 40 in 556 IP.
88. For perspective, during that same time frame, Yusei Kikuchi has allowed 77 home runs in 425 IP, Jordan Lyles has allowed 103 in 536 IP, Patrick Corbin has allowed 97 in 504 IP, and Lucas Giolito has allowed 92 in 524 IP.
89. During the same span and using the same thresholds, Logan Webb had the fewest home runs per inning pitched, and Corbin had the most.
90. In 2019, there were 18 qualified pitchers that had double-digit K/9 rates. In 2021, there were 15. In 2022 and 2023, there were 10 each.
91. One pitcher did it in all four seasons – Charlie Morton.
92. Gerrit Cole, Aaron Nola, and Robbie Ray did it in three of four seasons, missing out on a double-digit K/9 rate last season. Dylan Cease and Kevin Gausman also did it in three of four seasons, missing out on it in 2019.
93. Since 2019 (not including 2020), Josh Hader is the only reliever in baseball who has registered double-digit saves in each season.
94. Devin Williams’ changeup registered the second most vertical inches of movement above average and had the most horizontal inches of movement vs average among pitchers who threw a changeup at least 500 times last season.
95. The next point covers the following thresholds for plate appearances for each pitch: 250 for fastballs and sinkers; 150 for sliders, changeups, and curveballs; 50 for sweepers and cutters. According to those thresholds, there are three players who were top 10 in whiff, strikeout, and putaway rates in at least two pitches. Strider’s fastball and slider qualified, Chris Bassitt’s sinker and sweeper qualified, and Valdez’s cutter and curveball qualified.
96. Seven starting pitchers had two pitches with a minimum of 200 PAs thrown for each pitch with whiff rates of 25% or higher. Strider’s fastball and slider, Dean Kremer’s cutter and fastball, Kikuchi’s fastball and slider, Pablo Lopez’s fastball and changeup, and Lucas Giolito’s slider and changeup all met the mark.
97. The 10 pitchers with the least amount of time between pitches from last season are Wade Miley, Logan Allen, Brent Suter, Mitch Keller, Jakob Junis, Steven Matz, Rich Hill, Brusdar Graterol, Miles Mikolas, and Josh Fleming.
98. The 10 pitchers with the most amount of time between pitches from last season are Felix Bautista, Alex Vesia, Bryan Woo, Craig Kimbrel, Steven Wilson, Jesse Scholtens, Dominic Leone, Aaron Nola, Shintaro Fujinami, and Andre Pallante.
99. Eric Lauer and Daniel Bard each lost 3.2 MPH on their fastballs from 2022 to 2023. That was the largest drop-off in baseball.
100. Sean Manaea and Carlos Hernandez each added 2.3 MPH to their fastballs from 2022 to 2023. They were the largest gainers.

I hope you have found these 100 facts interesting at the very least. Hopefully, they will help you prepare for your upcoming drafts and provide some guidance for keeper and other pre-draft decisions.

For more of the great fantasy baseball rankings and analysis you’ve come to expect from FantraxHQ, check out our full 2024 Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit! We’re here for you all the way up until Opening Day and then on into your championship run.