ESTIMATING BARRELS FOR MINOR LEAGUERS
The MLB Statcast metric “barrels” has quickly become the standard by which analysts gauge players’ power. Knowing how frequently a major league hitter makes ideal contact to do damage, as measured by exit velocity and launch angle of batted balls, tells us a lot about what type of power production can be expected.
For years, major league organizations have had the tools to develop advanced proprietary metrics based on batted-ball data, including bar-rels-style metrics for minor league hitters. Because that information is not publicly available, I developed the next-best thing: estimated barrels for minor league hitters.
Estimated barrels allows fantasy managers to project power performance from prospects and thus generate leads for possible dynasty targets. In 2019, the most recent minor league season for which we have data,
