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MLB: Byron Buxton Leads the 2016 Statcast Superstars

By Benjamin Chase

Sep 6, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton (25) runs to first in the fourth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Target Field. The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 10-3. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 6, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton (25) runs to first in the fourth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Target Field. The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 10-3. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports /
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Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports /

MLB released their top performers via Statcast on Monday, headlined by Twins outfielder Byron Buxton.

MLB.com’s Mike Petriello released an excellent “All-Statcast” team article on Monday, and it highlighted how awesome and fun the new breadth of information being publicly available to the average fan is.

Statcast is something that has been (and is) available to teams for some time, and there is still plenty that we as fans don’t have access to, but the amount of information being released on launch angle, peak velocity, etc. is tremendously intriguing.

Kings of the Barrel

We’ll start with the big boppers.

First in barreling up the ball, and someday possibly your first unanimous Hall of Famer, Miguel Cabrera. Seriously, the guy was in his 14th major league season in 2016, yet he wasn’t fading off into the sunset by any means. In fact, his numbers on the season were essentially a mirror of his overall career numbers as Cabrera surpassed 2,500 hits and 1,500 RBI for his career in the 2016 season.

What caught the attention of everyone watching this season was just how he does it every year. Players get a much better hit when they get the barrel of the bat on the ball. That is a fairly well known fact. Cabrera did that more than anyone this season, in fact, by a decent amount, as he finished with 72 barrels this season. The #2 hitter was Nelson Cruz with 68.

While Cabrera had the best total number of barrels, a guy bursting on the scene led the league in the amount of barrels per plate appearance. Khris Davis barreled 10.7 percent of all plate appearances, while Cabrera was a fairly close second in that stat, finishing at 10.6 percent.

While not a barrel specific stat, along the same lines typically is the leader in average home run distance on the season. As has been the case before the system went public, the leader in that average across the league was a member of the Colorado Rockies. Carlos Gonzalez took the mark this year, averaging an impressive 427 feet per home run.

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