In Search Of:

Fantasy baseball owner seeking an above average hitter that can hit multiple home runs everyday, steal three bases a week, and will never be on the disabled list. Likes leisurely jogs around the ballfield, and looks good in a rally cap.

Just Kidding!

ISO, or Isolated Power, is one of my personal favorite stats. I think it is a great indicator of which hitters are true power hitters. I know that most people can figure that out when a player hits 40 home runs, but what about the ones that only hit 20?

ISO is the representation of the extra base hits a player has. If a player has an AVE of .294 and and ISO of .210, that means the player will hit the ball 29.4% of the time, and 21.0% of those hits were for extra bases. Therefore, ISO is a good tool to measure the extra base potential, and thereby the run damage, that a hitter can produce. Usually a hitter with an ISO over .200 is considered to be a power hitter.

So are there any players that are deeper in the draft with a high ISO? There are a few of them. Here is what I was able to find:

Dave Ross, C - Although he didn’t play many games, his ISO was a sizzling .324. Yikes! I don’t necessarily think that he will do that well, but he is projected to hit over 20 home runs.

Carlos Quentin, OF - Another late season call-up that impressed in September. He cracked an ISO of .277 last year, and is in line for the starting RF job in Arizona.

Adam Laroche, 1B - This one sort of surprised me, yet didn’t. You know that he was hot at the end of the year, but he did have a .276 ISO over the course of the whole season. That is good enough to be 14th best overall.

Brad Hawpe, OF - Solid young player that posted an ISO of .222. Now I understand why one of my buddies would not drop him in our 8-team league.

Eric Byrnes, OF - Arizona has something great going on out there. Brynes had an ISO of .215 last year.

So what about Freddy Sanchez, the NL batting champ? He was tied for the league lead in doubles with 53. That should give you a good ISO, right? NOT! He apparently needs to eat more Wheaties this year, because his ISO last year was only .129. Generally speaking, an ISO of .080 is considered to be a singles hitter. How about Ryan Zimmerman? Even though he led all rookies in doubles, he posted an ISO of .187. The great thing about Zimmerman is that he has plenty of time to develop the additional power over the next few years.

So take a look at some of these players, especially if you have Total Bases as one of the categories in your league.