Since we've already made some arbitrary cutoffs for this list in the first place, what's one more? The following two hitters each qualified to be here, but fell outside the top 25.
Rank | Player | PA | BB% | K% | HR | R | RBI | ISO | wOBA | wRC+ | WAR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
27 | Eugenio Suarez | 632 | 13.3% | 23.3% | 26 | 87 | 82 | .200 | .356 | 117 | 4.1 |
26 | Kyle Seager | 650 | 8.9% | 16.9% | 27 | 72 | 88 | .201 | .326 | 106 | 3.5 |
Similar But Different
Eugenio Suarez and Kyle Seager each experienced a different kind of season. Sure, they're both above-average players through the lens of fWAR, but Seager took a step back with regard to overall offensive production after a solid 2016 campaign while Suarez took a step forward.
And although their power numbers (homers and ISO) look nearly identical, this is a perfect of example as to why it's important to read the context clues. Suarez gets to play his home games at Great American Ball Park, which was the 10th-best place for homers in 2017, per ESPN's park factors. Seager, on the other hand, calls Safeco Field home, which was the 20th-best place for homers last year.
So, if we just take all those facts into consideration, Seager's power performance was much more impressive than Suarez. That kind of holds true when we break it down even further.
Of Suarez's 26 homers, 21 of them came at home, enabling him to post a .321 ISO in Cincy and a .092 mark everywhere else. Seager's power production was much closer toward being down the middle (12 homers and .186 ISO at home, 15 homers and .216 ISO on the road).