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Early June Isolated Power (ISO) for fantasy baseball: the top 100

Using ISO is a good way to find out which hitters are hitting for power.

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Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

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Isolated power (ISO) is a measure of a hitter's extra base hits per at bat. It is calculated by subtracting batting average from slugging percentage. For example, Manny Machado has a .593 slugging percentage and .308 batting average, which gives him a .285 ISO.

According to research done over at Baseball Prospectus, ISO stabilizes around 160 at bats. Now into June, most hitters have crossed that threshold. Here are the top 100 batters in ISO and their differentials from last season. MLB average ISO is .157 in 2016.

Player

ISO

Differential

David Ortiz

.392

+.112

Adam Duvall

.343

+.86

Yoenis Cespedes

.316

+.67

Jay Bruce

.311

+.102

Nolan Arenado

.310

+.23

Mark Trumbo

.301

+.114

Trevor Story

.293

N/A

Manny Machado

.285

+.069

Todd Frazier

.281

+.039

Robinson Cano

.281

+.122

Mike Napoli

.274

+.087

Anthony Rizzo

.272

+.038

Bryce Harper

.272

-.047

Chris Carter

.271

+.047

Evan Longoria

.262

+.096

Matt Carpenter

.261

+.028

Jackie Bradley, Jr

.259

+.010

Carlos Beltran

.258

+.047

Jake Lamb

.254

+.131

Khris Davis

.254

-.004

Mookie Betts

.253

+.045

Josh Donaldson

.250

-.021

Giancarlo Stanton

.250

-.089

Carlos Gonzalez

.248

-.021

Gregory Polanco

.247

+.122

Byung Ho Park

.247

N/A

Corey Seager

.247

+.023

Jose Bautista

.244

-.041

Marcell Ozuna

.243

+.119

J.D. Martinez

.242

-.009

Daniel Murphy

.242

+.076

Mike Trout

.238

-.052

Nelson Cruz

.235

-.029

Kris Bryant

.233

+.020

Miguel Cabrera

.231

+.035

Michael Saunders

.230

+.230

Corey Dickerson

.229

-.003

Nick Castellanos

.228

+.064

Kyle Seager

.227

+.042

Matt Kemp

.227

+.049

Neil Walker

.226

+.068

Zack Cozart

.225

+.024

Miguel Sano

.223

-.039

Justin Bour

.223

+.005

Jonathan Lucroy

.223

+.096

Edwin Encarnacion

.221

-.079

George Springer

.220

+.037

Aledmys Diaz

.219

N/A

Michael Conforto

.218

-.018

Salvador Perez

.215

+.049

Ryan Braun

.215

+.002

Chris Davis

.215

-.075

Eugenio Suarez

.215

+.048

Joc Pederson

.214

+.008

Jose Altuve

.213

+.067

Matt Holliday

.212

+.082

Dexter Fowler

.212

+.051

Marcus Semien

.209

+.062

Eric Hosmer

.208

+.048

Ian Kinsler

.207

+.077

Steven Souza Jr

.206

+.032

Curtis Granderson

.206

+.008

Travis Shaw

.205

-.012

Carlos Santana

.203

+.039

Adrian Beltre

.203

+.037

Ryan Zimmerman

.201

-.016

Victor Martinez

.201

+.081

Paul Goldschmidt

.201

-.048

Joey Votto

.200

-.028

Brandon Belt

.199

+.002

Wil Myers

.197

+.024

Charlie Blackmon

.195

+.032

Albert Pujols

.195

-.041

Buster Posey

.194

+.041

Jayson Werth

.194

+.031

Brandon Drury

.193

+.032

Maikel Franco

.191

-.026

Randal Grichuk

.191

-.081

Brad Miller

.191

+.047

Hunter Pence

.188

-.015

Andrew McCutchen

.185

-.011

Nomar Mazara

.185

N/A

Jonathan Schoop

.184

-.019

Christian Yelich

.183

+.067

Yasmany Tomas

.182

+.054

Eduardo Nunez

.181

+.052

Rougned Odor

.180

-.024

Troy Tulowitzki

.180

+.020

Stephen Piscotty

.177

-.012

Carlos Correa

.176

-.057

Ben Zobrist

.174

+.001

Freddie Freeman

.174

-.021

Ian Desmond

.173

+.022

Dustin Pedroia

.171

+.021

Logan Morrison

.168

+.010

Coco Crisp

.168

+.120

Colby Rasmus

.167

-.069

Brandon Crawford

.166

-.051

Luis Valbeuna

.164

-.054

Starling Marte

.163

+.006

David Ortiz is having the greatest offensive age 40+ season ever. His wRC+ sits at 200 as of this afternoon, 63% higher than Willie Mays' 157 wRC+ in 1971, the next closest to Ortiz. To keep this pace up would be well beyond anything Ortiz has ever put up in a season. His best wRC+ was 175, in 2007. Ortiz will almost certainly regress going forward, but will likely still end up among the best in the game by seasons end.


This is now Yoenis Cespedes' 5th year playing baseball in the big leagues. He's been a completely different hitter since coming to the Mets in August of last year. His ISO is about 70 points higher than last year's .251, which was seen as a career year type of performance. It's possible Cespedes is just timing up MLB pitching better in his 5th season, and we can reasonably expect a significantly elevated level of performance from him going forward.


Jay Bruce appears to be over some injury problems the last few years and is having the best offensive season of his career. His start to 2016 is comparable to his 2012 season, where he finished with a .281 BA and 25 HR.


Robinson Cano has had a monstrous bounce back year for power after playing most of the first half of 2015 with a stomach illness that apparently zapped his power. Adjusting for run scoring environment, Cano is having a season similar to his peak 2012 season with the Yankees. This doesn't mean the same for fantasy purposes, because Yankee Stadium is a much more hitter friendly environment than SafeCo, but it does show that Cano's skills are not eroding like we may have feared last year.


Bryce Harper being ranked #13 in ISO yet having his ISO differential be -.47 says more about how great his 2015 season was than anything else. Harper is seeing less first pitch strikes than ever before and likely isn't getting a whole lot of good pitches to hit.


Evan Longoria's power output looks a lot like his vintage years, with ISOs over .230 routinely. His home run to fly ball rate (15.4%) is about what it was in 2013, too, the last of his peak seasons.


I traded Mookie Betts last year at the trade deadline in my keeper league in a win now move for Chris Archer and David Ortiz. I could only keep Ortiz based on my league rules. I don't regret it, because the move helped me win a title, and flags fly forever. I also traded him around the time he had his concussion, and I never saw this type of power output coming from him. Betts already has 14 HR, just 4 less than his 2015 total. He's one of the best young players in baseball.


Giancarlo Stanton is a mess, and I'm not sure what is going on. He is striking out 34% of the time, which is scary high. I wonder if this is at all related to some sort of delayed effect from getting hit in the face in 2014, but that is just reckless speculation without much substance. He is just 26 years old, it is strange to see a Hall of Fame type talent fall apart like this.


Daniel Murphy is a fundamentally different hitter after making mechanical adjustments in the second half of last season with the Mets. He is no longer a mediocre hitter. He is legitimately a top hitter in the game right now. Murphy has a .492 BA on ground balls, which will come down as the season goes along, but he's striking the ball well on grounders based on launch angle + exit velocity measurements, so he appears to be able to sustain a well above average BA on ground balls.


Jonathan Lucroy has had a huge bounce back year after struggling with a concussion last year. 2015 can probably safely be chalked up to a fluke year because of the brain injury. He has resumed his place as one of the top fantasy catchers.


Jose Altuve is hitting for way more power while keeping his stolen base skills and high batting average. He is now walking at a 10% rate and is seeing significantly less first pitch strikes. He is a legitimate top 5 player.