MLB

Fantasy Baseball: The 25 Least Powerful Hitters Who Slugged 20-Plus Homers in 2017

Albert Pujols reached 20 homers and 100 RBI for the 14th time in his 17-year career this season, but not much else went well for him. Who else used homers to prop up their power numbers?

It's hard to beat the value a home run brings to the table in fantasy baseball.

If we're talking about standard 5x5 leagues, a single home run makes an impact in four different categories (batting average, homers, RBI, and runs scored). They're always valuable, but they're also easier than ever to find these days. After all, more homers were hit during the 2017 regular season than ever before in baseball history.

Grabbing a hitter with the potential of slugging 20-plus dingers used to be a big deal. However, since there were 117 players who reached that benchmark this past year, it's not as hard as it used to be to load up on power. With this in mind, it's important to find ways to differentiate these players and potentially uncover some hidden value, or find out if someone is being overvalued.

That's why we're going to use Isolated Power (ISO) as a barometer here. ISO shows a hitter's extra bases per at-bat, giving us a glimpse at their raw power. If we specifically look at players who qualified for the batting title with 20-plus homers but failed to reach the 30-homer plateau in 2017, who were the least powerful and had to depend the most on homers to prop up their ISO? It's worth noting that this list shouldn't necessarily be taken in absolutes since ISO isn't a park-adjusted stat, but it's still something interesting to keep in mind as we slice and dice player performances with an eye towards 2018.

Each of the following 25 players hit at least 20 homers this past season, but failed to see their ISO climb up over .200.