Who were the most surprising hitters of 2017? You could enter the numbers in a spreadsheet, compare each player’s performance to his preseason projection and see which players most overachieved. I’m too lazy to do that.
Maybe the 10 players below weren’t the exact 10 biggest surprises by some formula. But they were 10 of the most compelling players of 2017 because of their surprises. That makes them compelling for 2018. It also makes them 10 of the most important players for the upcoming season. Can they repeat their improbable production? The Steamer projections at FanGraphs say no: All 10 players are predicted to regress in their triple-slash lines.