Domonic Brown's SLG% indicates he could have a big year. (US Presswire)

A couple weeks ago, I wrote an article discussing how spring training stats can mean something and may give you an advantage heading into fantasy baseball drafts. The next few days are probably one of the busiest draft weeks of the season, so it's a good time to take a look at potential breakout players, according to Jon Dewan's Spring Training Slugging Percentage Indicator.

As outlined in the mentioned article, the criteria for finding these players is rather simple. Given 40 or more spring training at-bats, if a player with at least 200 career major league at-bats posts a slugging percentage at least 200 points higher than his career slugging percentage, he is poised for a breakout year.

This year's list may be a little skewed because of the World Baseball Classic. Many players lost Spring Training at-bats to the tournament, but without any data to support adding those at-bats to a player's Spring Training, I did not try to.

This group of players fit perfectly into the criteria as of the end of play on Monday March 18th.

Name	ST at-bats	ST Slug%	Career Slug%	Difference
Domonic Brown - Phillies	60	.683	.388	295
Brandon Belt - Giants	47	.766	.418	348
Juan Francisco - Braves	51	.686	.440	246
Bryce Harper - Nationals	47	.681	.477	204
Kyle Blanks - Padres	46	.630	.421	389
Mike Moustakas - Royals	44	.659	.395	264
Alex Gordon - Royals	42	.786	.439	347
Justin Smoak - Mariners	41	.732	.377	355

 
The players below are a few names that will most likely be added to this list before Spring Training concludes, but have yet to reach 40 at-bats, or just missed the 200 point differential at this time.

Name	ST at-bats	ST Slug%	Career Slug%	Difference
Howie Kendrick - Angels	39	.923	.428	495
Paul Konerko - White Sox	39	.795	.499	296
Peter Bourjos - Angels	37	.676	402	274
Jeff Baker - Texas	45	.622	.428	194
Nate Schierholtz - Cubs	37	.676	.409	267
Mitch Moreland - Texas	38	.684	.441	243
Nick Hundley - Padres	35	.829	.390	439
Lonnie Chisenhall - Indians	36	.750	.421	329
Conor Jackson - Orioles	37	.703	.458	245

Finally, there are always a few players that may or may not break camp with their teams that do well in their 40-plus at-bats this spring, but have yet to collect 200 career major league at-bats. Conor Gillaspie (White Sox), with a plus-218 slugging percentage this spring, is the only player that fits into this category right now that is projected to make a 25-man roster according to MLB Depth Charts.

This method has successfully predicted breakout seasons for hitters at a 55-percent rate over the past seven seasons.  A 55-percent rate may not sound too high, but many other methods for projecting the outcome of player performance at season's end usually sit closer to 30-percent. Last season the predictor rate did not do well, as can be seen here by the list from last year, but hopefully this year picking up some of these guys will pay off come October. 

It's worth remembering the above names if you are looking to take a flier at the end of the draft, or simply want a reason to go an extra dollar on a guy when the bidding stalls in an auction draft.