SubscribeAlthough batting average has been the traditional standard for most fantasy baseball leagues, I know there are quite a few that have substituted OBP. Since the Price Guide can build dollar values customized to both of those league types, I thought it might be interesting to see which players were most affected by the change.
To do this I created dollar values for a standard ESPN league, and values for an otherwise identical league that uses OBP instead of AVG.
Here are the players who saw the most improvement in the OBP league:
| Player | Team | Pos | AVG Lg | OBP Lg | Diff. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Cust | OAK | OF | -$3 | $14 | $17 |
| Adam Dunn | OF,1B | $9 | $24 | $15 | |
| Pat Burrell | TB | OF | -$2 | $10 | $12 |
| Carlos Pena | TB | 1B | $5 | $16 | $11 |
| Jim Thome | CWS | Util | -$4 | $7 | $11 |
| Nick Johnson | WAS | 1B | -$5 | $6 | $11 |
| Ryan Howard | PHI | 1B | $33 | $42 | $9 |
| Nick Swisher | NYY | OF,1B | $5 | $14 | $9 |
| Mike Napoli | LAA | C | $3 | $12 | $9 |
| Travis Hafner | CLE | Util | $3 | $11 | $8 |
| Rickie Weeks | MIL | 2B | $1 | $9 | $8 |
The top of the list isn’t that surprising. Cust, Dunn, and Burrell all have quite a reputation for being guys who see a lot of pitches, and who end up with a lot of walks (and strikeouts).
The names that stand out for me are Ryan Howard and Rickie Weeks. I knew Howard struck out a lot, but I hadn’t realized how much he walked (the intentional walks certainly help).
For Weeks, the increase is not so much the number of walks but a reflection of how horrendous his BA has been. Hitting .235 destroys his value in your usual 5×5, so it doesn’t take much to improve.
Now, who loses value in an OBP league?
| Player | Team | Pos | AVG Lg | OBP Lg | Diff. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carl Crawford | TB | OF | $28 | $17 | -$11 |
| Ichiro Suzuki | SEA | OF | $15 | $4 | -$11 |
| Delmon Young | MIN | OF | $12 | $1 | -$11 |
| Robinson Cano | NYY | 2B | $9 | -$2 | -$11 |
| Howie Kendrick | LAA | 2B | $0 | -$11 | -$11 |
| Josh Anderson | ATL | OF | $3 | -$7 | -$10 |
| Nate Schierholtz | SF | OF | $3 | -$7 | -$10 |
| Juan Pierre | LAD | OF | $1 | -$9 | -$10 |
| Matt Kemp | LAD | OF | $22 | $14 | -$8 |
| Jacoby Ellsbury | BOS | OF | $13 | $5 | -$8 |
| Jeff Francoeur | ATL | OF | $12 | $4 | -$8 |
| Pablo Sandoval | SF | C,3B,1B | $8 | $0 | -$8 |
| Mike Aviles | KC | SS,2B,3B | -$1 | -$9 | -$8 |
| Garret Anderson | OF | -$3 | -$11 | -$8 |
Here we have the contact hitters, especially guys who are able to use their speed to beat out groundballs. (We also have Anderson and Schierholtz who showed up on the list of CHONE’s surprises…)
In an OBP league, you can expect that these speed players will be overvalued. People cannot resist the SB totals, and the magazines and websites (which all talk about leagues with AVG) have ingrained in people’s subconscious minds the first set of dollar values. Despite the evidence above, people will unwisely push Ichiro and Ellsbury into double-digits.
Don’t do it. Please. It’s not worth killing your OBP to pick up those extra SB.
If you want to compete in SB in an OBP league, I recommend taking top-tier players who can steal 30+ without sacrificing OBP. Hanley Ramirez, Grady Sizemore, B.J. Upton, and Jimmy Rollins are great candidates for this. Then, fill in the gaps with lots of guys who can get you 10-15 SB. (Bobby Abreu and the aforementioned Rickie Weeks can do it and could come cheap.)
Even that might not be enough to come out on top at SB. And that’s OK. You want to draft the team that can earn the most points, regardless of where those points come from. By passing up on the SB disasters, you should be able to build a team that excels in the other nine categories, and that should be enough to win.
Related posts: