OBP Leagues: Studs and Duds

Here at RotoGraphs, we don’t always give too much of our time to OBP leagues. Sad, but true. More and more leagues are converting to OBP, or adding OPS, so it’s about time that we made time for them.

Some players have much more value in OBP leagues, and some have much less. The easiest (or is it the laziest?) way to determine this, is to simply subtract a players’ batting average from their OBP. Let’s take a look, shall we?

The Studs
1. Chipper Jones (.141)
2. Josh Willingham (.139)
3. Prince Fielder (.137)
4. Jose Bautista (.127)
5. Kevin Youkilis (.123)

While Bautista has much more value in OBP leagues, his OBP is only around 10 points above average. Chipper, however, is amazing. He is waiver wire fodder in standard leagues, but he needs to be owned in every OBP league. His injury problems mean you’ll need a reliable backup, but when he plays, he reaches base. Willingham is owned in 65% of Yahoo! leagues, so he won’t be widely available. Even though Youkilis and Fielder are big time fantasy players, Bautista and Chipper are nice values in OBP leagues.

The Middle Class
83. Alfonso Soriano (.072)
84. Shane Victorino (.072)
85. Alex Rodriguez (.072)
86. Hideki Matsui (.071)
87. Denard Span (.071)

A-Rod in the middle of the road? Gasp.

The Duds
173. Pedro Feliz (.025)
172. Julio Borbon (.025)
171. Alberto Callaspo (.026)
170. Carlos Gonzalez (.027)
169. Cristian Guzman (.027)

Feliz should never be owned, period, and hasn’t been worth your time since 2007. Borbon is having a nice season, especially after the way he started off, but his value needs to be altered in OBP leagues. The speed is nice, but a .319 OBP isn’t going to cut it. Callaspo has always had a decent walk rate in Kansas City, so his struggles to take a free pass are strange. Guzman’s Nationals career has always been the definition of “empty average”, so this is not a shock. Gonzalez’s walk rate was decent last year, but he’s swinging more while making less contact. Borbon and CarGo both have some value due to their counting stats, but don’t get too excited.