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We continue to work our way through punting all ten standard categories in ten separate mock drafts here. Today we will do a draft with a batting average punt in mind. You can find each of our articles in the series here.

League Settings

I set up this league to have 20 starting slots (10 hitters, 10 pitchers) and two bench spots. Here are the full details:

Rosters: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF x3, UTIL x2, P x10
Categories: R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, W, ERA, WHIP, K, SV
My Pick: Second

2020 Draft Kit: View printable cheat sheets, sleepers & mistakes to avoid

Strategy

• Use FantasyPros Zeile projections and Microsoft Excel to make customer pre-ranks that factor in which category I am punting.
• Have a really strong pitching staff, as offensive counting stats are pretty easy to find in the middle and later rounds of the draft when you don’t have to worry about keeping your batting average up.

Results

1.2 Mike Trout (OF – LAA)
I don’t care what category I may be punting, Mike Trout is always the easy pick at No. 2 when Ronald Acuna goes first. I may even stumble into a couple batting average wins just by having Trout. Do I really need to write more here?

2.11 Jack Flaherty (SP – STL)
The plan here was to use two of my first three picks on starting pitching, and Flaherty was the best available at this point. Batting average is very scarce, so a lot of these early picks are hitters with high averages that I do not value as much with this strategy. That made the choice pretty easy to get off to a hot start in pitching and then catch up in the other four offensive categories a bit later.

3.2  Clayton Kershaw (SP – LAD)
My plan was to get Bieber or Strasburg here, but the guy picking in the No. 1 slot took both of them at the turn. Brutal. I thought about pivoting and going hitter here, but I decided to stay the course and take Kershaw here for a little more stability in the starting rotation.

4.11 Luis Castillo (SP – CIN)
Too much value here to pass up. Castillo could flirt with a top-five season at his position this year, and he is especially helped by the fact that he may avoid Great American Ballpark for most of this season. My staff is off to an awesome start with three aces, now I can focus on catching up in some of these hitting categories.

5.2 Adalberto Mondesi (SS – KC)
No better time to take Mondesi than when you are not worried about batting average. I will take the league leader in steals and immediately surpass the rest of the league in that category with one pick.

6.11 Joey Gallo (OF – TEX)
The two biggest gainers from punting batting average are Mondesi and Gallo, who are extreme contributors in their strong categories while being a black hole in batting average. It’s an easy choice to add this 40-homer pace hitter and not have to worry about the countless 0/4’s he will give me.

7.2 Josh Donaldson (3B – MIN)
Another huge gainer in this strategy is Donaldson, who should be a total stud in runs, homers, and RBI this year. The batting average will likely be a negative — but I don’t care! Give me Donaldson all day in the seventh round to fill that third base spot.

8.11 Sonny Gray (SP – CIN)
It was time to add another pitcher, so I went to Sonny Gray who pitched amazingly for the Reds last season. He should also avoid a good amount of Great American Ballpark this year, giving him a boost in my rankings and making an incredibly strong SP4 for my squad.

9.2 Rhys Hoskins (1B – PHI)
He’s an awesome guy to get to plug in at first base, as that position is pretty much a wasteland at this point in the draft. Hoskins is an elite producer in homers and RBI while being one of the worst batting averages in the league. A perfect guy to get on my team.

10.11 Brad Hand (RP – CLE)
Punting an offensive category puts a little more pressure on me to be competitive in saves, so I wanted to add an established closer here. Hand was the top guy on my list, so I pulled the trigger.

11.2 Oscar Mercado (OF – CLE)
I don’t want to put all my steals marbles on Mondesi, so Mercado was a nice pick at this point to give me some extra punch in that category. He also brings great upside in runs scored and could even show some nice pop. This is a bit of a risk, but there are very few steals out there right now.

12.11 Danny Santana (2B – TEX)
Nobody believes that Santana is going to hit for a good batting average again with how often he strikes out and how rarely he walks. However, he should hit some homers and steal some bases in a solid lineup, which made him a nice get for my team that was in desperate need of a second baseman.

13.2 German Marquez (SP – COL)
Marquez is probably the player that benefits most from the changed season dynamic, as he will avoid Coors Field quite a bit. Pitching all of his games away from Coors Field would make him a top-20 starter in the league, and I get him in the 13th round. That’s a pretty easy selection.

14.11 Khris Davis (DH – OAK)
Homers — check. Runs batted in — check. Batting average — don’t care. I believe this pick solidifies my team as the favorite to win the homers category, and Davis could be benefited by playing fewer games in the cavernous Coliseum.

15.2 Brandon Workman (RP – BOS)
It was time to get another closer to pair with Hand, and Workman was the best on the board. The Red Sox should be competitive this year, giving Workman plenty of opportunity for a few saves a week.

16.11 Paul DeJong (SS – STL)
Not that I really needed more homers, but I went with it anyway. DeJong is just another guy that fits the average punt too well to pass on.

17.2 Nick Anderson (RP – TB)
This will give me a good amount of saves and a substantial boost in ratios here. I really want to be in the top three in saves here, and Anderson should help me get there.

18.11 Adam Eaton (OF – WAS)
A few more steals and runs never hurt anybody. He might actually hit for too high of a batting average to fit in with the rest of my team though, might have to shop him around the league.

19.2 Anthony DeSclafani (SP – CIN)
Let’s just own all the Reds starters this year, shall we? I wanted one more pitcher and he was the best available. I love the upside with him, especially if he can pitch in more pitcher-friendly ballparks this season.

20.11 Sean Murphy (OAK – C)
Last pick, time to bite the catcher bullet.

Results

Sure enough, I come in dead last in batting average here, which hurts my overall grade quite a bit. I am projected in the middle of the pack in runs, homers, and RBI — which was a bit surprising. I would imagine this team being one of the better ones in the league in terms of power numbers, so maybe I am just a little higher on these guys than the projections are.

The pitching staff looks strong and graded out as fourth-best in the league. I lag a bit behind in the strikeouts category as a lot of teams had an extra starter on their team. That is easily remedied on the waiver wire.

This team was actually really fun to draft. Seeing the home runs pile up with picks like Gallo, Donaldson, and Hoskins while not having to worry about the huge hits to my team’s batting average was quite a trip.

This strategy also lends itself to assembling a top-heavy pitching staff, as so many of the early round hitters separate themselves only by their ability to hit for a high batting average. There’s not that big of a difference between guys like Nolan Arenado and Donaldson/Gallo when you don’t have to worry about the average, so I could catch up in offense pretty easily later on.

While I don’t think it is right to punt any category in a ten-category league, batting average is probably the best choice if you are picking an offensive category to ignore. It is a widely random category and does not correlate highly with any of the other categories, so I can see it working out if you really get the rest of your team right.

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