Targeting players for batting average and on-base percentage (OBP) are two very different things in today’s game. Outside of the top few rounds, you often have players who are good at hitting for average or have very good on-base skills. We will be looking at a total of 10 players today outside the top 100 of fantasy baseball average draft position (APD) in drafts. Four will be players to target for batting average; four will be players to target in OBP formats. We finish off the list with two sleepers for deep leagues.
P.S. The most obvious name is Luis Arraez. I did not forget about him but decided not to include the most obvious name of the bunch. I guess you can count this as his mention for batting average assets. He would be the top asset in this category.
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Fantasy Baseball Players to Target for Batting Average
Batting Average Assets
These are players who will be contact-first types who have a track record of good-to-great batting averages you can target if you fall behind in the category early on. But you will notice that these players often come with concerns in other stat categories, so be sure to build for them.
After we saw back-to-back seasons of batting .264, Luis Rengifo hit .300 last year. Although .300 is not as likely to repeat, we now have a strong track record of him hitting at least .264 in three straight seasons.
Rengifo is a bit of a free swinger, but he does make a lot of contact and has plus speed. This combination allows for the batting average on balls in play (BABIP) to remain higher as we saw this past season. Health is the only real concern but the skills allow for a good floor for another solid batting average season.
There aren’t many players who have been more consistent than Alec Bohm over the last few seasons. Strong plate discipline, hits the ball hard and to all fields and has hit at least .274 in the past three seasons.
Bohm will play every day and bat toward the middle of the order more times than not. He is very boring but you know what you are getting with him and there is no reason to doubt his skills yet.
You might be able to call Xavier Edwards Luis Arraez-lite. Edwards has a very contact-heavy approach that has proven to work for him. In the last four stops across multiple levels, he has hit at least .295. He has a good eye at the plate and it shows.
Edwards does not chase much while hitting about 90% of balls in the zone. This high rate of contact helps him sustain those batting averages. The walks are inconsistent but when they are up the OBP is also a strength and he could be one of the few players who is a net positive in both categories. The batting average feels far safer as a strength here.
Here is a guy who quietly does his thing annually. Lourdes Gurriel has hit under .270 just once in his career. He is a career .279 hitter and has batted at least .279 in two of the last three seasons. Boring can be beautiful if you build for it.
Fantasy Baseball Players to Target for OBP
These are players who may be mediocre or even negative contributors in batting average but are strong OBP producers.
The power might be in question depending on where Alex Bregman lands but the OBP is not. He has a career .366 OBP. Before last season (.315 OBP), he had not recorded an OBP under .350 since his 2016 rookie season.
Bregman walked just 6.9% of the time, but that is an outlier. He typically walks at least 11-12% of the time (career 11.9% walk rate) and he even walks more than he strikes out some seasons. His OBP is a big strength given his track record and approach at the plate.
Cubs leadoff man Ian Happ is great at getting on base, and the Cubs recognize that. This is why he was moved up in the order entering last year and no reason that won’t stick entering 2025.
Between leading off and setting a strong foundation in many categories, he now gains even more value being a plus contributor in the OBP category to go with the rest of his tool kit. Happ has a career .343 OBP with at least a .340 OBP in four of the last five seasons.
Jonathan India is a sneaky OBP hitter. Many people do not speak about it but it has been a strength more often than not. He has a career .352 OBP and has had an OBP of at least .357 in two of his four big-league seasons.
India should be leading off in Kansas City to start the year, so there is a path to overall production across the board and giving you a foundation to build off of. The ability to get such a player late in drafts is underappreciated.
Even in down years where Max Muncy hits around .200, he still puts up a serviceable OBP. A career .352 OBP comes with a career 15% walk rate to back it up. Given the lineup context and on-base ability, there is a lot to like if you wait on third base in an OBP format.
Deep League Targets
Brendan Donovan is boring but there is playing time here with some power to go along strong batting average and OBP skills. The fact both are a strength fits the needs of either category.
The ceiling is limited with Spencer Horwitz, but we have seen a high floor from him in OBP. Even the batting average is around league average (and sometimes better). Not a flashy name but helpful in OBP and has a steady floor in batting average.
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