OBP Instead of Batting Average

After reading my post on valuation, Rob wants to know if you can use OBP instead of batting average.

Sure. If you are using auction calculations like I did, you could simply take your pool of 168 or 182 hitters purchased and figure out their OBP. Since I don't use OBP, I don't have plate appearances or walks in my spreadsheet.

Since there are more plate appearances than walks, I would start out by bumping up the total number of plate appearances to 6,000 (compared to 5,500 for the AB factor in a BA formula). Then I'd look at the A.L or N.L. OBP and bump it up somewhat since the average Roto hitter is typically somewhat better than the average Major League hitter. The American League batting average, for example, was .260 but the average A.L. hitter purchased at auction hit .265. The A.L. on-base percentage was .327 in 2010. Using this as a jumping off point, I would use .335 as the A.L. on-base percentage factor.

The formula would then be as follows:

$BA 2.35 * ((2,010 + H + BB + HBP) / (6000 + PA) - .335) / .0016 

I haven't tested this formula on an actual pool of players. However, this would be my logical jumping off point.