2024 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: Chris Towers’ Tout Wars team shows how to handle OBP, saves-plus-holds

Most of the drafts you’ve seen on the CBS Sports Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep page to this point have been mock drafts. That’s starting to change as the calendar turns to March and we start to play for keeps. The latest real league draft we’re featuring is for the industry experts league Tout Wars, which I took part in on the afternoon of Feb. 27. 

This is a 15-team Roto league (it had been a 12-teamer in the past), with 10 categories, with on-base percentage instead of batting average on the hitting side, and innings pitched instead of wins and holds-plus-saves instead of just saves. It’s a unique twist on the standard 5×5 format, one that makes the league look a bit more like a standard H2H points league, actually, in that it rewards walks in addition to hits, and rewards volume on the pitching side.

But that combination of IP and S+H as a category does create some interesting strategy questions. Because, while S+H does have a democratizing effect on the relief pitcher landscape, it’s not perfectly even. There are about twice as many holds around the league as saves in any given season, but the holds leaders tend to max out around 30, while the highest-end closers tend to be closer to 40. Emmanuel Clase led the league with 44 saves last season, while Yennier Cano and Hector Neris tied for the league-lead with 31 holds. 

Which means, you can eschew the high-end closers if you like, but you might need three relievers in your lineup at all times to keep pace, which will inevitably put you behind the innings pace of your competition. Last season in this league, only two teams managed to be top-six in both innings and holds. It creates a unique balance, and one that is tough to strike.

And I’m not sure I pulled it off in this draft. Here’s what my team looks like picking from third overall: 

My Team

We’ll look at the hitting side of things first, because I think that’s by far the strongest part of my team. Juan Soto and Aaron Judge were my top choices at the third pick, assuming Ronald Acuña was already off the board, as he should be in every league regardless of format. And I had my pick of Soto and Judge after Spencer Strider went second overall, leaving what I thought was a pretty tough choice; both are elite OBP hitters, with Soto perhaps a tick better while bringing a bit more speed to the table; Judge has the clear edge in power. 

I opted for Soto at No. 3 and then was surprised to watch Judge fall to No. 8. Presumably for the same reason I ended up with Soto: There are enough questions about Judge’s health to demand a downgrade for most drafters. I still would have taken Judge ahead of the likes of Julio Rodriguez and Kyle Tucker, neither of whom gives you a truly high-end OBP, but if you want to prioritize speed even in an OBP league, that makes some sense.

Having Soto as my base allowed me to take a few lower-OBP hitters like Bo Bichetter, Josh Lowe, and Nick Castellanos and still feel good about where I stood in that category. Using the ATC projections system, my starting lineup is projected for a .341 mark, which would have put me in contention for a top-two finish last season (in a shallower, 12-team format!), and I’m in pretty good shape in the key power and run production categories.

Where I might be a bit weak is stolen bases. I pushed Joshua Lower and Jarren Duran up my board a bit to try to lock in some more speed from my outfield, and that’s what you’re going to face if you pass on Rodriguez, Bobby Witt, or Corbin Carroll. In an OBP league, I think that’s still a viable option, but with Judge projected for perhaps 15-20 more homers than Soto, if he stays healthy I’m going to regret passing on him.

But overall, I think it’s a very good offense. And it should be – eight of my first 10 picks were on the offensive side! I got a few mid-round targets I really like, like Jung Hoo Lee (he could be excellent in OBP) and Henry Davis, who will slot into one of my catcher spots once he’s eligible after the first week of the season. 

And Nolan Schanuel could be a cheat code in an OBP format – he might not hit for much power, but he walked 41 times in 51 games after the Angels selected him in the first round last season. He should absolutely be on your late-round radar in any OBP league.

Of course, I had to sacrifice pitching to build an offense I feel really good about, and that’s where I think my strategy might have gone sideways. I feel pretty good about Luis Castillo as my SP1, but Max Fried carries enough workload concerns to be an iffy pick in a league where IP matters directly. And, unfortunately, I didn’t do much to shore things up from there. 

My next pitcher didn’t come off the board until the 11th round, and it was Kodai Senga … who is likely to pitch every sixth day even when healthy, and he isn’t currently healthy after being shut down from throwing with a shoulder injury early in spring. In a best-case scenario, he could potentially still be back by late April, but you shouldn’t bet on best-case scenarios happening every time. I like Gavin Williams as a sleeper, and at least for a young pitcher, he doesn’t have huge innings concerns, having thrown 142.1 last season. But he’s still a young pitcher, one with enough command concerns that I can’t just project him for 180 good innings yet. And he’s probably my third-best bet in that category!

I did snag a couple of closers in the 13th and 14th rounds, but both come with significant injury question marks of their own. Useful relievers are relatively easy to find on waivers in a S+H league, and I do at least have Jason Adam, Pete Fairbanks’ likeliest closer backup in Tampa if things go sideways for him. But if both Helsley and Fairbanks get hurt, I’ll likely find myself struggling to make up ground in S+H on top of my already likely IP struggles.

The thing you have to keep in mind whenever you draft, of course, is that the team you draft isn’t the team you’re going to play out. I’m already preparing to cut one of Travis d’Arnaud, Tyler Soderstrom or Jose Caballero early on if they aren’t getting the playing time I hope early on, and there will be plenty of turnover beyond that. And, if Luis Severino manages to stay healthy and fixes the pitch-tipping issues that he struggled with last season, my biggest weakness could suddenly look like a relative strength. I also like the upside of both Edward Cabrera and Aaron Ashby on my bench – assuming they lock up rotation spots for the Marlins and Brewers, of course. 

And, no matter what approach you take on Draft Day, you’re going to have a weakness somewhere, especially in a 15-team league. Coming out of the draft with an obvious weakness at least has the added benefit of giving you clarity in how you need to approach the waiver wire early on; I can probably skip out on flash-in-the-pan hitter types and just focus on trying to acquire more useful starters. There’s value in that.

But I know it’s not a perfect team. I know there are holes I’ll need to fill as the season goes on. But I think this team can certainly compete. Here’s what the competition looks like: 

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