MoneybAll-Stars: High OBP Veterans to Target to Stabilize Your Lineup

At the turn of the millennium, the Oakland Athletics started to zag while the rest of the major leagues zigged. Instead of targeting high-average, power sluggers -- the most expensive commodity to acquire and keep -- the cash-strapped A's built a successful run by populating the team with low-cost bargain bin veterans, prioritizing general on-base ability over other offensive talents.

In standard 5x5 fantasy leagues, which cling to hits as the basic unit of offensive production and batting average as the scoring statistic, targeting high OBP skills alone isn't going to cut it as a season-long strategy.

However, players adept at drawing walks can help stabilize a team, whether that means being a high-floor stopgap replacement for an injured roster mainstay or as a late-season edition to help maintain an established lead.

Here are four players to consider for the second half of fantasy baseball's regular season. All have an OBP near .350 and with at least an 80-point difference between their batting average and OBP. All will be widely available on the waiver wire or come at a discount via trade.

Here are the mid-season "MoneybAll-Stars":

2B Chase Utley, Los Angeles Dodgers (.261 BA / .348 OBP)

Owned in just 10 percent of leagues is far too low for a man who has led off in all 54 games in which he has started and boasts a .348 OBP on the season. Utley has tremendous upside, but he can't do it all on his own; he needs the Dodgers' two-through-four hitters to do their part to cash him in.

To date, the two-spot for the Dodgers has combined to slash .277/.339/.490 in 327 plate appearances. That's not an awful line by any means, but could stand to be better for the sake of Utley's run production. Luckily, the entrenched two-spot hitter is looking like a runaway NL Rookie of the Year as we close in on the halfway point of the season.

Here is how SS Corey Seager's slash line (plus extra-base hits) has progressed month-by-month in 2016:

* up to June 20

With the engine behind Utley starting to rev up, now is the time to invest in the veteran for the final stretch. There's no reason to think that Utley couldn't provide 50 runs, 25 RBIs and five to 10 HRs over the Dodgers' final 90 games. He has nowhere to go now but up.

1B/3B Luis Valbuena, Houston Astros (.253 BA / .351 OBP)

2B/3B Aaron Hill, Milwaukee Brewers (.269 BA / .351 OBP)

Valbuena cranked 25 homers in just 132 games last season but a low average and dip in OBP made him difficult to roster in all but the deepest formats. Now, his BABIP has bounced back towards league average, raising his batting average to a more passable .250. He's also improved his OBP to .351, matching the mid-.300 OBPs he posted with the Cubs in 2013 and 2014.

Meanwhile, Hill is having a late-career renaissance at age 34. Through 65 games, he's already put up some stats similar to what he produced across 116 games in Arizona last season. The 15 homers and eight-to-10 steals he should finish with are a plus, but the real attraction is a .351 OBP that's not far off the rate that helped him score 93 runs and capture a Silver Slugger in 2012.

Hill has the benefit of hitting higher in the order when left-handed pitchers are on the mound. While the Brewers could eventually pull the trigger on trades that would see Hill, as well as teammates OF Ryan Braun and C Jonathan Lucroy, leave Milwaukee, any trade would likely send the veteran to a higher-scoring offense with postseason aspirations.

Both Hill and Valbuena bring positional flexibility to your lineup, which can help insure against the possibility of having your season derailed by an injury to a corner infield slugger. That's something to consider for fantasy teams that more or less have their core set.

OF Brett Gardner, New York Yankees (.258 BA/ .370 OBP)

The Mendoza Line is the point at which a player's batting average is so low that it outweighs any contribution on defense. In fantasy baseball, there's the Gardner Line: the best player, who despite his talents, goes undrafted and generally stays unowned for the majority of the season because his position is too flush with talent.

That's Brett Gardner. After his 2012 season was wiped out by an elbow injury, Gardner transitioned from being a five-homer, 40-steal man to being a 15-homer, 20-steal man. That hampers his value in a league where premium base-stealers are becoming a rarity, but it's still excellent value, especially for a batter with a career .347 OBP that helps to make up for low batting averages.

The Yankees have scored 4.1 runs per game while fielding essentially the same lineup that ranked 2nd with 4.69 runs per game in 2015. While some of that is tied to age-related decline, much has to do with general under-performance by the team as a whole.

With steals an added bonus, Gardner will be a low-cost fill-in at OF who will only improve alongside the rest of the Yankees' lineup.