When looking at the table of league batting average leaders, it’s not always easy to discern who is providing the most value in the category. Batters don’t share an equal number of at-bats; thus, averages must be weighted differently.

Here’s the 20 batting average leaders last year as provided by ESPN. These are the guys who appeared in the batter’s box enough times to qualify for a batting title. 

Now, what if we re-sort the batting leaders based on point value in a fantasy baseball league? Value is calculated by comparing a player’s batting average with the best “replacement” player off the waiver wire and weighting the number of at-bats. Here’s the top 20 fantasy league contributors last year in the category of batting average:

From the looks above, players like Dustin Pedroia and Ichiro Suzuki get a little extra credit by registering a great number of at bats. On the other hand, players with small at-bat totals including Mike Aviles, Ryan Doumit, and Carlos Lee, who don’t register enough at-bats to qualify as batting leaders, still provided top 20 values in the category. Furthermore, no need to worry about injury-prone players like Chipper Jones and Milton Bradley. Even with limited playing time, big averages translate to great value in this category.

Unfortunately, the reverse is true as well. Among the top 150 batters last year, here are the ten players who most hurt their fantasy teams most in batting average. Just because Nick Swisher and Jack Cust didn’t make it to 500 at bats didn’t mean they weren’t batting average kryptonite. But on the other hand, a .251 average posted by Ryan Howard may not seem Rickie Weeks-horrific, but a healthy 610 at bats makes him one of the dishonorable ones.

Fantasy baseball owners may look at batting average and shrug off the significance of large volume or the significance of batting average under low volume. But non-average playing time can make its mark.