Strikeouts are more prevalent in today's game than they've ever been. Real baseball teams are catching on to what fantasy owners have known for some time - a pitcher who can rack up the whiffs is almost always more valuable than one who can't.

Well, they probably knew that before, but as baseball has evolved into its current state, it's become more and more rare to find pitchers who are able to succeed year after year without above-average K rates. What does that mean for fantasy owners? Strikeouts are easier for everyone to find, which makes uncovering potential mid or late-round strikeout artists all the more valuable. Here are four such players to target in your drafts this spring.

Editor's note: For more preseason draft value and sleeper advice, check out our 2016 fantasy baseball rankings dashboard, which is already loaded up with lots of great articles. Aside from staff rankings and ADP analysis across all positions, we also dig into MLB prospect rankings, and dynasty/keeper rankings as well.

American League

Trevor Bauer

2015 was an interesting year for Bauer to say the least. Bauer earned wins in two of his first three starts of the season. In these three games, he only allowed 2 earned runs and registered 26 SO in 19.0 IP. Immediately, Bauer was a wavier wire wonder and his ownership percentage was skyrocketing. Unfortunately for Bauer, he would reach double digits SO in only two more starts. This is not really due to ineffectiveness, but rather a lack of control. In 30 total starts, Bauer lasted an average of 5.7 innings. For arguments sake, let’s round that up to 6.0 innings. In 20 starts where Bauer lasted at least 6.0 innings, he averaged 6.6 strikeouts. In 10 starts where Bauer lasted less than 6.0 innings, he averaged just 3.0 SO. We can easily see that Bauer’s strikeouts depend on his ability to last through a majority of the game. Obviously there are going to be more K in longer outings, but this discrepancy is significant. With a 22.9% K%, we know that Bauer has the stuff to miss a lot of bats. If he can improve his command and go further into ballgames, we can expect to see SO in bunches and most likely a drop WHIP.

Luis Severino

 Upon his mid-season call-up in 2015, Severino lived up to the hype that made him the Yankees’ most highly regarded prospect. Severino made 11 Major League starts, compiling a 2.89 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP. Batters made contact on 78.7% of Severino’s pitches but were only able to register a .265 BABIP and a .229 average. Only 50.3% of these pitches were inside the strike zone and batters swung and missed on 9.6% of strikes throw by Severino. More importantly, Severino managed a 62.8% F-Strike%, or the percentage of first pitches thrown for strikes. In his first season with a similar workload, Clayton Kershaw only managed a 54.7% F-Strike%. This is not me comparing Luis Severino to Clayton Kershaw by any means. However, the odds of striking a batter out increase dramatically when the first pitch is thrown for a strike rather than for a ball and with a F-Strike% mark like Severino’s we get a glance at the caliber of pitcher he has the potential to be.

The velocity is another aid in Severino’s K upside. The average velocity of his fastball was 95.2mph in 2015, and the average velocity of his slider was 89.0mph in that same year. Even his changeup packed heat, with his average velocity measuring at 87.8mph.

If Severino is able to build on this impressive F-Strike% across a full season of work and maintain the velocity on all three of his pitches, the strikeout possibilities are endless.

National League

Raisel Iglesias

It seems that entering the 2016 fantasy baseball season, Raisel Iglesias is on every “sleeper” list in existence, regardless of what aspect of fantasy baseball is being covered. With an inflated 4.15 ERA in 16 starts in 2015 and a 3-7 record, you may be wondering why. A closer look reveals the meat and potatoes of Iglesias’s game and there is actually a lot to like. Iglesias is one of Cincinnati’s many young pitchers, but he is one of the few that has seen some big league action. In the same 16 starts in 2015, Iglesias amassed a 26.3 K% and a 9.82 K/9. Batters swung at 47.4% of his pitches but only compiled a .225 average and a .285 BABIP. Righties were only able to hit .176 against him. Lefties, on the other hand, hit .285 against Iglesias but as the young Cuban pitcher further develops his changeup, the splits should even out a bit more.

Iglesias had trouble maintaining velocity in the later innings of his starts but like a mature ball player, he admitted that conditioning was at the root of these issues. With better conditioning, a more reliable changeup, and the trust of the Cincinnati Reds organization, Iglesias has the potential to miss bats at an even higher rate.

Joe Ross

The Washington Nationals and fantasy owners alike are still trying to figure out what to make of Joe Ross. Going into 2016, the Nats will tab Ross as their fifth starter after going back and forth between the bullpen and the starting rotation for some time. In 13 starts and 76.2 IP, Ross accounted for 69 punchouts, giving him a 22.0% K%. Batters only made contact on 75.5% of Ross’s pitches, leading to a .220 opposing average. We have to wonder what Ross can do with a full season of work. Unlike his brother Tyson Ross of the San Diego Padres, whose lack of command leads to an elevated walk rate, Ross does not exhibit the same qualities; his BB/9 was a suppressed 2.47.

Ross’s fastball is not going to blow anyone away, and he only uses it 57.2% of the time. Ross is a bit craftier, using his slider 35.6% of the time and his changeup 7.1% of the time to keep batters guessing. The interaction between a pitcher and a batter is always a chess match but with Joe Ross, the mind games become even more intense. While other pitchers rely on a cannon of an arm to throw strikes, Ross is more cerebral and uses mind over matter to collect strikeouts.

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