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Fantasy Baseball Catcher Rankings

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It is time to close out our rankings for the hitters with the catcher position. This is really a tale of the top four players, and everyone else. Pick your poison. Yes, there is some upside here, but always risk too due to inherent wear and tear catchers endure, so don’t spend too aggressively no matter which tier you decide to target.

 
Tier 1

1. Joe Mauer, MIN – Mauer had a huge drop off in homers in 2010, which may or may not have something to do with the Twins moving into the new Target Field. Regardless, he’s still the best fantasy catcher as he’ll provide a very high batting average and a lot of RBI. This kind of production won’t be cheap at a premium position like catcher as he’ll cost you a second round pick.

2. Victor Martinez, DET – When Detroit signed V-Mart, they said he’d bat most every day, usually as designated hitter. He’ll get some time behind the dish and at 1B, but he’ll amass about 550 at-bats, which is huge for a catcher, especially one with Martinez’ ability.

3. Buster Posey, SF – With less than a year of MLB experience under his belt, Posey is already among the fantasy elite. The Giants are likely to use him most days as they assume his youthful body can handle the wear and tear. Take advantage of his many trips to the plate but be mindful of possibly wearing out as the season progresses unless he is used at first base on occasion like last year.

4. Brian McCann, ATL – The only thing keeping McCann at the bottom of the elite group is a batting average that is solid, but not spectacular. He’s still a great bat to put at your catcher position but he’s being picked right after V-Mart in most drafts, and a round ahead of Posey. At that price McCann will provide considerably less value.

 
Tier 2

5. Mike Napoli, TEX – Napoli is a big swinger who will hit a lot of homers at the cost of his batting average. He’s likely to continue playing a little first base, providing you with extra at-bats and position flexibility.

6. Kurt Suzuki, OAK – Suzuki is here mostly for his ability to pick up about 550 at-bats. He’s nothing more than a solid hitter, but with the number of at-bats he’ll acquire, he will pile up some nice stats to help your team.

7. Russell Martin, NYY – Since his game has slumped at the plate in the last few years, Martin has fallen out of favor with fantasy owners, but look for a revival now that he’s in the Bronx. Hitting in the Yankees order can do wonders for anyone’s game and Martin should be rejuvenated with 2007-esque numbers. The steals might not break 20 like his big season, but look for the average and power to return. You can draft Martin pretty late, making him one of my key undervalued targets for 2011.

8. Geovany Soto, CHC – Expect a .286/20/72 line from Soto. He’s very solid and will provide decent value if you can wait him out to the seventh round. Soto is usually the first catcher off the board after the top four are drafted a few rounds earlier.

 
Tier 3

9. Miguel Montero, ARI – If you miss out on Geovany Soto, Montero should be available in the next round. He’s a similar player providing slightly inferior numbers.

10. Matt Wieters, BAL – He was supposed to be the next stud catcher, but it seems like his star has fallen. He is still young and has enough time to realize that potential. In the meantime, he will be solid but unspectacular. He’s a great second catcher in two-catcher leagues, but you probably don’t want him to be your number one guy with high expectations.

11. A.J. Pierzynski, CWS – There is nothing fancy about Pierzynski, just a good batting average and a dozen homers. He makes a great second catcher for the leagues who start two.

12. Carlos Santana, CLE – Carlos Santana will likely join the elite group next season, but is probably a few notches below for now. If you can’t get one of the big four, the next two tiers can be lumped together as pretty similar, starting with Mike Napoli and ending here with Santana, with varying degrees of risk and upside.

 
Tier 4

13. Yadier Molina, STL – This is the perfect “won’t hurt your team” catcher. Molina will give you a good batting average, but little else. If you are looking to wait until the middle-teens to grab your catcher, this is a great pick.

14. Chris Iannetta, COL – Iannetta will give you power, but will hurt your batting average. He makes a good backup or second catcher.

15. John Jaso, TB – As Tampa Bay’s leadoff hitter, he will be in great position to score a lot of runs, but he doesn’t steal bases or have much power. His batting average also isn’t anything that will help your team, so draft this guy only if you are desperate.

16. J.P. Arencibia, TOR – This guy only has 35 MLB at-bats under his belt, so expect some slumps. He has a lot of room to grow into a good hitting catcher, just don’t expect this to be the season he does.

17. Miguel Olivo, SEA – Call him “Iannetta-lite”. You’ll get some pop, but the batting average will hurt you.

18. Ryan Doumit, PIT – The Pirates list Doumit as their backup catcher and right fielder and he might get time at first base as well. As such, he is likely to get a bunch of at-bats while not being a starter. If it all works out, he could really be an asset to your team but watch his playing time closely and cut bait if he looks like he’s not getting enough at-bats.

19. Jorge Posada, NYY – If his knees hold up, Posada could put together a great season for a catcher-eligible player. Those knees are likely to be a little creaky all season though, and the temptation of playing the young phenom Jesus Montero will be too great to get Posada as many at-bats as he will need to be much more than a backup catcher for your fantasy team.

 
Tier 5

20. Alex Avila, DET
21. Rod Barajas, LAD
22. Jesus Montero, NYY
23. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, BOS
24. Carlos Ruiz, PHI
25. Nick Hundley, SD
26. Ramon Hernandez, CIN
27. John Buck, FLA
28. Ryan Hanigan, CIN
29. Jonathan Lucroy, MIL
30. Josh Thole, NYM

Offseason Player Movement: Trades

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This offseason saw a fair number of trades, even the same player being traded more than once in the case of Mike Napoli from Anaheim to Toronto to Texas. Some teams were trying to fill holes in their roster to put a better product on the field, while others were trying to pare salary, and perhaps put a better product on the field down the road.

Whatever the reason behind the trade, a lot of quality ball players found new homes. Here is a recap of the trades involving players switching teams who have the most significant fantasy implications this season.

Let’s start with the biggest trade of the offseason, the Adrian Gonzalez to the Boston Red Sox trade. This trade was more than a year in the making as the San Diego Padres were rumored to have A-Gone on the block since last winter. Gonzalez will provide yet another big bat in the heart of the Red Sox order, but at the price of some very talented youngsters. Baseball fans and fantasy players in particular will be eagerly anticipating the impact on Gonzalez’s already impressive stats as a result of moving from notorious pitchers’ park PetCo to Fenway.

The most noteworthy future prospect of the bunch is Casey Kelly, a shortstop-turned-pitcher with great stuff. The other minor leaguers in the deal were Anthony Rizzo and Reymond Fuentes, as all three players are young with high ceilings, but Kelly was the man San Diego had to have in this deal.

The Zack Greinke to the Milwaukee Brewers trade isn’t as flashy because it involves two under-the-radar teams sending a shy, but excellent pitcher for a bunch of young talent, none of which pops off the page. The teams swapped shortstops in the deal and any time you can get another team to take Yuniesky Betancourt’s contract off your books, you won that deal. The Kansas City Royals also received an undervalued Alcides Escobar and an overvalued Lorenzo Cain.

The Brewers were busy adding talented pitchers to the rotation when they also traded for Shaun Marcum from the Toronto Blue Jays. Marcum will make the Milwaukee rotation much deeper as he’s a quality pitcher. He’ll be third in the rotation behind Greinke and Yovani Gallardo. In return, the Jays received much heralded infielder Brett Lawrie. Lawrie is still about a year away from The Show, but when he gets there he’ll likely be a third baseman.

The most surprising deal in the offseason was the one that saw the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim acquire Vernon Wells for Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera. The Angels picked up a contract that will pay Wells more than the one that the Red Sox gave to Carl Crawford, who wanted to play for the Angels. It makes little sense why the Angels just didn’t pay Crawford, who is younger and much more talented, but they opted for the Wells deal instead.

The Blue Jays then traded Napoli to the Texas Rangers for Frank Francisco. The addition of Francisco means four pitchers who were once their team’s primary closer are in the Jays bullpen. Francisco is expected to assume those duties in Toronto. Napoli will serve as a part-time catcher, part-time first baseman in Texas.

Rivera is threatening to take his ball and go home if he doesn’t get his way with the Blue Jays. Whether Rivera is an everyday outfielder for the club depends where they decide to play Jose Bautista, at third base or in the outfield.

Armando Galarraga was traded from the Detroit Tigers to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The very mediocre pitcher who pitched brilliantly for one game and was robbed of perfection is moving to the desert to become the sixth pitcher in the five-man Diamondbacks rotation.
Tom Gorzelanny was sent to the Washington Nationals. He will be a reliable option for the rotation, but don’t expect anything special. In return the Chicago Cubs received a handful of magic beans that they hope will one day grow into beanstalks with quality players on them.

The move that made Gorzelanny expendable in Chicago was their acquisition of Matt Garza from the Tampa Bay Rays. He will fit nicely into the front of the Cubs rotation and likely be their most consistent pitcher. Tampa Bay received Chris Archer, Hak-Ju Lee and a few other youngsters who likely won’t be much for the Rays. Lee and Archer are expected to contribute, but not for a few more years.

The only reason that the Jason Bartlett to San Diego deal is of any importance is that it brings Reid Brignac’s bat into a starting role. The Rays new starting shortstop is solid, yet unspectacular, but he is better than Bartlett. The good news here is that fantasy owners have one more shortstop in an already thin group to select for their fantasy team.

J.J. Hardy to the Baltimore Orioles is more of the same. A solid shortstop replaces an all-glove, no-bat shortstop. The new name here is Tsuyoshi Nishioka, the newest Japanese import to come to the States as an over-hyped everyday player to take Hardy’s spot as shortstop for the Minnesota Twins. Even if Nishioka is only mediocre, he’s better than the guy pushed out in this equation, which is anybody else the Orioles were about to field at shortstop this season.

The Oakland Athletics added Josh Willingham to their outfield. Willingham is a very solid and dependable outfielder, but don’t look for any spectacular numbers playing in Oakland’s very spacious stadium.

Fantasy Baseball Journal—No Panic, But Getting Proactive

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I’m managing two fantasy baseball teams this year, and neither has started the season very well. I know, I know, it’s still early, no need to panic, and yada, yada, yada.

I agree, and I’m not panicking, but… I am fairly certain just sitting on my hands waiting for things to turn around is not going to work. I want to be proactive getting these teams to start moving up the standings. So far, I haven’t been very proactive.

See, I’ve kind of checked out on my teams a little since the season started. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still stayed on top of things setting the lineups, and moving guys out who are injured and checking the matchups for my pitchers.

What I haven’t done is stay on top of the hot start free agents. I haven’t tracked every at-bat or inning pitched by my players to see who or why they are performing up, down or right at expectations. I haven’t gone over the standings with a fine tooth comb to know what stat categories I’m doing well in, and which I need someone to pass me the Pepto.

I did go on a family vacation for week though, which helped contribute to the checking out. We had a great time. Thanks for asking.

Now it is back to business though—time to be proactive.

Since I admittedly have been a bit out of touch with what is going on, my only choice is to essentially start at ground zero. I need to review my team performance so far, and work out from there which players need to hit the bricks and who I should be replacing them with.

As I mentioned, I have two teams going. One is a 15-team 5X5 roto mixed league, and the other a 12-team 6X6 roto mixed (traditional 5X5 plus OPS and Holds). The 15-teamer I’m the commish, with weekly starting lineup and transactions, while the other league has daily transactions. I’ll look at the weekly one first giving a position-by-position review, starting with the infield.

C Russell Martin, Mike Napoli, Chris Snyder, Jason Varitek—Note this is a start-two catcher league, so this position is fairly important. Martin was the injury risk coming into the season, but he’s been fine and head-and-shoulders above the other three.

Jeff Mathis has been hot with the bat, and Napoli has not, so Napoli is getting limited AB and not doing much with the ones he has. Snyder isn’t great, but with D-backs Miguel Montero to the DL and out 4-6 weeks, Snyder gets more time in the short-term. I can’t argue with Varitek’s numbers, except it is only happening once a week. Maybe he’ll play more since David Ortiz is struggling big-time.

Thought: Probably shouldn’t hold four catchers. Hate to dump Varitek but it is hard to justify holding him given the extremely limited playing time.

1B Miguel Cabrera—Hitting .350 with a couple homers and 11 RBI, doing everything expected of him. If not for my first round pick I’d probably be wallowing towards the bottom of the standings instead of treading around the middle.

2B Brian Roberts, Akinori Iwamura—Took a shot on Mr. Glass Roberts who was seemingly over his spring training back problems, but then promptly injured himself sliding into second base, now out until late April. Good thing I had Iwamura as a backup who has been okay with a couple dingers but the .250 AVG is a little tough to swallow.

3B Mark Reynolds, Casey Blake—Reynolds is all or nothing early, hitting under .200 but with 3 HR. Yikes, 15 strikeouts on 40 AB. Blake is manning my CI spot. He’s hitting well but getting regular days off given he’s older than I am. Okay, not quite, but it’s close, and that isn’t a good thing.

Thought: I feel I’m going to need an upgrade for Blake this season. He’s hitting well now, but he’s old, he’s consistent but consistently average, so if an upside option is available I’d better make room for him.

SS Alexei Ramirez, J.J. Hardy—Ramirez is on a four game hit streak bringing his AVG up over .200, finally. Prior to that of course Ramirez’s performance is a lot more dismal—a complete dead weight on the roster. Hardy has been a pleasant surprise. Hardy currently occupies the MI position. I need Ramirez to turn it around and Hardy to at least keep it up, which could be a tall order for these two.

Thought: With Roberts out I have no speed in my infield. Iwamura has a single stolen base, and then goose eggs for the rest of the infield except Roberts with two.

Okay, that is it for the infielders. The overall review seems to fit well into where I’m sitting in the standings—it is a very middling group. Some pieces are really good, and more are rather bad.

At this point I am left hoping Roberts can come back and play some significant time without injury, and see what I can track down on waivers to at a minimum give me some options at corner and middle infield positions instead of carrying an extra catcher.

I failed to mention but this league has no trading, so duping a fellow owner to help turn my trash into treasure is not an option.

Next I’ll cover the outfielders, pitchers and see what I can figure out to be more proactive with this team, and get it going like The Jeffersons—moving on up. Now if that doesn’t show my age, then I don’t know what will.