Catcher Rankings

Catchers, eh? Most of them aren’t very good for fantasy purposes and the ones that are, aren’t really worth their draft positions. One reason I tend to wait until the later rounds of my drafts to grab a catcher is that they do not play as many games as most players drafted around them. I have a hard enough time kneeling down to tie my shoes and these guys are out there all season long, 9 innings a game and then some. You’ve got to expect a little time off and nobody wants to carry two catchers unless they’re dumb or have to.  Here is the list of our top ten catcher from here on out. (Note: This list will be updated as the season progresses and our other writer actually shows up to his fake job.)

1. Victor Martinez- Who would have thought Victor would be hitting .400 in May? I for one tried to avoid him at all costs after last year’s horrible numbers. I thought he was done, and was willing to tell anyone who would listen. V-Mart is looking at a career year if he can keep hitting. Nobody expects him to hit .400/.476/.625 for the entire season, but a line of .320/.400/.525 is definitely within reach. Not too bad for a guy who was generally drafted 5th or lower among catchers this year.

2. Joe Mauer- I’ve explained my recent love for this big guy and it still stands. If you wanna know specifics, do me a favor and either 1. Remember or 2. Go read what I posted about Mauer yesterday. K, thnx. Oh yeah, his sideburns are bad ass.

3. Brian McCann- An early season injury has caused McCann’s fantasy numbers to look more like Brain Giles and less like the all-star that he is. If you look a little deeper though, you’ll see that his OBP is above his career average and his BABIP is right where it should be. This tells me that McCann is just a hair away from putting it all together. By season’s end he will be worthy of the 4th round pick that most of you used on him.

4. Brandon Inge- The surprise of the season at the catcher position (besides Iannetta royally crapping the bed) had put up a silly line of 11 dingers, .285/.388/.577 with 29 RBI and 28 runs. Inge says he feels most comfortable playing 3B, which is where he is now and it seems like he may have been right. For such a little guy, he sure can rake. You remember back in 2006 when he hit 27 HR but hit a bit over David Ortiz’s listed weight (Yeah, I call BS.) I sure could see Inge hitting 20+ HR. Especially since he’s nine away already.

5. Jorge Posada- Posada is injured right now, but should be back in the next week sometime. Before he went down he was hitting the ball with authority. His SLG% is the highest it has been in his entire career, and his OBP is a little above average. With the new Yankee Stadium playing like a little league field on steroids, I would put Posada at 23/85/.270. With numbers like that and an ADP in the 11th-13th round range, this is one of the better bargains out there.

6. Russell Martin- This is one guy I avoided at every draft I participated in. I just never bought into it. On the season, he’s got a higher BABIP than average, slightly higher BB rate, higher k rate. He’s hit a total of zero home runs and has an OPS lower than .700 and that is just stinky-poo. The only reason we rank him here is because of speed upside and the fact that he has multi-position eligibility.

7. Chris Iannetta- After becoming one of my worst fantasy enemies after his horrendous start to the season, Ianetta slowly started bringing his numbers back up to where we’d expected them when we drafted him. He’s got a lower BABIP of .246 meaning he’s been a bit unlucky thus far. Ianetta’s line drive rate is down about 5% from his career average and his fly ball rate is up about 14%. Ianetta is clearly hoping the mile high air in Colorado will carry more of those fly balls just a little bit further.

8. Mike Napoli- Mike Napoli is getting his first shot at being the #1 catcher for Mike Scioscia and is making the most of it. He had 20 HR in 227 AB’s in 2008 and has 6 this year in about half the AB’s. His OBP is much higher than his career average and his BABIP is almost 50 points higher then normal. What does this all mean? A .313 batting average is unsustainable but his power numbers should hold steady. He should end the season between 25-30 HR’s and around a .270-.280 average. Good enough for #8 on the list.

9. Geovany Soto- Soto has been sidelined for a bit this season with a sore right shoulder, only collecting 99 Abs so far. In those 99 at bats, he’s hit one homer, 10 RBI, .202 with a .585 OPS. After looking at his BABIP, you’d notice it was down about .080 from last season, which says he’s also been pretty unlucky. His line drive and fly ball rate have both dropped a small amount while his ground ball rate has risen, which can be explained by the sore shoulder. Good ol’ Lou Piniella and his old fartish ways.

10. Bengie Molina- Bengie is the best hitter of the fabulous Molina brothers, and is good for close to 20 HR and 80 RBI every season. This season he already has 8 long balls which would suggest a monster power season from him. Molina has an issue though. Come the dead of summer he generally starts to fade away as his career average in May is .315, in June .273 and in July a sickly .243. He does usually pick it back up for the stretch run however, hitting .277 in both August and September and putting up his best career HR totals in those months. So, when it’s mid July and Bengie is in a horrific slump, do yourself a favor and stick with him. You’ll be happy you did.

SHAZAM!