Fantasy Baseball: Midseason Catcher Rankings

by Seth Walder on Jun 22, 2010 6:47 PM EDT

As we make our way toward the All-Star Game, we thought it would be prudent to start our midseason rankings. Every few days, you’ll see a new set of position rankings, starting with catcher, today.

One thing it is important to remember when creating or viewing rankings: these rankings are in order of production from this point until the end of the season. No matter how bad the player may have hurt you already, this is where we believe he stands for the rest of the season.

Separate rankings have been done by Ray, Jason (jumperjah) and myself, and then averaged together to get a group ranking, though you can see each of our individual rankings in the chart below as well.

Rank	Player	Ray	Jason	Seth	Average
1	Joe Mauer	1	1	1	1
2	Victor Martinez	2	2	2	2
3	Brian McCann	3	3	3	3
4	Miguel Montero	5	4	5	4.67
T-5	Mike Napoli	7	6	4	5.67
T-5	Jorge Posada	4	7	6	5.67
7	Carlos Santana	6	5	8	6.33
8	Kurt Suzuki	8	8	7	7.67
9	Buster Posey	11	9	9	9.67
10	Geovony Soto	10	10	13	11
11	Miguel Olivo	14	13	10	12.33
12	John Buck	12	11	15	12.67
13	Ryan Doumit	9	18	12	13
14	Matt Wieters	18	12	11	13.67
15	Yadier Molina	13	15	14	14
16	Rod Barajas	20	14	16	16.67
17	Russell Martin	17	16	18	17
18	Nick Hundley	19	19	NR	18.67
19	Carlos Ruiz	15	NR	NR	19
T-20	A.J. Pierzynski	NR	20	17	19.33
T-20	Ronny Paulino	NR	17	20	19.33
T-20	Jonathan Lucroy	16	NR	NR	19.33
23	John Jaso	NR	NR	19	20.33

It was an interesting group to rank, and not particularly easy as it got fairly ugly fairly fast. One big discrepancy came with ranking Matt Wieters, which should be of no surprise. It more or less comes down to the odds of him finally breaking through. Interesting as well was how different the three of us came down on Ryan Doumit, though considering his injury-riddled past maybe this is less surprising.

Feel free to comment on whom you think we were too high on and too low on, I have no doubt this should cause some conversation.

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Comments

The thing that stands out to me is that

There is a pronounced difference between the top groups of catchers (probably through 8 or 10 or so) and the rest. Nearly everyone after about 8 is essentially replacement level at this point to me, and it would just depend on what you needed out of your catcher for your specific team.

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by Jason Hunt on Jun 22, 2010 9:25 PM EDT reply actions

2 Standard Mid-Season Yahoo Drafts

I joined two mid-season yahoo leagues out of boredom and lived drafted them last week here was the results in that league. Round-Pick in Draft 1 on June 13th and Draft 2 on June 19th.
1. Mauer(2-8, 1-5)
2. Martinez(4-12, 3-6)
3. McCann(2-9, 3-11)
4. Montero(21-3, 22-3)
T-5. Napoli(14-2, 12-9)
T-5. Posada(10-3, 14-11)
7. C. Santana(12-10, 16-3)
8. Suzuki(4-7, 15-7)
9. Posey(11-7, 11-6)
10. Soto(23-2, 21-12)
11. Olivio(13-8, 11-9)
12. Buck(UD, 22-5)
13. Doumit(23-6, 19-6)
14. Wieters(14-1, 12-1)
15. Yadier Molina(13-9, UD)
16. Barajas(16-5, UD
17. R. Martin(16-11, 14-10)
UR. B. Molina(UD, 16-12)

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by nikpin on Jun 22, 2010 11:43 PM EDT reply actions

Some really unusual results there

Suzuki before Victor Martinez? I’m a total homer sometimes, but you can’t convince me that I should draft him ahead of V-Mart.

Also interesting that Posey went ahead of Napoli in both leagues. Montero is going to be a great value for both owners I think, as he could very well end up as a top-3 catcher if someone struggles.

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by Jason Hunt on Jun 22, 2010 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Interesting

Great job, guys. I happen to have three of the top 10 catchers in an AL-Only league no less (C-Santana, CI-Napoli, DH-Mauer), which is odd.

I have very mixed feelings on Wieters, and this goes along with the whole Orioles squad. I believe I may have been either listening to the Fantasy Focus with Matthew Berry and Nate Ravitz or Baseball Today with Eric Karabell and Buster Posey, and they talked about the Orioles and the idea that there really is a cancer going on in the clubhouse. Mind you, this is something that was brought up by some people in the industry: the Orioles’ tough April schedule might be too much for a young core. It was. As someone who drafted Matusz, Markakis and Reimold, I don’t think it’s any coincidence. Part of their interviewing process for a new manager was finding a guy who could invigorate these guys.

Back to Wieters, I have two points. One, he’s not catching up to fastballs. WTF? Guys are blowing him away. That’s troubling. On the other hand, if you have, say Kurt Suzuki, are you not trading for Wieters at this point in the season? In a keeper league, it’s a no-brainer to deal for him while he’s a buy low. I still feel like he can turn it around, but how long it takes before the light-bulb comes on is anyone’s guess.

Assuming most of these guys stay at the position, I think we’re going to see some real depth at the C position start to develop again.

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by Bryan Everson on Jun 23, 2010 2:40 AM EDT reply actions

rankings

I found it difficult to rank the catchers after the first 10 or so….am curious when we will see Posey’s power appear and Weiters has been a dissapointment for sure.

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by Ray Guilfoyle on Jun 23, 2010 6:27 AM EDT reply actions