2012 Fantasy Baseball Position Rankings: Catcher

Pitchers and catchers report for most teams starting this Saturday, and we at Fake Teams have been hard at work reformulating our positional rankings so that you'll be ready on draft day. Ray, Jason, and I will reveal our latest rankings position by position over the next several days, and Marc will be chiming in with his own tiered ranks as well. You can keep up with all of Fake Teams' ranks via our Google Docs spreadsheet:

Fake Teams 2012 Fantasy Baseball Ranks

These catcher ranks are for a standard 5x5 mixed league. I've included 30 players, followed by a few brief explanations, especially where there are deviations from previously published ranks, which can be found here (mixed league) and here (league-specific). Kevin has also published catcher ranks for head-to-head points leagues, which may be found here.

2012 Mixed League 5x5 Catcher Rankings

1. Carlos Santana, CLE

2. Brian McCann, ATL

3. Matt Wieters, BAL

4. Mike Napoli, TEX

5. Buster Posey, SF

6. Miguel Montero, ARI

7. Joe Mauer, MIN

8. Alex Avila, DET

9. Yadier Molina, STL

10. Jesus Montero*, SEA

11. Wilson Ramos, WAS

12. J.P. Arencibia, TOR

13. Geovany Soto, CHC

14. Russell Martin, NYY

15. Jonathan Lucroy, MIL

16. Ryan Doumit, MIN

17. Nick Hundley, SD

18. Salvador Perez, KC

19. Kurt Suzuki, OAK

20. Devin Mesoraco, CIN

21. John Buck, MIA

22. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, BOS

23. Rod Barajas, PIT

24. Carlos Ruiz, PHI

25. Ramon Hernandez, COL

26. Chris Iannetta, LAA

27. Ryan Hanigan, CIN

28. Wilin Rosario, COL

29. Miguel Olivo, SEA

30. Ryan Lavarnway, BOS

*Jesus Montero is not currently listed as a catcher at Yahoo! or ESPN, but he is expected to catch some games for the Mariners this season.

• I made a couple of minor adjustments at the top, including nudging Mike Napoli and Joe Mauer up a spot or two. Mauer is being drafted high enough in mocks that he'll never fall to a spot where I feel okay taking the risk.
  
• I've knocked Nick Hundley down a peg or two - the secret about his second half is out and people are overpaying as a result.
  
• It appears that I'm higher on Jonathan Lucroy than most. To be more accurate, I'm just not impressed with anybody else listed behind him here. I like Lucroy to repeat double-digit home runs with a modest improvement in batting average.
• I've said it before, but I think the ability to DH has potential to do wonders for Ryan Doumit.
• I'm not a Salty fan at all. I might not have him on this list at all if it weren't for the talent hitting in front of him.
• Iannetta's home/road splits (Career OPS: .869 at Coors, .707 away) really scare me.
  

I'm happy to talk about any player, discuss any ranking, or defend any snub, so comment away.