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Fantasy Baseball: Reviewing 2009 NL Catchers

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By Ray Guilfoyle Updated
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Coming into the 2009 season, I was of the belief that the NL catching position was deep and that you could wait to draft a catcher well into your 2009 drafts, and still grab a quality catcher. Well, in my Big league draft, I didn't follow my own advice and I wanted to grab the top catcher from 2008-Geovany Soto-in the 4th round!! He is just one of the reasons for my out of money performance in my Big league.

I was reviewing how the NL catchers have performed in 2009, and it's pretty abysmal. Let's take a look:

Player AB R H 2B HR RBI BB KO SB BA OBP SLG OPS
Montero, Miguel C ARI 390 53 115 30 14 54 36 69 1 0.295 0.356 0.48 0.835
Torrealba, Yorvit C COL 183 24 53 8 2 26 19 36 1 0.29 0.356 0.366 0.722
Molina, Yadier C STL 461 42 133 22 5 49 50 36 9 0.289 0.365 0.373 0.738
McCann, Brian C ATL 448 58 129 35 20 88 41 72 3 0.288 0.35 0.505 0.855
Paulino, Ronny C FLA 214 22 58 7 8 26 22 43 1 0.271 0.338 0.425 0.763
Baker, John C FLA 351 59 95 25 9 49 39 85 0 0.271 0.35 0.419 0.769
Hanigan, Ryan C CIN 239 22 64 6 3 10 34 29 0 0.268 0.36 0.339 0.699
Molina, Bengie C SF 473 48 124 24 18 74 13 65 0 0.262 0.283 0.431 0.714
Santos, Omir C NYM 264 27 69 13 7 37 14 41 0 0.261 0.297 0.398 0.695
Nieves, Wil C WAS 213 20 55 6 1 26 13 42 1 0.258 0.303 0.301 0.604
Jaramillo, Jason C PIT 191 19 49 13 3 24 17 28 1 0.257 0.317 0.372 0.689
Ruiz, Carlos C PHI 310 32 79 24 9 42 45 36 3 0.255 0.355 0.426 0.78
Martin, Russell C LA 479 58 122 19 6 49 62 77 10 0.255 0.351 0.332 0.683
Hernandez, Ramon C CIN 273 23 68 12 5 36 32 33 1 0.249 0.33 0.355 0.685
Hill, Koyie C CHC 229 25 54 11 2 24 26 71 0 0.236 0.315 0.328 0.643
Blanco, Henry C SD 191 20 45 12 5 14 25 42 0 0.236 0.323 0.377 0.7
Kendall, Jason C MIL 417 44 98 17 1 34 45 54 7 0.235 0.325 0.288 0.613
Bard, Josh C WAS 248 18 58 17 5 30 20 47 0 0.234 0.293 0.363 0.656
Doumit, Ryan C PIT 245 27 57 14 9 33 15 41 4 0.233 0.277 0.4 0.677
Hundley, Nick C SD 222 17 51 12 6 24 25 64 2 0.23 0.308 0.383 0.691
Coste, Chris C HOU 200 15 45 12 2 17 22 55 0 0.225 0.305 0.315 0.62
Iannetta, Chris C COL 278 39 62 13 15 50 40 71 0 0.223 0.335 0.446 0.781
Soto, Geovany C CHC 307 27 68 18 11 43 46 70 1 0.222 0.322 0.394 0.716
Schneider, Brian C NYM 159 10 32 10 3 24 18 21 0 0.201 0.282 0.321 0.603
Snyder, Chris C ARI 165 20 33 7 6 22 32 47 0 0.2 0.333 0.352 0.685



I grouped this list by batting average, as you really want your catcher to possess two skills in fantasy/roto baseball. The ability to hit for a high average, and to hit HRs. As you can see from the list above, there weren't many catchers hitting HRs in 2009. There were only 5 catchers that hit more than 10 HRs in 2009, lead by Brian McCann's 20.

I recall that some of the experts in either the Toutwars or LABR NL-only draft spending $20+ on McCann, Russell Martin, and Geovany Soto. Only McCann came close to earning $20+.

Going into 2010 drafts, I am sure the catcher who will get all the hype will be Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero. He probably went undrafted in many leagues, but has broekn out this season with a 14-54-53-.295-.356-.480 performance in 390 ABs. He could be the 2nd catcher taken in NL-only leagues in 2010 due to the disappointing seasons from Martin, Soto, and Chris Iannetta to name a few.

Finally, the only catcher that may be more hyped going into 2010 could be the Giants Buster Posey. Posey should be the Giants starting catcher in 2010, replacing an aging Bengie Molina, who is a free agent at the end of this season.

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