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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