Fantasy All Star Catcher: Brian McCann

This is the first in a series of ten articles between now and the All Star game where I will select my Fantasy All Stars by position, starting with catcher. My Fantasy All Star catcher is Braves catcher Brian McCann.

McCann is a five time All Star, soon the be six, who hits better than some first baseman. He owns a career triple slash line of .291-.362-.492 with 126 HRs and 513 RBIs in his 6.5 seasons in the big leagues. Per Baseball-Reference, he has a 25 HR-100 RBI 162 game career average. Damn impressive for a catcher.

This season he is hitting  .311-.386-.521 with 14 HRs, 47 RBIs and 29 runs scored. McCann owns an excellent eye at the plate as he has a 42-33 K/BB rate in his 267 at bats this season. He also owns a .201 ISO for his career.

McCann's best season in the big leagues was in 2006 when he hit .333-.388-.572 with 24 HRs and 93 RBIs. He may never his .333 again, but he is on pace to eclipse the 2006 HR totals as he is on pace to hit 27 HRs and drive in 92 runs this season. His HR/FB rate is 14.1% thus far in 2011, and he is hitting more fly balls this season-44.0% vs 42.9%.

If McCann was to be ranked as a first baseman, he would rank 10th in HRs, 9th in RBIs, and 7th in BA amongst all fantasy first baseman. That is excellent production from a first baseman, and tremendous production for a catcher.

Honorable Mention: Alex Avila, DET- I wrote an article about Avila here, and Jason wrote one here.