Ryan Doumit: He Deserves a Longer Look

On draft day, most owners won't target their catcher until the middle rounds, that is, unless they want to draft Buster Posey, his ADP per Mock Draft Central is 9.84, currently; or Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, whose ADP is 29.92 per MDC. I prefer not to draft catchers that early, as I lean toward power/speed guys or big power guys early in drafts, with a sprinkle of a few starting pitchers to build my staff around. But, there is one catcher who could be drafted in the middle rounds who could provide 75% of the production of a Posey.

Ryan Doumit is certainly not one of the top catchers off the board in many fantasy drafts, but I think he should be. We ranked Doumit as our 15th ranked catcher in our Consensus 2013 Catcher Rankings earlier this offseason. Personally, I had him as my 12th ranked catcher for 2013 but was not the high man on Doumit, as Bret Sayre had him as his 10th ranked catcher.

The issue with Doumit is he can't stay healthy. Last season, he posted a career high in plate appearances with 528, hitting .275-.320-.461 with 18 HRs, 56 runs and 75 RBI. He did all this while playing half of his games in the pitcher-friendly Target Field.

Doumit doesn't walk all that much, nor does he strike out a ton. What he does do is provide solid numbers across the board for fantasy owners, and won't hurt you in any one category. He is a career .272 hitter with some decent pop for a catcher-eligible hitter. Here is how his counting stats ranked amongst catchers with 300 or more plate appearances in 2012:

Home runs: 18 (tied for 10th with Carlos Santana)

Runs: 56 (tied for 9th with Carlos Ruiz)

RBI: 76 (8th-ahead of Brian McCann, Jesus Montero and Mike Napoli, and one behind Santana and Yadier Molina)

Batting Average: .275 (10th - ahead of Jesus Montero, Santana, McCann and Matt Wieters)

According to Mock Draft Central, his current ADP of 163.48 tells us you can draft him in the 16th round in 10 team leagues. He is currently the 13th catcher off the board in mixed leagues and the 8th catcher off the board in AL-only leagues. He not only is an undervalued catcher, he also has outfield eligibility, which makes him a bit more valuable for those of you in deeper leagues.

Here is what I wrote about Doumit in our 2013 Consensus Catcher Rankings:

He should see plenty of time at catcher in 2013 as well, as the Twins like to give Joe Mauer some time at DH or first base to keep his legs fresh. When healthy, Doumit will hit, providing fantasy owners with a .270 batting average, double digit home runs, and 60-70 RBI in 2013.

Doumit is a solid first catcher for those of you in deeper mixed leagues as well as AL-only leagues in 2013. He just needs to prove to fantasy owners that he can stay healthy and that his 500+ plate appearances in 2012 was no fluke. If so, he should be able to duplicate his 2012 production, and outperform his draft round.