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Catcher week would be incomplete without taking a look at the average draft position (ADP) for the catchers we have ranked for you this week. The ADP data is courtesy of the NFBC (National Fantasy Baseball Championship) rankings courtesy of NESN.com.
Along with the NFBC ADP rankings, the NESN site also provides the Min Pick and Max Pick data, which tells readers where the player was drafted the highest and the lowest thus far in the NFBC drafts. For example, Buster Posey has been picked as high as 26th overall (way too high) and as low as 73rd overall.
In addition, I thought it would be helpful to include the Fake Teams consensus catcher rankings in the table below as well to see how close eight independent writers collectively ranked catchers vs the NFBC ADP rankings. We did pretty good. Yes, I am giving away the rankings of our catchers ranked 16 - 30 a day early, but it comes without the player write-ups the you will see tomorrow morning.
Quick Thoughts
We differ slightly in our rankings for Carlos Santana and Joe Mauer, as we have them flip-flopped vs the NFBC ADP rankings. The NFBC drafters like Wilin Rosario a little higher than the Fake Teams' writers, but we like Brian McCann a little more, thanks to my #1 ranking.
Some of the wider differences in our rankings vs the NFBC drafters are with Carlos Ruiz, A.J. Pierzynski, Yan Gomes, Evan Gattis and John Jaso.
The NFBC data shows that eleven catchers are being drafted in the first 10-11 rounds in the 15 team drafts, with Buster Posey going in the third round, which I think is really early for a catcher who had such a bad second half last season. The next four catchers, Carlos Santana, Joe Mauer, Wilin Rosario and Yadi Molina are coming off the board by the fifth round, with Sal Perez, "Sheriff" Brian McCann and Jonathan Lucroy coming off soon after in the sixth round, so if you want a quality backstop in 2014, you need to grab him early.
If you want to wait a few more rounds to draft your catcher, you can wait on Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos and Astros catcher Jason Castro, who could both jump into the top 5-6 catcher rankings in 2014.
NFBC Ranking |
Fake Teams Ranking |
Player |
Pos |
Pick |
Min Pick |
Max Pick |
1 |
1 |
Buster Posey |
SF |
40.39 |
26 |
73 |
2 |
3 |
Carlos Santana |
Cle |
66.43 |
47 |
81 |
3 |
2 |
Joe Mauer |
Min |
68.18 |
36 |
184 |
4 |
6 |
Wilin Rosario |
Col |
70.21 |
30 |
102 |
5 |
5 |
Yadier Molina |
StL |
73.04 |
53 |
165 |
6 |
8 |
Salvador Perez |
KC |
83.46 |
31 |
109 |
7 |
4 |
Brian McCann |
NYY |
85.93 |
36 |
185 |
8 |
7 |
Jonathan Lucroy |
Mil |
86.82 |
71 |
116 |
9 |
10 |
Matt Wieters |
Bal |
100.89 |
72 |
157 |
10 |
11 |
Wilson Ramos |
Was |
145.89 |
103 |
180 |
11 |
9 |
Jason Castro |
Hou |
157.93 |
102 |
220 |
12 |
16 |
A.J. Pierzynski |
Bos |
194.82 |
130 |
296 |
13 |
18 |
Yan Gomes |
Cle |
213.93 |
164 |
267 |
14 |
14 |
Jarrod Saltamacchia |
Mia |
216.32 |
173 |
374 |
15 |
12 |
Miguel Montero |
Ari |
227.25 |
158 |
348 |
16 |
23 |
Carlos Ruiz |
Phi |
250.54 |
159 |
354 |
17 |
13 |
Russell Martin |
Pit |
257 |
93 |
309 |
18 |
17 |
Travis d'Arnaud |
NYM |
264.68 |
88 |
314 |
19 |
13 |
Evan Gattis |
Atl |
267.04 |
212 |
357 |
20 |
20 |
Devin Mesoraco |
Cin |
275.79 |
214 |
354 |
21 |
19 |
Welington Castillo |
ChC |
289 |
185 |
359 |
22 |
22 |
Alex Avila |
Det |
295.57 |
248 |
334 |
23 |
26 |
Dioner Navarro |
Tor |
296.46 |
237 |
380 |
24 |
21 |
Mike Zunino |
Sea |
303.43 |
252 |
404 |
25 |
27 |
Josmil Pinto |
Min |
310.14 |
226 |
391 |
26 |
29 |
J.P. Arencibia |
Tex |
335.29 |
182 |
418 |
27 |
|
Geovany Soto |
Tex |
338.75 |
260 |
407 |
28 |
29 |
A.J. Ellis |
LAD |
340.39 |
218 |
410 |
29 |
25 |
Yasmani Grandal |
SD |
361.21 |
286 |
454 |
30 |
24 |
John Jaso |
Oak |
396.26 |
328 |
496 |
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