Fantasy Baseball: Early Top 30 Catcher Rankings for 2015

Today, I begin a series where I will offer you my super early 2015 position rankings. The offseason has just started, but it is never too early to start you 2015 fantasy baseball draft prep. Many of you out there are focusing on your fantasy football teams from week to week, and so am I. But, if you are like me, I only have one fantasy football squad this season, so I have plenty of time to focus on my expectations and rankings for 2015 fantasy baseball drafts.

With that said, I will begin with my early 2015 fantasy catcher rankings. There is no question who the #1 fantasy catcher is, Giants catcher Buster Posey. Due to the fact that manager Bruce Bochy plays him at first base, 21 times in 2013 and 35 times in 2014, his fantasy value increases, as he played a total of 147 games this season. Not many catchers play 147 games in any season, so the fact that Bochy uses him at first base, and DH, adds to Posey's fantasy value. Only two catchers played more games than Posey in 2014, Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy and Royals catcher Salvador Perez, with Lucroy playing some first base as well.

Lucroy fell one game short of being eligible at first base in fantasy leagues in 2014, as he played 19 games there in 2014. Yankees catcher Brian McCann played 16 games at first base and 14 games as the Yankees DH in 2014, for a total of 140 games. Any time you can draft a catcher who plays 140 games or more, it is recommended, as they can help in the counting stats more than most catchers.

I thought about ranking Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco as my #1 fantasy catcher for 2014, but went with Posey despite the breakout season we saw from Mesoraco in 2014. If we hear that Reds manager Bryan Price plans to play Mesoraco at first base or have him catch more in 2015, I may reconsider his ranking, but for now he is my #2 fantasy catcher.

Rounding out my top 5 fantasy catchers, we have Lucroy at #3, Indians catcher Yan Gomes at #4 and Yankees catcher Brian McCann at #5. I wrote about Gomes back in September, and you can find that here:

Buy List: Yan Gomes

McCann was my 2014 preseason #1 fantasy catcher, mainly due to him moving from Atlanta to Yankee Stadium, as i thought there was a chance he could his 30 home runs in 2014, but he fell short, hitting 23 home runs and driving in 75 with a .232 batting average. He will continue to provide 20+ home run power for fantasy owners, with a slm shot at 25-30 in 2015.

I ranked Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos as my #6 fantasy catcher, as I am hoping we get a full and healthy season from Ramos one of these years. Overt the last two seasons, covering 166 games, Ramos has hit 27 home runs and driven in 106 runs. I don't see him approaching those numbers in 2015, but he could be a 20+ home run, 75 RBI catcher next season if he can play 130 games.

Below you will find my early 205 Top 30 catcher rankings, along with 2014 player stats, courtesy of FanGraphs. Included in the rankings and stats provided below, I have included each players 2014 wRC+, which is defined below, courtesy of FanGraphs:

Weighted Runs Created (wRC) is an improved version of Bill James' Runs Created (RC) statistic, which attempted to quantify a player's total offensive value and measure it by runs.  In Runs Created, instead of looking at a player's line and listing out all the details (e.g. 23 2B, 15 HR, 55 BB, 110 K, 19 SB, 5 CS), the information is synthesized into one metric in order to say, "Player X was worth 24 runs to his team last year."

Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) measures how a player's wRC compares with league average after controlling for park effects.  League average for position players is 100, and every point above 100 is a percentage point above league average. For example, a 125 wRC+ means a player created 25% more runs than a league average hitter would have in the same number of plate appearances. Similarly, every point below 100 is a percentage point below league average, so a 80 wRC+ means a player created 20% fewer runs than league average.

For example, Buster Posey's wRC+ of 144 indicates he created 44 more runs than the league average hitter, or is 44% better than the league average hitter. Mesoraco had a slightly higher wRC+ than Posey, in 33 fewer games, so more at bats in 2015 could push him into the #1 slot for me.

I included wRC+ because I think, along with others, that it is one of the single stats you can look at to tell you how good a hitter is vs all major league hitters, and it factors in park effects as well.

Fantasy Rundown

If you are looking for more rankings, whether it be fantasy baseball, football or basketball, make sure you check out Fantasy Rundown, your one site on the 'net for all things fantasy.