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Midseason Position Rankings: Catcher

The top catcher in our preseason rankings has met expectations. And then nothing else went like we thought.

By Daniel Kelley
Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

This all seemed like such a great idea Thursday. With a light week of games, no real need for a Monday-of-All-Star-week Closer Rankings, and no pre-planned mid-season rankings in place, why not, I thought, take on the midseason rankings myself?

Sure, it would mean a piece a day from Monday to Monday, ranking 280 guys at eight positions, with explanations in tow, but whatever, it looks good, and I can do it, yeah? It all seemed so great, so I made the plans Thursday night to knock the whole thing out, preferably getting most of it done while off work over the weekend.

And then Friday came. See, I tend to be a healthy lad, so when I do get sick, I get sick in a big way. I started feeling rough Friday afternoon. Now, as I write this, it's Sunday afternoon. I haven't had a shirt on since Friday evening, haven't eaten since same. My lights haven't turned on. I'm writing this sentence with a thermometer in my mouth, and my girlfriend is trying to take the night off work to come take care of me, because she is an absolute saint, y'all.

What I'm saying is, waaaaaah.

Anyway, this is the start of our midseason position rankings. Catcher's first, as it should be. These rankings are just from today forward, so everyone has a clean slate.

It's been a weird season at one of our weirdest positions. At the top, Buster Posey has performed more or less to expectations, reaching midseason No. 1 at the position. But the next three in our consensus rankings — Jonathan Lucroy, Devin Mesoraco and Yan Gomes — have all fallen on their respective faces. Mesoraco is done for the year after surgery, and while Lucroy and Gomes are back from their injuries, they haven't hit to their expectations. Meanwhile, Stephen Vogt, who is currently the season's No. 2 fantasy catcher, got exactly one vote in our consensus rankings to start the season. (On the plus side, it was my vote! Yay me! On the negative, I only had him 27th. But still.)

The challenge, then, is how much of what we've seen so far this year is for real, and how much of track record entering 2015 is what we should count on.

What follows are the rankings, with thoughts on some of the players (All players are ranked based on where they are eligible in Yahoo! fantasy). Read and critique. And send me medicine. My temperature is 101.

Catcher Rankings, rest of season

Rank Player Team Thoughts
1 Buster Posey SFG What more is there to say about Posey? He's the best, and it isn't close.
2 Jonathan Lucroy MIL I'm choosing to believe his .297/.359/.472 from 2012 to 2014 over his .241/.308/.326 this year, though you'd be forgiven if you disagreed.
3 Russell Martin TOR Martin's had a really streaky season; he was hitting .185 on May 1, .304 on May 19, .252 today. Still, he's doing enough other things that he's been more than worth it.
4 Yasmani Grandal LAD Maybe all he needed was to get out of San Diego, but Grandal has been tremendous this year, with a .401 OBP and a .526 SLG.
5 Brian McCann NYY
6 Yadier Molina SLC
7 Carlos Santana CLE
8 Evan Gattis HOU Plenty of power, but a .268 OBP just doesn't work. He might lose playing time if Jonathan Singleton figures it out.
9 Yan Gomes CLE He's raised his batting average 30 points and his OPS 100 in the last couple weeks, but this has been wildly disappointing
10 Nick Hundley COL
11 Stephen Vogt OAK Through the end of May: .322/.411/.611. Since the start of June: .244/.324/.346. Don't let a hot early season color everything.
12 Wilson Ramos WAS
13 Matt Wieters BAL He's looked good-not-great in his handful of games since returning from injury. I believe the very good Wieters is there, and we'll see him.
14 Miguel Montero CHC
15 John Jaso TAM In an OBP league he'd rank even higher, but regardless, now that he's healthy, he'll be a fine hitter.
16 Salvador Perez KAN On talent, Perez is great, but the Royals and Ned Yost seem determined to run him into the ground with overuse.
17 Derek Norris SDP
18 Wilin Rosario COL He'd move up if he had the full-time first-base job, but Ben Paulsen is starting a lot at first.
19 Welington Castillo ARI
20 Francisco Cervelli PIT This is the end of a tier, the third or fourth one at the position, and there's a huge dropoff from here.
21 Robinson Chirinos TEX There isn't much batting average here, but Chirinos has passable power, and run opportunities come along with that.
22 Alex Avila DET
23 Ryan Hanigan BOS The Red Sox have to hope he can stay healthy the rest of the way if they really want to make a belated run.
24 Brayan Pena CIN
25 Chris Iannetta LAA
26 Jason Castro HOU
27 Travis d'Arnaud NYM Just think about what he'd be if he could ever stay healthy.
28 J.T. Realmuto MIA
29 Kyle Schwarber CHC I think he'll get at least another cup of coffee, either as a DH or in left or something, and he'll produce.
30 A.J. Pierzynski ATL He keeps latching on with teams as a backup, then performing well enough to keep the job. Dude's 38 and hitting .283/.316/.443