Catchers: July 19th
This edition of catcher notes focuses on three young backstops who could help your team now, and in the future.
Carlos Santana | Indians | 64% owned
Santana had huge expectations hoisted on his shoulders when he was called up, and he has exceeded them. Mark my words: Carlos Santana will be the best fantasy catcher for the rest of the year. Seriously, I’d be willing to put money (er, gummy bears) on it. Since he only owned in 64% of leagues, it’s worth your time to check the waiver wire and add him if he’s available.
Matt Wieters | Orioles | 66% owned
One of the most hyped catchers on draft day has been a major disappointment, but there is still hope. In the past 30 days, Wieters has hit .304 while driving in 11 runs. Keep in mind, during the past 30 days, Wieters has missed time due to injury and the All-Star break, so his sample size is small. Still, you can color me optimistic. He has a great offensive pedigree, and when he returns to the bigs when his DL stint is up at the end of the month, I expect great things. I’ve seen him dropped in some leagues (even a keeper league), so he could be a good buy-low guy if you are looking to build for the future.
Jonathan Lucroy | Brewers | 1% owned
The Brewers “catcher of the future,” Lucroy has hit well in his first big league season. Lucroy wasn’t supposed to see a lot of time in the majors this year, but Gregg Zaun’s injury opened up playing time for the youngster. Marc Hulet rated Lucroy as the Brewers 5th best prospect coming into the year, noting his offensive reputation. Lucroy is hitting .280/.316/.376 right now, so he isn’t a good value in OBP or OPS leagues, but could deserve a pickup in keeper and NL-only leagues. He won’t play every day, but he plays enough to justify a roster spot.
Ownership rates are based on Yahoo! leagues.
Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.
Little help here Zach. I’ve worked on every position this year except catcher. In a H2H league using standard 5×5 scoring plus OPS, how would you rank the following for the remainder of the season: John Jaso, Jonathan Lucroy, Yadier Molina, Bengie Molina? I currently have Russell Martin, but his average & OPS are killing me almost every week. what do you think……
B. Molina, Jaso, Y. Molina, Lucroy.
Maybe even Jaso on top of that bunch, depends on if you like him or Bengie Molina better going forward. Yadier & Lucroy are a step down imo.
anyone else have any input?
Jaso, Bengie, Lucroy, Yadier
I’m in the same boat, except I have Y Molina and we don’t use OPS. I know Molina’s average sucks now, but unlike Jaso he has a 3 year established record in the majors as far as batting average, and looks primed for a good second half. I’m looking for who is gonna give me the best batting average. I’ll worry about making up the other numbers. Would you still rank those catches in the same order?
Posey anyone? The guy is only hitting .353 with more home runs then Santana. Oh yeah, he is also on a 12 game hitting streak. Why should we add someone that is supposed to be good, when there is someone who is already good?
That’s not how this article works, but they are both already good.
Buster Posey’s BB%-4.8%
Carlos Santana BB%-21.6% (by far the best in MLB for players with 130+ AB)
Buster Posey’s LD%- 16.7%
Carlos Santana’s LD%- 22.1%
Buster Posey’s ISO- .229
Carlos Santana’s ISO- .283
Buster Posey wOBA- .411
Carlos Santana wOBA- .428
Not to take anything away from Posey, but give me Carlos Santana going forward.
PJ you kinda missed the point.
I don’t think PJ missed the point at all. The writer claims Santana will be the best catcher moving forward. He does not say “best catcher available moving forward”, simply best catcher. PJ’s view – and excuse me if I’m wrong – is attempting to refute that and I definitely agree with him. The biggest hurdle Posey has is his home ballpark in which he hit an opposite field HR just the other night.
Nope. You also missed the point.
As Hot Dog illustrated above, Santana has both been better so far (see wOBA or even the most popular fantasy categories if you wish) and his peripherals indicate he’s the better bet “going forward,” “moving forward” whatever you want to call it.
Also, what the author actually said was “Carlos Santana will be the best fantasy catcher ***for the rest of the year.***”
Posey is obviously a pretty good choice, too… but I think the clear choice is Santana.
Please point me to a league where either Posey or Santana are available and I will field a competitive team off of Waivers alone