On the surface, Joe Mauer’s 2013 season looks like business as usual. In fact, compare the lines:
.324/.404/.476 in 2013
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.323/.405/.468 career mark
But it would be foolhardy to think it’ll be business as usual with Mauer going forward, and there are a few reasons why. Read the rest of this entry »
Russell Martin will no doubt be a part of an offseason of journalistic rear-view mirror celebration for Pittsburgh sports writers looking for something other than the Steelers to fill their columns. People will cite a career resurgence and his leadership and his defense and how valuable he was to his team. I get all that. But in fantasy circles, we sometimes have to have a colder heart than George Steinbrenner after double header losses and a bad day at the track.
Fantasy owners have grown accustomed to plucking surprise fantasy studs off the waiver wire. This year, it was someone like Jean Segura, Josh Donaldson or Michael Cuddyer. On the pitching side, owners fought over guys such as Hisashi Iwakuma and Jose Fernandez. In 2012, though, one of the top waiver wire superstars was veteran Carlos Ruiz.
The Phillies’ catcher was the fourth-ranked catcher in fantasy baseball in 2012. Seemingly out of nowhere, he compiled a .398 wOBA with 16 home runs, and his mere 421 plate appearances was the only thing really keeping him from accruing more value. He was a solid fantasy contributor across the board, minus the obvious dearth of stolen bases.
Wilin Rosario was one of my flag players for 2013, so to speak. I owned him in a lot of places and thought he could reach 30 home runs.
While that didn’t happen, I and other Rosario owners certainly walked away happy after the 2013 returns. That’s because, even with just 21 home runs, Rosario ranked behind only Mike Napoli and Yadier Molina.
With Napoli set to lose eligibility, Rosario seems a safe bet to hold a top-five preseason ranking for 2014.
Read the rest of this entry »
When I hit the Rotgraphs internal message board this week it appeared that most catchers of consequence had been claimed by my colleagues for ‘catcher week.’ But Brian McCann and A.J. Pierzynski remained unclaimed, and the two seemed like a logical pairing for discussion given they are both possibilities to be signed by the Texas Rangers this offseason. Read the rest of this entry »
Buster Posey was great as a rookie in 2010. He was fine in a 2011 that was largely truncated by his broken leg, then was outstanding in 2012 as the Giants won another World Series. He was almost certainly the first catcher off the board in just about fantasy draft this year, with perhaps a few holdouts for Joe Mauer making it less than unanimous, and they were rewarded with… well, it’s hard to be disappointed by .294 and 15 homers from your catcher. But it was merely a good season, and not a great one, wasn’t it?
That’s backed up by the fact that he finished seventh in catcher wOBA (min. 250 PA), behind guys like Jason Castro and Yan Gomes, and also seventh in Zach Sanders’ end of season rankings. Seventh isn’t bad, of course; it’s a starter in even the shallowest of leagues. But it’s also not what fantasy owners were expecting, and that means we need to understand why in order to figure out where he’s appropriate to draft headed into 2014.
The 2013 Hickory Crawdads were undoubtedly one of the most star-studded low-minors teams of the past decade. The Rangers’ Low-A affiliate, they had Joey Gallo, who became the first teenager in half a century to hit 40 homers in a season…and did it in just 113 games. For much of the season, though, Gallo trailed teammate Ryan Rua in the minor league home run chase (Rua finished with 32, 29 of them coming in 104 games with Hickory). They had Jorge Alfaro, who many consider one of baseball’s top catching prospects. They had Nomar Mazara, who holds the record for the highest signing bonus by a Latin American amateur, at $4.95 million. They had 2012 first-rounder Lewis Brinson, second Dominican bonus baby Ronald Guzman, and for much of the year, had pitcher C.J. Edwards, the headline prospect in July’s Matt Garza trade.
While all of those players (and relievers Alex Claudio and Jose Leclerc) hold considerable intrigue on their own, there was no 2013 Crawdad who left a stronger positive impression on me than outfielder Nick Williams.
Episode 74
Today’s episode of The Sleeper and the Bust stars yours truly and features RotoGraphs editor Eno Sarris. We discuss a potential new home for a powerful Cuban import and finish up our catcher talk.
Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @mikepodhorzer or @enosarris on Twitter and tweet us any fantasy questions you have that we may answer on our next episode.
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed.
Intro by DJ Sinton (no, contrary to popular belief, I do not moonlight as a rap star)
Approximately 47 min of joyous analysis.
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Mike Zunino came into the 2013 as a highly touted prospect. Baseball America had him as 17th ranked prospect and here at FanGraphs, Marc Hulet ranked him 12th overall. It looked like he may spend a good portion of 2013 in the minors, but he was promoted after Jesus Sucre’s hand got injured and the Jesus Montero experiment failed worse than the new Lone Ranger. Going into 2013, the 23-year-old power hitter looks to be the Mariners future everyday catcher if he can work out some contact issues.
For the first time ever in the history of MASH, it happens to be hitter only news. I will update four hitters on the mend and look at the end of season HURT rankings.
• The latest report has Manny Machado returning in 6 months (link)
Manny Machado will miss Spring Training and almost certainly be delayed to start the 2014 regular season, as the Orioles third baseman’s recovery timetable following Monday’s knee surgery is approximately six months.
