Matt Wieters has not lived up to the enormous expectations placed upon him as a prospect and as a young player.

In his age-27 season, Wieters posted his second worst season in terms of wRC+ (86) and his worst since 2010 in terms of wins above replacement (2.4).

Still, even though Wieters hasn’t become the instant legend that led to sites like Matt Wieters Facts, he’s been very solid behind the plate for Baltimore. He’s excellent defensively and even in a down year was an above-average player overall. He may not sit on the ‘generational talent’ pedastal many had prepared for him, but he’s still very good.

Read the rest of this entry »

Is it just me, or do you think of the former American Idol contestant when you hear the name Jason Castro as well? Now that the cat is out of the bag and I have admitted to previously watching the popular singing competition, let’s talk about the Astros catcher.

Read the rest of this entry »

Expectations weren’t sky-high for Jonathan Lucroy coming into 2013. For many, Lucroy represented a solid fallback option once some of the bigger names came off the board, with an ADP somewhere in the 120’s. His projections looked something akin to .270/.330/.400 with double digit home runs and 50/50 runs and RBI. Not thrilling, but nice. You could check off that pesky catcher position and move on to other issues.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last year when we did our position-by-position post-season recaps, I wrote a piece touting Miguel Montero for his consistent performance and exceptional draft value. His numbers between 2009 and 2012, save for the one injury-riddled year he played just 85 games, were very consistent as he posted an average in the .280’s with 15 to 18 home runs each season while also maintaining that relative consistency in both his walk and strikeout rates and other batted ball data. That consistency, coupled with his always reasonable price tag, made him a pleasure to own and someone I felt confident in recommending as your fantasy catcher. But this past season, that consistency was replaced with struggle and because Montero didn’t cost you much on draft day, he became the poster boy for “you get what you pay for.” The decline is in full-swing and it’s time to move on from him. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long road to relevance for Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The former two-time Baseball America top-100 prospect was touted with the Braves, but failed to develop with the Rangers. By the time he was shipped to the Red Sox, Saltalamacchia was an after-thought. There was little reason to be excited about a 26-year-old former prospect who had shown little in the majors. Despite that, the Red Sox decided to give him a more substantial role than his previous teams. The move paid off, as Salty turned in the finest seasons of his career and a useful fantasy catcher. After the finest season of his career, Saltalamacchia will have to prove his new-found usefulness will last.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you had been told during the preseason that a lad named Evan Gattis would outearn his teammate Brian McCann and tie for third in home runs among catchers, you would have laughed out loud. Who the heck is Evan Gattis? I’m a Braves fan and even I had limited knowledge of Gattis’ existence (though I admit I’m not much of a prospect follower). Gattis finished 14th among catchers in fantasy value this year, despite recording just 354 at-bats. It might even be an understatement to claim that Gattis rose from obscurity.

Read the rest of this entry »

Episode 73
Today’s episode of The Sleeper and the Bust stars yours truly and features RotoGraphs editor Eno Sarris. We discuss a trio of starting pitchers embroiled in playoff baseball and take a first look at the catcher pool.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

It can be tough to look at a tasty home run total and not what-if yourself into picking the player who owns it up.

In the case of J.P. Arencibia, it’s time to give it up. He finished the year owned in 18 percent of ESPN leagues and 38 percent of Yahoo leagues. Hopefully that accounts for 20-teamers, AL-only and two-catcher leagues, because the idea of him as a starting fantasy catcher should have long since been buried. In deeper leagues, sure, because he was still a top-20 guy, but he won’t be again.

Read the rest of this entry »

In order to rank only those that played a significant amount, we only looked at players that put in more than 400 plate appearances of work last season. For most positions, that should be fine. For the catcher position, it was a little more iffy. The top 30 catchers by plate appearances only averaged 451 plate appearances, and seven catchers played enough to hit double-digit homers without crossing the 400 PA threshold. Mike Podhorzer will look into Wilson Ramos and Evan Gattis, the most prominent catchers that failed to hit that mark, but there are some other interesting names further down the list.

Read the rest of this entry »

For the last few months, a debate has been raging at ottoneu headquarters* about how to handle the innings pitched cap. See, games played is relatively simple – if your 1B plays your 162nd game today, you cannot start him tomorrow.

But when you have 1495 IP and have multiple starters and relievers set to go the next day, things can get a bit hairy. We’ve landed on a decision to use a soft cap and I’d like to give some insight into a) why we made this call and b) why you shouldn’t really care all that much.

Read the rest of this entry »