2014 End of Season Rankings: Catchers

by
October 6, 2014

The 2014 fantasy baseball season has come to a close, so it is time to look back at the season past and determine which players were the most valuable at each position. As we have in the past, we’re starting out with catchers.

The players were ranked based on their 2014 production, using the evaluation system explained and updated on this site some time ago. The valuations are built for $260 budgets and standard 5×5 roto fantasy leagues, where only one catcher is started. Players are listed only at their primary positions from 2014.

One important thing to note is the premium (or lack thereof) placed on the position a player occupies in your lineup. For example, while a first baseman may be able to accumulate superior overall numbers, the availability of such production lower in the rankings severely dampers the amount the player was worth. These rankings are meant to reflect a player’s value should he have occupied this spot in your lineup for the entire year. A player who missed time due to injury but put up great numbers during his time on the field would be worth less.

This year, I’ve added in RotoGraphs’ preseason consensus rankings so you can see what we thought of each player coming into the year. This ranking can be found in the “Pre” column. “EOS” of course stands for End Of Season, and the rest should be self explanatory.

With all this in mind, here are your rankings.

EOS Pre Name pos G PA AB HR R RBI SB AVG $$$
1 1 Buster Posey C 147 605 547 22 72 89 0 0.311 22.26
2 6 Jonathan Lucroy C 153 655 585 13 73 69 4 0.301 16.15
3 18 Devin Mesoraco C 114 440 384 25 54 80 1 0.273 13.95
4 14 Yan Gomes C 135 518 485 21 61 74 0 0.278 13.24
5 8 Salvador Perez C 150 606 578 17 57 70 1 0.260 8.56
6 3 Brian McCann C 140 538 495 23 57 75 0 0.232 8.32
7 20 Russell Martin C 111 460 379 11 45 67 4 0.290 7.35
8 29 Dioner Navarro C 139 520 481 12 40 69 3 0.274 5.60
9 10 Evan Gattis C 108 401 369 22 41 52 0 0.263 4.78
10 2 Wilin Rosario C 106 410 382 13 46 54 1 0.267 3.38
11 31 Derek Norris C 127 442 385 10 46 55 2 0.270 2.99
12 13 Miguel Montero C 136 560 489 13 40 72 0 0.243 2.23
13 27 Mike Zunino C 131 476 438 22 51 60 0 0.199 1.64
14 37 Kurt Suzuki C 131 503 452 3 37 61 0 0.288 1.00
15 23 Yasmani Grandal C 128 443 377 15 47 49 3 0.225 0.53
16 Tyler Flowers C 127 442 407 15 42 50 0 0.241 0.07
17 15 Travis d’Arnaud C 108 421 385 13 48 41 1 0.242 -0.47
18 26 John Jaso C 99 344 307 9 42 40 2 0.264 -0.99
19 7 Yadier Molina C 110 445 404 7 40 38 1 0.282 -1.15
20 9 Jason Castro C 126 512 465 14 43 56 1 0.222 -1.17
21 12 Wilson Ramos C 88 361 341 11 32 47 0 0.267 -1.39
22 34 Chris Iannetta C 108 373 306 7 41 43 3 0.252 -1.96
23 Robinson Chirinos C 93 338 306 13 36 40 0 0.239 -2.94
24 19 Alex Avila C 124 457 390 11 44 47 0 0.218 -3.39
25 22 Jarrod Saltalamacchia C 114 435 373 11 43 44 0 0.220 -3.71
26 Rene Rivera C 103 329 294 11 27 44 0 0.252 -3.80
27 25 Carlos Ruiz C 110 445 381 6 43 31 4 0.252 -3.85
28 17 Welington Castillo C 110 417 380 13 28 46 0 0.237 -4.13
29 Michael McKenry C 57 192 168 8 23 22 0 0.315 -6.38
30 16 A.J. Pierzynski C 102 362 338 5 25 37 0 0.251 -7.71
31 Brayan Pena C 115 372 348 5 23 26 2 0.253 -9.17
32 33 J.P. Arencibia C 63 222 203 10 20 35 0 0.177 -10.01
33 Caleb Joseph C 82 275 246 9 22 28 0 0.207 -10.34
34 35 Ryan Hanigan C 84 263 225 5 18 34 1 0.218 -10.47
35 21 Josmil Pinto C 57 197 169 7 25 18 0 0.219 -10.62
36 39 Nick Hundley C 83 233 218 6 18 22 1 0.243 -10.74
37 Carlos Corporan C 55 190 170 6 22 19 0 0.235 -10.79
38 11 Matt Wieters C 26 112 104 5 13 18 0 0.308 -10.85
39 Anthony Recker C 58 189 174 7 18 27 1 0.201 -10.96
40 32 Hank Conger C 80 260 231 4 24 25 0 0.221 -11.34
41 Francisco Cervelli C 49 162 146 2 18 13 1 0.301 -11.36
42 Andrew Susac C 35 95 88 3 13 19 0 0.273 -12.24
43 38 Martin Maldonado C 52 126 111 4 14 16 0 0.234 -13.11
44 Christian Vazquez C 55 201 175 1 15 20 0 0.240 -13.61
45 David Ross C 50 171 152 7 16 15 0 0.184 -13.80
46 Erik Kratz C 47 115 110 5 12 13 0 0.218 -13.99
47 Hector Sanchez C 66 177 163 3 8 28 0 0.196 -14.45
48 Jose Lobaton C 66 230 214 2 18 12 0 0.234 -14.49
49 24 A.J. Ellis C 93 347 283 3 21 25 0 0.191 -14.70
50 Chris Stewart C 49 154 136 0 9 10 0 0.294 -14.84
51 Bryan Holaday C 62 171 156 0 14 15 1 0.231 -14.88
52 Jordan Pacheco C 69 165 153 0 10 16 0 0.255 -14.92
53 Chris Gimenez C 42 128 116 0 13 11 0 0.241 -15.41
54 JR Murphy C 32 85 81 1 7 9 0 0.284 -15.52
55 Tony Sanchez C 26 80 75 2 3 13 0 0.267 -15.58
56 Drew Butera C 61 192 170 3 16 14 0 0.188 -15.60
57 30 Geovany Soto C 24 87 80 1 8 11 0 0.250 -15.62
58 Tony Cruz C 50 150 135 1 11 17 0 0.200 -15.81
59 Wil Nieves C 36 128 122 1 9 7 1 0.254 -15.85
60 Roberto Perez C 29 95 85 1 10 4 0 0.271 -15.99
61 Josh Thole C 57 150 133 0 11 7 0 0.248 -16.33
62 Adrian Nieto C 48 118 106 2 8 7 0 0.236 -16.33
63 Eric Fryer C 28 81 75 1 11 5 1 0.213 -16.34
64 Christian Bethancourt C 31 117 113 0 7 9 1 0.248 -16.39
65 28 Josh Phegley C 11 38 37 3 4 7 0 0.216 -16.41
66 40 George Kottaras C 18 38 30 3 4 5 0 0.233 -16.53
67 Tomas Telis C 18 71 68 0 7 8 0 0.250 -16.61
68 Jeff Mathis C 64 195 175 2 12 12 0 0.200 -16.66
69 John Buck C 32 97 89 1 9 6 0 0.225 -16.77
70 J.T. Realmuto C 11 30 29 0 4 9 0 0.241 -16.92
71 Steve Clevenger C 35 97 89 0 8 8 0 0.225 -17.00
72 Gerald Laird C 53 167 152 0 12 10 0 0.204 -17.23
73 Tuffy Gosewisch C 41 132 129 1 6 7 0 0.225 -17.55
74 Max Stassi C 7 20 20 0 2 4 0 0.350 -17.56
75 John Baker C 68 208 182 0 9 15 0 0.192 -17.90
76 Jackson Williams C 7 16 14 1 1 3 0 0.214 -18.08
77 Miguel Olivo C 8 25 23 0 4 2 0 0.217 -18.13
78 Jesus Sucre C 21 64 61 0 4 5 0 0.213 -18.13
79 Curt Casali C 30 84 72 0 10 3 0 0.167 -18.19
80 James McCann C 9 12 12 0 2 0 1 0.250 -18.34
81 Cameron Rupp C 18 64 60 0 4 6 0 0.183 -18.36
82 Taylor Teagarden C 9 30 28 1 1 5 0 0.143 -18.37
83 Sandy Leon C 20 70 64 1 7 3 0 0.156 -18.37
84 Austin Romine C 7 13 13 0 2 1 0 0.231 -18.52
85 Koyie Hill C 10 22 21 0 2 1 0 0.238 -18.55
86 Daniel Butler C 7 20 19 0 1 2 0 0.211 -18.68
87 Adam Moore C 9 12 10 0 1 1 0 0.200 -18.75
88 Tucker Barnhart C 21 60 54 1 3 1 0 0.185 -18.85
89 Juan Centeno C 10 33 30 0 1 2 0 0.200 -18.89
90 Humberto Quintero C 3 2 2 0 0 1 0 0.000 -18.91
91 Matt Pagnozzi C 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 -18.95
92 Francisco Pena C 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 -18.95
93 Bobby Wilson C 2 4 4 0 0 0 0 0.250 -18.97
94 Rafael Lopez C 7 14 11 0 0 1 0 0.182 -19.00
95 Guillermo Quiroz C 2 3 3 0 0 0 0 0.000 -19.13
96 Ali Solis C 8 7 6 0 0 1 0 0.000 -19.15
97 Eli Whiteside C 8 26 25 0 0 2 1 0.120 -19.17
98 Brett Hayes C 27 53 52 1 3 2 0 0.135 -19.24
99 Tim Federowicz C 23 78 71 1 2 5 0 0.113 -19.85
100 Jose Molina C 80 247 225 0 4 10 3 0.178 -20.23





 

Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.

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Will
9 years ago

Seems pretty normal, with two of the only four double-digit earners coming out of the double-digit pre-season round picks, and and only six of the top 18 EOS earners coming from the top-10 pre-season picks. Catchers, even in two-C leagues, are a lottery with a limited payout, to boot. (Note, this is not at all slamming on FG’s pre-season picks… this happens everywhere, including for sure myself when I thought I could know which catchers were actually worth big bucks.)

I just don’t get, even in 2C leagues, paying big for them, as you just never know who will make it worth it given all the extra issues attached to those playing that position (time off, injury risk, lineup position, etc.).

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Patrick
9 years ago
Reply to  Will

In 1 catcher the leagues the pool is deep enough where you can wait longer on a catcher, but there will always be that point where the reward outweighs the risk.

For two catchers leagues I like to compare them to running backs in football. Almost everyone drafts running backs before quarterbacks, but running backs are so much more risky and score less points than quarterbacks. Not a perfect comparison but close enough.

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Ruki Motomiya
9 years ago
Reply to  Patrick

The biggest difference (IMO) is running backs tend to have a much bigger reward than a catcher. Though one could argue RBs also have bigger risk than a catcher. (Part of why RBs are drafted so high is that going all late is very risky due to skill dropoff + injuries, while QBs past the first round ones can be much more easily replaced)

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