Catcher Rankings with Commentary
I’m still continuing my commentary rankings even as we start releasing our Composite Rankings. These Average Draft Positions come from our projection pages. Each colored bar represents the start of a new tier.
Commentary Rankings:
Composite Rankings:
Let me know how you’re attacking C in the comments below. I’m open to taking Sanchez in the second round, but not specifically targeting him. From there, I’m likely to wait until the mid-100s or later to get my first catcher. I could double up with a Gattis/Ramos or wait for my second and get a Grandal/Iannetta. I did make some changes in these rankings compared to my initial run of the Composite C rankings, moving Lucroy up a spot and Iannetta up a few. Reminder: these are for a standard 5×5 league. Generally thinking of a 15-team league, but things wouldn’t change all that much for 10- or 12-teamers.
Catcher Rankings with Commentary
| PLAYER | TEAM | ADP | COMMENT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gary Sanchez | NYY | 20 | Really starting to look like the next Mike Piazza |
| 2 | Buster Posey | SFG | 52 | Still elite thanks to that AVG; also 6 SB in ’16 & ’17 |
| 3 | Willson Contreras | CHC | 58 | His ability to bounce around the field opens up 500+ PA |
| 4 | J.T. Realmuto | MIA | 100 | Legit speed keeps SB (avg. of 9 since ’15) in play |
| 5 | Evan Gattis | HOU | 141 | 2 DL stints (concussion, wrist) curbed playing time |
| 6 | Wilson Ramos | TBR | 157 | Showed ’16 pwr wasn’t a fluke; .203 ISO from Aug 1 on |
| 7 | Salvador Perez | KCR | 97 | Another 2H swoon (.692 OPS) says sell in June |
| 8 | Yadier Molina | STL | 149 | Got in on pwr explosion w/+7% FB and 18 HR |
| 9 | Yasmani Grandal | LAD | 225 | Has starting role; Barnes’ elbow is an issue for catching |
| 10 | Welington Castillo | CWS | 169 | LD & Hard contact rates make ’16-17 BABIP plausible |
| 11 | Jonathan Lucroy | OAK | 198 | Had a Coors-influenced burst w/COL; discount is there |
| 12 | Mike Zunino | SEA | 157 | Had 35% K% during 2H surge (.281 AVG, .943 OPS) |
| 13 | Chris Iannetta | COL | 272 | Think he’ll top his 98 G from ’17 & he’s back in Coors |
| 14 | Austin Barnes | LAD | 190 | Skills are there, this rank assumes 350+ PA at C/2B |
| 15 | Brian McCann | HOU | 216 | 2 DL stints (concussion, knee) curbed playing time |
| 16 | Tucker Barnhart | CIN | 326 | Played 80% of 2H gms; .831 Aug-Sept OPS; won GG |
| 17 | Austin Hedges | SDP | 256 | Sold out for pwr (18 HR); glove keeps him in lineup |
| 18 | Christian Vazquez | BOS | 294 | Pay for a .275 AVG; real shot at 400+ PA in solid lineup |
| 19 | James McCann | DET | 300 | Should have all the playing time he can handle |
| 20 | Travis d’Arnaud | NYM | 288 | Another DL stint (wrist), but .999 Sept/Oct. offers hope |
| 21 | Alex Avila | ARI | 335 | Even with the humidor, this is a park boost for him |
| 22 | Robinson Chirinos | TEX | 255 | Age-34 w/just 1180 career PA, but no one else in-house |
| 23 | Russell Martin | TOR | 315 | Gtd PT when healthy offers solid floor, but he’s 35 now |
| 24 | Tyler Flowers | ATL | 298 | 2nd-best Hard% at C since ’16 (min. 400 PA) |
| 25 | Kurt Suzuki | ATL | 360 | Crazy 19 HR yr is aided by FB%, Pull%, & Hard% surges |
| 26 | Jorge Alfaro | PHI | 245 | Career 0.10 BB/K highlights terrible approach (all Cs: 0.36) |
| 27 | Matt Wieters | WAS | 328 | PT alone sustains value; .561 OPS after April |
| 28 | Stephen Vogt | MIL | 352 | Rebounded in MIL (.789 OPS), but will share time with… |
| 29 | Manny Pina | MIL | 357 | …another late-blooming vet who can hit a bit |
| 30 | Blake Swihart | BOS | 500 | Out of options, 2x Top 100 prospect has to make good |
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Cervelli not in the top 30? I get health is a major issue, but he has the starting job on lock and when healthy is an OBP machine. Not to mention he was 30th on your composite list a couple of days ago.
Ya I debated just doing 31 since he was 31st, but I bumped Swihart over him. He’s just SOOO bland. He’s supposed to offer AVG in 5×5, but is hitting .257 the last 2 yrs. I get that he’s good for OBP lgs, but this is a standard 5×5 ranking.
The Beef is sizzling in Chi-town now. Behind the DEEP dish. Lord knows whose behind the regular dish for BAL this year…
Hopefully the situation in BAL means Sisco comes up before too long and allows us to scoop him on the cheap, to replace one of the cheap Cs that didn’t work out for many of us 😉
Where do you get that Grandal has starting role? Barnes has caught a few games now.
Dave Roberts announced Grandal as the regular season starter a week or more ago.
link? can’t find that via google.
“Yasmani obviously had more opportunities, more at-bats, more playing time [in 2017]— and I see that again,” Roberts said. “But Austin has earned the right to get opportunities.” – about 10 days ago I think
Feb 17 article http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-catchers-20180217-story.html
Does this really change much with OBP? Sanchez and Posey probably pull up further ahead, but anyone else see any drastic jumps?
As mentioned in an earlier comment, Cervelli. Agree with Paul, guy is bland as can be and hits for almost no power but he draws his walks and BA is usually solid. Biggest issue with Cervelli is health. Including the minors he has topped 420 PA only once in 12 years and was limited to 304 PA last year.
If you look at depth charts projected OBP, it’s not terribly kind to top-10 catchers. Sanchez might slip to #2 behind Posey. Realmuto, Gattis, Ramos, and Perez all take significant hits relative to their position mates. Lucroy, Iannetta, and Martin, all play up in an OBP league.
Zunino
Loving Ramos this year. Guy is gonna get major ABs in Tampa.
Sanchez the next Piazza! Crap, was hoping his game was not PED induced
I doubt Barnes plays much 2B if Forsythe & Utley are healthy and on the roster. It’s perhaps less likely but Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez could also play some keystone. Sure, Barnes could do it but I bet they’d rather have him rested and ready to excel for catching 40-50% of the games.
Why does zunino get no love? I get that his K% is sky high which marks a scary floor, but so is his hard% and FB%, with a solid BB%. Of catchers who have >600PAs over the last two seasons, zunino is second in SLG% (behind guess who) and third in WRC+ at 121 (above Posey!!!)
*122wrc+
Can’t argue with the fact that he has put up good numbers for 2 years now, but man does he come with a lot of risk. He’s a dead pull, extreme flyball hitter in a pitcher’s park who strikes out over a third of the time and will never bat higher than 7th in that lineup (assuming they put both Gordon and Segura at the top of the lineup). His xwOBA last year (.318) says he was all kinds of lucky and his .355 BABIP was a gigantic mirage.
I agree he would be just fine if he hits his projections, but there is no denying that he’s also a potential 170/230/370 waiting to happen if his BABIP dips by 100 points and a few extra fly balls stay in the park.
Ya I think the Anon comment covers a lot of why I’m pretty meh on him. I just don’t see any real upside beyond 2017. He’s never going to wake up one day and just be a 20% K guy. Heck, even 25% feels like a stretch here. So I acknowledge the power and everything, but I just don’t see myself really investing.
Using the words Gary Sanchez in the same sentence as Mike Piazza is just wrong. Go have a look at Mike Piazza’s stats from the non-juiced ball era. There may very well never be another Mike Piazza, and this most certainly isn’t it. Piazza was competing for batting titles and hitting 40-ish HR.
Not even a flyer on Francisco Mejia?
Doubtful he ever gets 10 games at C, especially now that they are trying him in the OF.
EVER? Ever is a strong word. Maybe not in 2018, for the sake of this redraft exercise. But ever? The guy is likely to be a catcher long term. Not definitely. But likely!
The Indians are just looking for ways to make Mejia flexible enough to keep around in the majors. Even after they optioned him to minor league camp today to learn outfield, the Indians made clear what they think of Mejia’s position: “He’s a catcher,” Francona said.
https://www.mlb.com/indians/news/indians-option-top-prospect-francisco-mejia/c-268509750 .
It may not happen in time to help for NFBC purposes, but I think Mejia will get 10 games in at catcher this year.
Right? Mejia is a switch hitting catcher with good contact skills, good power, no platoon problems, and he might see time at DH and 3B to keep his bat in the lineup. I cannot see Yan Gomes keeping Mejia on the bench or in the minors – no matter what he is owed on his contract.
The only question about Mejia is playing time, and with the Tribe in win-now mode I suspect they will go with their best option… which is very clearly Mejia.
Is he C eligible anywhere? He played 3 gms there, 0 starts.
I would think everywhere since that was his prime position last season, and he played catcher for all three games he played in the majors last year. I am not sure what other leagues do, but he would be eligible at C in our league for two reasons: that was his prime position in the minors last year, and it was the major league position at which he played the most games .
He also had 5 gms at DH. I don’t believe he’s C-elig. in the NFBC.
Yeah, I see on the NFBC website that he is currently eligible there only at UT.
Pretty bizarre. After his call-up, he played one full game as a DH, and other than that he pinch hit 9 times and pinch ran once, getting exactly one plate appearance each time, for a total of 11 games played. BUT … four of the times he PH or PR was for the DH, so he was credited as playing the DH position in those games, for a total of 5 games at DH (he also came in and caught in 3 games).
For his trouble, in NFBC he gets frozen out of the position he played 330 out of 333 games in the minors! Kind of hilarious really.
UT on Fantrax
These rankings have justified my $5 Gattis Keeper selection.
To me his ceiling is top 3; given he’s slotted as the main DH in Houston.
C’mon, Gattis has a career OBP of .300, an ISO below .200 last year, and you really think he’s going to rack up meaningful PAs on that stacked Astros team? He’s going to have to rake early to have a shot at 400PAs
Victor Caratini or Mitch Garver a better bet to provide value this season?
Don’t understand the 10 spot difference between Chirinos and Zunino. Exact same player, Chirinos walks slightly more, strikes out slightly less, should get 500+ PA’s and hit higher in the lineup. Happy to scoop him up 100 picks later.
Except he’s 7 years older and has never played over 100 games
“2 DL stints (concussion, wrist) curbed playing time” Gattis and McCann really are the same person.
I feel like Chance Sisco deserves *SOME* love this spring? I mean, it seems like Showalter’s proclivity for veterans is the only thing keeping him from the lion’s share of ABs as a lefty with a quality hit tool. Caleb Joseph ALSO struggled to hold runners on last year and he’s ostensibly the ‘defensive’ guy, while Susac is maybe not a failed prospect, he basically came out out of the DFA bin, traded for a PTBNL. I’m HAPPY there’s not a lot of hype because I wanna scoop him, but I wonder what I’m missing. Moderate power + Quality bat seems to be a recipe for success with the juiced ball, reckon he has a good shot at outproducing his minor league numbers like many others have? SOMEONE GIVE ME SOME AFFIRMATION PLEASE?
PS Paul, you have Castillo listed as an Oriole instead of the White Sox, NBD, but that does mean you have no O cracking the top 31, while the 50/50 guys are on there. Maybe!? MAYBE!? ARE YOU SAYING THERE’S A…. WELL… YOU KNOW… *CHANCE?*
Auction 6 major 4 minor keeper league 6 x 6 (added Ks – walks) 16 team 1 starting catcher league.
Targeting Lucroy/ Zunino/Barnes/Hedges/James McCann/Barnhart. Swihart if he gets traded into a good situation. I would like Chirino if he was a bit younger. Kelley if Molina was not given icon status in St. Louis.
Catcher performance too variable (age/injury/playing time) to spend a lot of capital on it. Looking for decent floor with some upside.