Catcher Tiers Update: June 2013
It’s time to update the catcher tiers again as we enter the month of June and look towards closing out the first half of the season soon. Two months in, things are starting to take shape a little more. The sample size of data is more plentiful and we’ve now seen those who started off slow begin to heat up finally while some of those hot starts have cooled significantly. Let’s take a look and see where everyone is falling into line.
| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion |
| Buster Posey |
| Yadier Molina |
| Joe Mauer |
The past two months Posey was sitting up here by himself, but both Molina and Mauer have really started to turn things up and each had a strong enough May to warrant placement in the top tier. They’re all batting over .300, they’re all showing some power and we’ve got quality runs scored and RBI for where each of them hit in the order. There might be a case for Molina to have actually surpassed Posey, but my money’s still on Buster for the rest of the season.
| Naga Viper Pepper |
| Carlos Santana |
| Mike Napoli |
| Brian McCann |
| Wilin Rosario |
Joining the usual suspects here in the second tier is McCann who has easily proven that, when healthy, he is still money in the bank. The average is still a little meh, but the .282 ISO to open up his season is just too big to ignore. Rosario had a tough May which is why he’s now at the bottom of the tier rather than the top, but my confidence in him to pick it back up in June prevents me from dropping him a tier.
| Red Savina Habanero |
| Matt Wieters |
| Jason Castro |
| Jonathan Lucroy |
| Salvador Perez |
| A.J. Pierzynski |
| Victor Martinez |
| Miguel Montero |
The new kid up here is Castro who has really started to blossom this season. The strikeout rate is still a little high and the .336 BABIP is certainly lending a hand, but he’s also drawing more walks and improved his average from the month of April. Lucroy and Perez get to stay here due to improvements they’ve finally made and Pierzynski gets to stay despite playing in just 13 games this month. No need to drop him a tier because of an injury as he’ll be back to his old self in no time. Last chance for V-Mart and Montero in this tier. If they don;t turn it around this month they’ll be dropped down more than just a few notches.
| Scotch Bonnet |
| J.P. Arencibia |
| Russell Martin |
| Ryan Doumit |
| Jarrod Saltalamacchia |
| Carlos Ruiz |
Real close to moving JPA up a tier due to his power. The average is still a disaster and he strikes out way too much, but 12 home runs at this point is still a pretty big deal behind the dish. After all, the power is what brings Salty up here, although, batting .268 overall helps him too. Doumit gets a bump in tier thanks to a strong month and with Oswaldo Arcia back in the minors, he’s back to regular playing time. Chooch is still hanging around here, but he could be dropped soon due to missing more than just a couple of weeks.
| Piri Piri |
| Evan Gattis |
| John Jaso |
| John Buck |
| Welington Castillo |
| A.J. Ellis |
| Alex Avila |
| Nick Hundley |
While Gattis’ power has been spectacular, the question of playing time from now through the rest of the season can’t be ignored. Should he continue to see ample at-bats through June, a bigger bump in tier is likely but for now we’ll just keep him here. Buck takes a significant drop which was, more or less, expected. You didn’t really think he was going to keep producing, did you? Despite the return of Grandal, Hundley stays put for now with Biogenesis questions looming.
| Serrano |
| Wilson Ramos |
| Chris Iannetta |
| Tyler Flowers |
| Kurt Suzuki |
| Jordan Pacheco |
| Yasmani Grandal |
No surprises here again. As stated above, Grandal’s placement will be better determined once we find out whether suspensions will be handed out again.
| Jalapeno |
| Rob Brantly |
| Ryan Hanigan |
| Jose Lobaton |
| Derek Norris |
| Kelly Shoppach |
| Martin Maldonado |
| Devin Mesoraco |
| David Ross |
You’re definitely hurting behind the plate if your primary guy is found here. Even Shoppach, who gets a little boost now that he’s the main guy in Seattle, isn’t really going to help you much.
| Pimento |
| Michael McKenry |
| Dioner Navarro |
| Travis d’Arnaud |
| Mike Zunino |
| Jesus Montero |
Montero takes the biggest drop of them all obviously as he sits on the DL in the minor leagues nowadays. Not only that, but the brass in Seattle say that he’s done as a catcher in their eyes. Maybe they’ll try him out at first, but he’s probably only going to find work as a DH these days. Zunino and d’Arnaud would have been ranked higher if I thought either would have some sort of an impact this season. Oh well…there’s always 2014.
| Bell |
| Ryan Lavarnway |
| Josh Thole |
| Ramon Hernandez |
Move along. Nothing left to see here.
Howard Bender has been covering fantasy sports for over 10 years on a variety of websites. In addition to his work here, you can also find him at his site, RotobuzzGuy.com, Fantasy Alarm, RotoWire and Mock Draft Central. Follow him on Twitter at @rotobuzzguy or for more direct questions or comments, email him at rotobuzzguy@gmail.com
Gattis’ ranking is terrible. Even with the note about playing time, ZIPS (U) has Gattis at 3.1 WAR, which places him solidly in Tier 2. To have him in Tier 5 — regardless of questions of playing time — is a severe misplacement.
I’m going to agree. Even playing four or five times a week he’s providing more production than someone like Salvador Perez.
You may be right about where he’s placed, but WAR doesn’t really have any place in a fantasy discussion.
Giovani is right, WAR has no place in fantasy unless it is an actual category in your league. While I like what Gattis has done, I think future playing time has a major importance here. Is he really going to rake like this all season long? I doubt it. It would be ridiculously impressive if he did and I’ll regret selling him high, but I just can’t see him keeping this torrid pace up. And when his bat starts to fade, Fredi Gonzalez will worry less and less about getting him into the lineup. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Rest of the season projections for Rosario and Gattis
Rosario:
298 AB – 14 HR – 33 R – 40 RBI – .247 BA – .279 OBP
Gattis
260 AB – 13 HR – 29 R – 39 RBI – .253 BA – .311 OBP
Those are based on his current plate appearances….what he is expected to do moving forward based on him getting the same amount of playing time the rest of the way. I don;t think he sees 260 AB between now and the end of the season.
Just a matter of opinion here…
Since Heyward has come back, Gattis has 33 AB in 19 games – at that rate he would have 178 ABs for the remainder of the season. If Rosario keeps playing at the same rate as he has been this season, that is 309 more ABs. I think the Braves find a way to get Gattis regular playing time at some point this season but until then…
You didn’t sell gratis high. You sold him normal. And will likely regret it.
As I understood your article, these rankings ranked players as of today. If that’s the case your Gattis ranking is out of wack. A suggestion, rank him properly and add your opinion that you think his ranking will fall, makes more sense than what you did.
In the Braves last 19 games, Gattis has only 35 ABs. That puts him on a 162-game pace of 259 ABs, meaning he’s prolly only gonna have about 180 ABs the rest of the year. If he continued at his current pace(which he simply won’t because no one hits like 20 pinch-hit HR), he’d likely post top 10 catcher type numbers. But considering Josh Hamilton led the majors with a .292 ISO(2nd was .277), and over the course of the last 10 years, only 8 different players not named Barry Bonds have posted an ISO of .338 or better. Evan Gattis is not finishing the year with a .338 ISO. Nope not even gonna be close. And how bout that 25% FB/HR-rate. Not happening either. Once he starts slumping, he will be reduced to 1-2 games per week.