I made a lot of predictions this year, all of which were enjoyable to make. But they were all shared for the same reason — to point out players I believe to be undervalued or overvalued. Aside from the assortment of bold predictions, I also annually compare my personal rankings to the rest of the RotoGraphs ranking crew and dub the series Pod’s Picks. So let’s see if my rankings proved more accurate for the players we differed on most. We’ll start with the catchers, of which you could check out the original picks here. Actual ranks are taken from the soon-to-be published dollar values by Zach Sanders.

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Coming into this season, some fantasy baseball players felt that one of these backstops was an elite option and the other a strong rebound candidate. One disappointed, while the other didn’t. But in the last month or so, each has flipped the script, prompting questions about what lies ahead.

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The curtain has not yet come down on the 2014 regular season, but if you’re like me, flushed out of the playoffs with not a whole lot to do except look ahead to next year, you’re probably already mulling over your keepers. For me, no one quite draws my eye like Travis d’Arnaud, who I took in the last round of my 12-team, mixed H2H single-catcher league as a stasher and rode through what’s been a roller coaster-like season for him.

A keeper backstop is an uncommon and risky venture. Catchers, after all, get hurt. They don’t steal bases. They don’t hit for a high average. It’s a rare bird who notches more than 20 home runs, and rarer still the ones who knock in more than 80 RBIs. It’s a position that typically offers a terrible return on investment, which makes keepers a premium commodity — especially when they come at a post-hype price tag.
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Fantasy baseball players, coming into this season, probably knew that Mike Zunino has shortcomings. Most of them have to do with his hitting. But some drafters were happy to target him as a dirt-cheap second catcher in two-C mixed leagues, for example. I wasn’t one of them.

I thought that those folks were excessively ambitious. There existed significant power in his Louisville Sluggers, but I didn’t believe that he’d go deep often enough to satisfy my hopes for one of my choices at the position. And I value power production most from my catchers. I’m more than willing to swallow a crap batting average for 20 bombs. I figured that his major contact problem and thorough lack of experience against even pro competition, period, would prevent him from threatening, perhaps even sniffing, that level.

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At this time of year, it’s easy to find a number of September call ups to write about. The trick is to find those who might actually garner enough playing time to earn some actual fantasy value. Here are two of those fine gentlemen.

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Congratulations to fantasy baseball players who drafted Yan Gomes in 2014. He’s batted .285/.321/.472, with 17 home runs, in 452 plate appearances. He’s been a top-five catcher-eligible commodity in standard mixed leagues. That’s not bad for the 12^th one of those drafted, on average, across the most well-known places to play, according to FantasyPros. The owners who landed him at Yahoo! or ESPN, where he was several spots lower on that list, if he was even drafted, feel a little extra special. Unless they play in 1-C leagues.

I’m not one of those people. I didn’t avoid him, but I didn’t target him, either, and aiming for Gomes appears to have been a smart move. Because of that, I kind of want to know what I was missing, and why.

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The San Francisco Giants’ backstop is who his fantasy baseball players thought he is when they drafted him, it turns out. It wasn’t always as apparent as it’s been in the past month and a half or so: He’s batted .342/.391/.565, with eight home runs, in 174 plate appearances since the All-Star break. That is why he was (presumably, at every host) the leader among crouchers in average draft position this past March. He’s the only catcher to remain in the first tier all season. At no point did we waver. Right, folks?

My favorite hip-hop act, De La Soul, is supposed to be dropping a new LP by the end of this year. I don’t get excited for many things pop culture, but for this, I am a little. Your definition of pop culture probably doesn’t even include the trio also known as the Plugs, at least not since like high school or something, so just take it easy on me, please. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, Jeff Zimmerman presented Early 2015 Hitter Projections using Steamer and/or ZIPS averaged ROS projections. The main contingency at this time: all values are set to 600 plate appearances. If I had all the time in the world, I would go through the list and manually adjust the PA based on lineup position, career PA/G, etc, but I’m not that much of a Mensch.

The next day, Mike Podhorzer highlighted some of the surprises ranked in the top 30. Again the 600 PA contingency is clear as Rajai Davis, Jarrod Dyson and Corey Dickerson make the list although if Dickerson doesn’t get platooned, I (and Mike) think he’ll surpass expectations. His splits page tells us there is no good reason to platoon him.

In Mike’s intro, he also referenced that there is no adjustment for position in Jeff’s SGP rankings. That’s where this post comes in.

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It’s no surprise that the Texas Rangers found a taker for and traded Geovany Soto. Prior to this year, which is hardly a fair period on which to judge him, he’d been a plus defensively, including some mildly influential work as a pitch-framer. He’s also on a one-year deal, so there was no reason for the Texas Rangers to keep him around.

The Rangers are in the mode, and mood, to evaluate their pair of active receivers for next season. They have already had a decent look at Robinson Chirinos. Jon Daniels said that he wants to see if the 30-year-old backstop can be more than a backup. The club also called up Tomas Telis from Triple-A Round Rock to fill Soto’s spot on the roster. The organization must apparently decide this winter whether it’ll protect the 23-year-old on the 40-man. Ron Washington says his plan to have the two split time, although he’s not sure how yet. Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps, more accurately, Wilson Ramos’ brand of power is returning.

The Washington Nationals’ backstop has slashed .333/.347/.563, with three home runs and two doubles for a .229 ISO, in 49 plate appearances this month. Prior to August, he’d hit three home runs and eight doubles for a .094 ISO in 196 PAs.

Ramos was apparently wondering about his theretofore shortcomings by the end of July. Fantasy baseball players, like Nats manager Matt Williams, probably did less of that, considering that they could’ve had some expectation of loss following the catcher’s hamate bone surgery that forced him to miss five weeks at the start of this season. Read the rest of this entry »