It didn’t seem like a big deal, at the time, when Matt Wieters missed a late-April contest because of forearm soreness. He returned to the lineup for a few games, then sat out twice more with what the club began to call elbow soreness. Less than a week into May came the report that he was scheduled to visit Dr. James Andrews, who would examine the results of an MRI on the Baltimore Orioles backstop’s elbow. Dr. Andrews determined that Wieters wasn’t a candidate for elbow-ligament replacement surgery shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, Wieters returned the lineup and played in four of five games, all of them as the DH. He was unable to serve the team behind the plate because the ailment affects his ability to throw, but early indications were that it doesn’t hamper him at the dish. He also took ground balls at first base on at least one occasion as the O’s weighed their options. It was worthwhile to Baltimore to lose some flexibility on the roster as long as Wieters could hit, but entering play on May 11, he was hitless in his last 10 at-bats. They’d obviously determined that keeping him active was no longer in their or his best interests, so he headed to the disabled list.

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It’s not unusual to find several unexpected names among the top fantasy producers at a position nearly a quarter of the way into a particular season. Because they’re unforeseen, they aren’t necessarily among your league’s most owned players.

At some point, though, some antsy owner will have begun to question his loyalty to a player he drafted when the season-to-date performance of a player he didn’t is still rated higher in his league’s free-agent list. Even though at some point in the near future, regression to the means of both players would seem likelier than not to benefit him, ignoring signs of changes in their baseline performance and reliability.

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Coming into the season, the catcher position didn’t look too awful. There were the typical names atop draft lists in Buster Posey, Joe Mauer, and Carlos Santana and then there were a few I was targeting in later rounds in Wilin Rosario, Salvador Perez, and Jonathan Lucroy — the latter being better bargains in my mind. And yet in every draft I participated in (which will remain unpublished in case my wife is reading this. It’s three honey, just three leagues…) I was shut out, left to “punt” catcher, taking one in either the last round or for a flyer buck.

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Really, who isn’t? OK, maybe Zack Cozart.

But, in general, a fastball is what a hitter sees more often than not. And, in general, a hitter hopes to see a fastball in a “fastball count” more often than not. Perhaps the one they want is of the four-seam variety, but any fastball will do if a pitcher isn’t commanding it. Which probably has something to do with how the pitcher arrived at the fastball count in the first place.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia isn’t any different from most hitters in that regard.

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I’m not a connoisseur of much of anything pop culture, and I don’t consider myself the most well-informed citizen on any particular subject. I probably give myself less credit than I deserve, relative to the general population. Which is full of people who know what is “just the best,” even though it’s something different every other day. Which of course instantly discredits them because of their failure to understand the function of a superlative. But that doesn’t mean I won’t worry about my own qualifications.

I have doubts about whether the kind of fancy tier names I’ll generate will be worthy of those that have graced the virtual pages of FanGraphs. Howard Bender classified the catchers based on lodging chains at which he’s stayed (I’m just assuming, probably incorrectly, but amusingly) last month. That’s a good theme, fairly simple. I’ll try to follow that lead.

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My father has long suggested that I should begin studying the philosophy of absurdism by taking in Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger. Once I found out it was only 123 pages, I jumped in. Heck, I gave up on Infinite Jest after 123 pages. I can read 123 pages.

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Unless you play in a one-catcher league (bo-ring, to me, but I totally get why some people do it) or subscribe to a strategy that purports the selection of two top-rated catchers, you’re faced with the prospect of ownership of some serious crap at the position in at least one of your two C spots. We can’t all draft Devin Mesoraco. (Those who did may want to see what he’d fetch in a trade.) Some of us ended up with Alex Avila’s .175/.283/.250 and 58.3 contact rate through 47 plate appearances. (The Detroit Tigers tell us that he’s working through that awful start. Fingers crossed. At least he’s practically assured playing time.)

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Before this season began, there was no shortage of advocates for a Devin Mesoraco breakout. The Cincinnati Reds’ backstop caught Eno’s eye last fall in the end-of-season catcher rankings, re-examined. Eno also highlighted the 25-year-old, who was No. 18 on RotoGraphs’ preseason consensus list at the position, in his bold predictions for 2014. Indeed, prior to opening day, Mesoraco translated loosely to “optimism.”

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Happy Opening Day to you all. Hopefully you were able to enjoy at least some of it and didn’t spend your entire day sweating managerial decisions, pitcher blow-ups and closer changes too much. Obviously if you have a chance to pick up a player like Matt Lindstrom or Francisco Rodriguez, then fine, make your move, but looking back and playing the ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ game with your draft because Cliff Lee gave up eight earned runs to the Rangers does nothing positive for you. It’s the first day. Just relax. It’s a long, long season.

As a result of it being so early in the year, we have limited things to discuss with regard to the catcher position. Rather than try to force something out of one day’s worth of numbers, we’re just going to look at a few catcher situations that will probably require more of your attention than just the cursory glance. If you are using one of the following backstops on your roster, you may want to take note. Read the rest of this entry »

As we get ready to start the 2014 MLB season on American soil this Sunday, it’s time to break out the Positional Tiered Rankings for the first month of the season. I started with the RotoGraphs Positional Rankings and then added in statistical history, projections and my own thoughts for each player and grouped them together to house similar value levels with each other. It’s a helpful tool to use for trading purposes as you can gauge just how much value you may be giving away or getting back in a deal. Here’s how I’m seeing the catcher position this year: Read the rest of this entry »