I had seen both Tommy Joseph and Ryan Lavarnway before, but when I saw them play against each other on Tuesday the similarities between the two catching prospects were striking. Both are big, bat first catchers. Both strike out a lot. Both hit for a lot of power for backstops. Both have some question marks about their ability to catch every day in the big leagues. What can these guys do for your fantasy team and when?
Tommy Joseph, C, PHI
When the Yankees let Russell Martin walk as a free agent this offseason, their catching crop became fantasy irrelevant. Chris Stewart hasn’t hit a lick in his career and the team thought so little of Francisco Cervelli that he was the guy they sent to Triple-A when they acquired Stewart last year. Considering their track records, it was no surprise the Yankees ranked 29th in our Catcher Power Rankings.
Manager Joe Girardi indicated before the season that his catching plan called for “fairly even split” in terms of playing time between Stewart and Cervelli. Two weeks into the season, that plan is out the window. The 27-year-old Cervelli has managed a .360/.500/.520 (189 wRC+) batting line with seven walks and one strikeout (!) early on, so the “play the hot hand strategy” has prevailed. He’s started nine of the team’s eleven games this far, including all three against the division rival Orioles this past weekend.
If you polled 100 fantasy baseball owners a month ago and asked who would be the number one catcher through the first 10 games of the season, how many of them do you think would have said John Buck? One? Two? No way. Not even close. Not even if you limited your polling strictly to people in Flushing, Queens wearing a Mets jersey would you get that many. The guy was barely an afterthought heading into this season and anyone who actually drafted him, no doubt in the very last round of a very deep league, probably had already drafted Travis d’Arnaud a few rounds prior. But while his preseason value was the equivalent of a piece of gum on the bottom of your shoe, you’ve got to love what he’s done so far and you should be standing on the top of a mountain, singing his praises to the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Now that drafts are complete and the season has begun, it’s time to just take a quick scan of some of the catchers who are likely sitting out on your waiver wire right now. It’s not like you’re going to make a move and pick someone up, but given the health risks that come with the position, it’s just a good idea to stay prepared and keep a few names in mind as a “just in case.” It’s probably slim pickings out there right now anyway, but there are still a few names who may have some modest value attached, capable of growing further under the right circumstances. Read the rest of this entry »
We here at RotoGraphs preach patience. There is nothing worse than making a reactionary transaction based on a small performance sample and then a month later looking back and realizing your mistake. Unfortunately, every league has at least a couple of owners who simply cannot stop themselves from dropping the slow starter after a week and adding the flavor of the day. This means that your patient approach is going to almost guarantee you will miss out on the breakouts who went undrafted. So with that in mind, let’s look at the ultra tiny sample of one game to analyze some of the lesser owned hitters who launched a home run on opening day.
My how times have changed. Four seasons ago the Yankees rode one of the best infields in baseball history — combined 23.5 WAR out of their starting catcher, first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman — to the World Championship, but when 2013 opens they will have one bonafide superstar, one major question mark, and three guys either hurt or coming off injury on the infield. You have to see it to believe how ugly it is:
| C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | Chris Stewart | Mark Teixeira | Robinson Cano | Derek Jeter | Alex Rodriguez |
| Backup | Francisco Cervelli | Dan Johnson | Jayson Nix | Eduardo Nunez | Kevin Youkilis |
| Depth | Austin Romine | Corban Joseph | David Adams |
There are probably six players on this depth chart that are more important than Evan Gattis. But it’s fine if you want to read about Evan Gattis, I won’t be bitter. I promise.
Last week was all about the consensus ranks. This week, you’ll see some tiered ranks as we also try to finish up the depth chart discussion. But before we move on too quickly, I thought it would be interesting and informative for me to pick out the players that I liked and disliked more than the other analysts involved in the consensus ranks. Hopefully I’ll have a short, concise reason for my rankings in each case. Hopefully.
This week, I will be identifying the players at each position in which my rankings differ most from the consensus that was unveiled last week. The funny thing about comparing my rankings to the other three RotoGraphers is how many times I am surprised at who I value much more or less than them. Most of the time, I could guess who I am more or less bullish on even before I see everyone else’s rankings as it simply comes down to a difference in projections. However, that’s not always the case. Sometimes I am bewildered as to why my rankings differ so drastically because my projections seems right in line with general expectations. So I will attempt to figure out and explain why I am higher or lower on each player.
Since I don’t know what the other RotoGraphers’ projections are, I will be referencing the projections systems frequently and using those as a proxy. To make this more useful, the bullish section will only include players who I project to earn positive value in a 12-team mixed league, while the bearish one will only include players the consensus expects to earn positive value.
By now you’ve had the chance to take a look at the catcher rankings done by our esteemed RotoGraphs panel, digest the information, set up your draft day depth charts and maybe toss out a snarky comment or two. It’s time now to start grouping these guys into tiers so that you can see who might be a comparable pick-up should you miss out on your originally intended target. Save for the guy who is apparently pushing for the creation of a 1.5-catcher league, I think we can all agree that the position, on the whole is fairly deep this season; or at least much deeper than in years past which just makes for good drafting. I’d say the position is heating up and for that, I turn to the Scoville scale and our friend the pepper for our tier headings… Read the rest of this entry »