In 2012, Ryan Doumit played in the most games in a season in his eight year professional career. That, right there, could be the beginning and the end to this post — because almost every snippet, write-up, and crystal ball-ism for Ryan Doumit headed into 2012 revolved around his inability to stay on the field. If he could find the at-bats, chances are he would be pretty useful. Surprisingly, he managed to stay (mostly) on the field, and he was unsurprisingly useful.

According to Zach Sanders’ mathematical genius, Doumit was the 10th ranked (qualified) catcher, with a value of $7, or to the Facebook generation, the price of promoting your post. For the Minnesota Twins, they got a 1.6 WAR performance which amounts to a tidy little bargain on what became a 3-year $10 million dollar deal after his June extension. And chances are, savvy owner, if you picked up Doumit for $3 bucks or around the 20th round where he projected, you found yourself an equally nice bargain at a notoriously fickle position.

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Perhaps no player will benefit more from the Toronto-Miami mega-trade than Henderson Alvarez. Opinions are definitely mixed on the 22-year-old starter. Alvarez has shown impressive stuff, and an ability to pound the strike zone, but his lack of strikeouts have become a major issue. His 9.8 K% was the worst among qualified starters. But things got a bit rosier Tuesday night. With the move to Miami, Alvarez not only benefits by going to the National League, but also gets to leave the notoriously tough AL East. Is it enough to make him a fantasy sleeper next season?

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Remember the excitement over Matt Wieters‘ debut only several years ago? The hype was so over the top, an entire website was created to list all of his “accomplishments” and “facts”. Now having logged 2,031 plate appearances with just a .327 career wOBA, it’s fair to say that Wieters has been a disappointment to many so far. He was also one for fantasy owners this season who hoped for that big breakout finally, but he earned just $10, ranking him 8th among catchers. Is this it or is the big breakout finally coming next season?

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With news that the Boston Red Sox have signed longtime Atlanta back-up David Ross, now would certainly be an appropriate time to look down Zach Sanders’ Catcher End of Season Rankings, scroll down to number 12 and take a look at Jarrod Saltalamacchia. With a breakout year that saw him play a career-high 121 games and post career-best numbers in the primary fantasy categories, save for average and on-base percentage, the Red Sox now face some tough decisions. Do they keep Salty as their primary backstop and keep Ross in the reserve role to which he is accustomed or do they deal Salty away and make room for a potential catcher platoon with Ross and upstart Ryan Lavarnway? Read the rest of this entry »

After seven seasons spent meticulously climbing the Tampa organizational ladder, John Jaso finally got his first chance to play regularly in the bigs in 2010, and the then-26-year-old rookie catcher quickly made a splash. A .372 OBP! A 14.6% walk percentage! The luck to be with an organization that appreciated those numbers, enough to hit him leadoff 45 times!

That made Jaso a trendy fantasy sleeper pick headed into 2011, and… *thud*. That OBP dropped all the way to .298, thanks in no small part to a BB% that fell five points and a K% that rose nearly four, and it’s not like we weren’t already seeing this declining performance before he missed six weeks late in the season with an oblique injury. Oh, and to top it all off: in November, he was traded to Seattle for an alleged felon. Coming off a poor year, headed to a bad team in a ballpark that kills offense, and with competition from Miguel Olivo & Jesus Montero to deal with, Jaso was a complete afterthought headed into 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

Jesus Montero was traded before the 2012 season from the Yankees to the Mariners for Michael Pineda. Montero was finally given a full time job after not being able to break into the Yankees’ lineup. With the Mariners, Montero didn’t hit great, but not horrible either. For 2013, Montero will need to continue growing as a complete hitter for his fantasy value to increase.

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A.J. Ellis turned 31 last season. That might surprise you, since he had only 244 career plate appearances before this season. He’s so long been the focus of stat-heads for his walk rate that he might have debuted right at his power peak. That allowed him to show the best power of his career and “leap” up to fantasy replacement level status as the 17th-best backstop in roto last season.

But without that power, he ends up a lot like Ruben Tejada among shortstops — devoid of the skills that make a player valuable in most fantasy baseball leagues. No power, no speed, and only a walk rate… that doesn’t play in your average 5×5 fantasy league.

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That was unexpected. At age 35, A.J. Pierzynski shattered his season-high home run total and churned out a top-5 season among catchers. Over his career, Pierzynski’s main asset has been his durability and ability to hit for decent averages. He had a few average power seasons once he joined the White Sox, but seemed to be slowing down during his age-33 and age-34 years. Pierzynski’s power surge was the main culprit behind his exceptional season.

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As we sift through Zach Sanders’ end of season catcher valuations, we find a surprising name sitting at number five, having earned $12 (would be more in two catcher leagues). Well, not surprising given that we know how he performed, but surprising in that we didn’t even rank him as part of our consensus during the pre-season. Ramon Hernandez was supposed to receive the bulk of the backstop playing time for the Rockies, but he suffered a hand injury in late May that opened the door for rookie Wilin Rosario. When Hernandez finally returned, Rosario had already run away with the job.

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The 2012 fantasy baseball season has come to a close, so it is time to look back at the season past and determine which players were the most valuable at each position. This week focuses on catchers.

The players were ranked based on their 2012 production, using the evaluation system explained and updated on this site some time ago. To keep things manageable and avoid skewing the numbers, players were only considered if they amassed 350 plate appearances over the course of the year. The replacement level was also adjusted to account for players eligible at multiple positions. The valuations are built for $260 budgets and traditional 5×5 roto fantasy leagues.

One important thing to note is the premium (or lack thereof) placed on the position a player occupies in your lineup. For example, while a first baseman may be able to accumulate superior overall numbers, the availability of such production lower in the rankings severely dampers the amount the player was worth.

These rankings are meant to reflect a player’s value should he have occupied this spot in your lineup for the entire year. So, a player who missed time due to injury but put up great numbers during his time on the field would be worth less.

With all this in mind, here are your rankings. Read the rest of this entry »