By now you’ve seen the play and heard the news; Buster Posey will miss significant time after tearing ligaments and breaking his leg in a collision at the plate last night. Despite a subpar start to the season (just a .341 wOBA), Posey was still one of fantasy’s top backstops and will be tough to replace. Here’s a few guys lying on the waiver wire that can help fill the void…
Entering the 2011 season, Wilson Ramos had three main obstacles standing between him and the Washington Nationals’ starting catcher job.
One was Ivan Rodriguez. Though Pudge hasn’t possessed offensive punch in years, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman dubbed the 39-year-old the main man behind the plate. Ramos’ other two obstacles were health and his tendency to hack at nearly everything thrown his way.
The 23-year-old broke the tip of his left middle finger and injured his hamstring in 2009, and he dealt with an oblique injury in 2010. Though he held his own in a short 82 plate appearance stint in the majors last year (.278/.305/.405), Ramos walked just 2.4% of the time while swinging at 38.2% of pitches thrown outside of the strike zone (the MLB average is around 29 percent). Swinging early and often was nothing new for the backstop whom the Nats picked up from the Twins last July in exchange for Matt Capps — Ramos’ career walk rate in the minors sits at 5.5 percent.
Ramos has since leapfrogged Pudge on the depth chart, drawing the majority of starts. He has also stayed out of the trainer’s room and is showing a more refined approach at the plate. If you’re in need of catching help, it’s time to start taking this guy seriously.
In 122 trips to the plate this season, Ramos has a .262/.336/.430 triple slash. His .327 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) places him squarely in the middle of the pack among catchers with at least 100 PA. Ramos’ pop — he’s got a .168 Isolated Power that is comfortably above the .137 major league average — isn’t shocking, given that Baseball America said before the season that he “has good loft and leverage in his swing, giving him a chance to hit for solid-average or slightly better power in time.” Ramos’ patience, on the other hand, has been a pleasant surprise.
Batting mostly out of the fifth slot in Washington’s lineup, Ramos has jumped after pitches thrown out of the zone just 26.8% of the time. That, in turn, has allowed him to draw a walk in 9.8% of his plate appearances, above the 8.6% MLB average. Laying off those junk pitches means more hitter’s counts and chances for Ramos to utilize his power.
While changes in a hitter’s power production take a large sample size to become meaningful, that’s typically not the case with changes in plate discipline. Swing rates for batters become reliable after about 50 plate appearances, a mark that Ramos is well past at this point. Chances are Ramos’ increased patience in 2011 is more than a mere blip on the radar.
Despite the positive chances in Ramos’ plate discipline, he’s still on the waiver wire in 97-98 percent of ESPN leagues. This is a great time to add him to your roster on the cheap, before more people start taking notice of his quality bat. Ramos isn’t a top-tier catcher. But it’s a far better idea to take a chance on a maturing 23-year-old with a prospect pedigree than it is to settle for the A.J. Pierzynskis of the world.
Injury information courtesy of Baseball Prospectus’ Corey Dawkins.
Today’s waiver wire will help solve some of your up-the-middle problems…
As important as matchups are to Pick Six (for more, see last week’s strategy post), the most important aspect of the game is to pick players that are good values at their positions. Today, I’ll give a run down on some of the better (and poorer) values at the first two positions in Pick Six: Catcher and Corner Infield. The numbers I’ll report are projected Points per Plate Apperance (Pts/PA), based on a weighted average of Oliver and PECOTA projections (a bit more weight to Oliver, because it’s more current). YMMV depending on your preferred projection system, or your own adjustments to these systems. Also, keep in mind that prices change weekly, and so this just represents a snapshot look at player value and may be obsolete by next week!
Carlos Santana, $34.25, 1.42 Pts/PA
Brian McCann, $32.25, 1.37 Pts/PA
Buster Posey, $35.50, 1.33 Pts/PA
There’s really no need to be embarrassed. It’s a very common problem. In fact, I hear that it happens to a lot of fantasy owners. I, myself, have been known to experience it from time to time. No, no…I’m not just saying it to make you feel better. It happens to everyone. Believe it or not, even to girls. Read the rest of this entry »
While productivity can be limited for backstops, they also run the greatest risk for injury and before you know it, you’ve lost your guy and find yourself staring at the waiver wire wondering which set of scraps looks the meatiest. Today we’re going to look at the latest catcher injuries and who the guys are that will get the playing time moving forward. Read the rest of this entry »
With the calendar flipping to May, it’s time to re-visit the 2011 Catcher Rankings and see who has climbed closer to the top and who’s been dropping like a stone. As you may recall, the RotoGraph writers got together before the season began and constructed a composite catcher rankings. However, after gaining some feedback from all of you, I have decided to make my adjustments to the rankings based on the following criteria:
| 1. Current performance level |
| 2. Expected performance for rest of season |
| 3. Value based on standard 5×5 categories (avg over OBP) |
The arrows are used to highlight a player moving up or down in tier, but you’ll also notice some minor tweaks within the tiers as well. Some that will obviously have more impact than others. So without further ado, you may now cue the theme song to The Jeffersons… Read the rest of this entry »
For two of the last three off seasons, Michael Young dominated the headlines with his contempt for the Texas Rangers and his demands for a trade. He was angry with the team for asking him to move from shortstop to third to make room for Elvis Andrus back in 2009 and then the whole story repeated itself this past winter when the team signed Adrian Beltre, asked him to move to DH and then traded for Mike Napoli, who was supposedly going to steal some at bats from him. The fight was getting bitter and every time you turned around, there was a new rumor popping up as to where Young was going to land. Read the rest of this entry »
In all honesty, virtually all of the legitimate talent has likely already been plucked from your league’s waiver wire by now. Everyone gets so transaction crazy early on, that it’s hard to believe there are still some stones left unturned. And yet, there always seems to be a player or two that slips through the cracks for a variety of reasons. Here’s a look at two that might interest you… Read the rest of this entry »
Beginning next week, and continuing the first Monday each month, we’ll be doing a fully updated version of the 2011 Catcher Rankings. We’ll go over the risers and the fallers and talk about who could be climbing up the rankings on a more permanent basis and who’s washing out. But while we’re heading into the first set of updates, we have a pretty big debate on our hands. Who’s the number one catcher out there? Does Joe Mauer’s slow start/DL stint/illness knock him out of the top spot? Has Brian McCann’s consistency helped move him up? Has Buster Posey proven himself enough to be the top fantasy backstop? And where does Victor Martinez fit in with all of this? These were the four names in the top tier. These were the four names, in order, from the top tier back before the season started. Now the question is whether or not that order has changed. Read the rest of this entry »