Among a slew of pitchers, there are three catchers whose names appear on the list of most auctioned players in the ottoneu world: Jason Castro, Chris Iannetta and Yan Gomes.

Catcher has been a bit of an odd position this year, with pre-season favorites like Salvador Perez and Miguel Montero struggling; unexpected contributions from the likes of Josh Donaldson and Evan Gattis; and the early season suspensions to Yasmani Grandal and Carlos Ruiz. It’s no surprise that so many owners are trying to get this position figured out.

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This week I take a gander at a much hyped recent call-up, a former minor league strikeout leader and a man whose bad luck may finally be turning. It’s American League starting pitcher day, a time when we make no mention of those less exciting guys in that other league with names such as Clayton and Cole.

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Back in February of 2012, as we were getting ready to start discussing potential sleepers for the upcoming season, I wrote a quick piece on Astros catcher Jason Castro that, for lack of a better way to say it, was unflattering. I discussed his run of injuries, his coma-inducing levels of offensive production, and of course, the question of whether he was even worthy of a one dollar pick-up in even the deepest of leagues. The only comment the article received was from someone asking me how I would feel if I were Castro’s wife or mother and saw this piece and my response was both snarky and apropos for the time. Well here we are a year and three months down the road and based on the first two months of the 2013 season, it’s about time I apologized to the women in Castro’s life.

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Today we go real deep to find you potential hidden treasure that will catapult your fantasy teams into Yoo-Hoo shower stardom. Then again, you’re all definitely in first place already, because you read RotoGraphs every day and get the best advice on the planet.

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There’s no way to know how often players push through injuries they shouldn’t; it certainly happens with some frequency, but the times when one can pinpoint the exact moment a player should have been placed on the disabled list and wasn’t are few and far between.

I have no idea when in 2011 John Lackey tore his ulnar collateral ligament – if my life depended on guessing, I could talk myself into a late July tear, which would mean he made an additional 11 or 12 starts carrying an injury that used to be career-threatening – but I do know that it affected his performance rather negatively. The problem is that there’s still not a good way to determine how much of his abominable 2011 was due to the injury and how much was simply a bad season. Read the rest of this entry »

Between Friday and Sunday in Boston, the Indians and Red Sox spurred a bunch of ottoneu auctions, but the ring leaders are two pitchers who, beyond their presence atop the auction list, have very little in common.

John Lackey is a starter in his 12th season (although he has only pitched in 11 of them after missing 2012; Cody Allen has only 52.1 career innings as a potential-back-of-the-bullpen arm in Cleveland. But both provide good reasons for ottoneu owners to bid on them.

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It’s deep league waiver wire day, which is obviously the best day of the week. Apologies to my NL-Only league friends, only American Leaguers today.

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There were a pair of catchers caught violating Major League Baseball’s substance abuse policy this offseason but, because of the rather odd split between amphetamines and other drugs of abuse, Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz has 56 PAs in 16 games under his belt already this season while Yasmani Grandal is still a week away from joining the Padres for the first time this season.

Setting aside the issues I have with MLB’s differentiation between amphetamines and things like testosterone, Ruiz hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in his return from suspension, which probably helps those looking to target Grandal, since no one is looking to cash in on the next Chooch at this moment. Grandal is owned in just 3 percent of Yahoo! leagues and less than 0.5 percent of ESPN leagues, so there’s a very good chance he’s available. Those in two-catcher leagues should definitely look his way, since unlike most of the chaff on the wire, Grandal has a high ceiling and a decent shot of hitting it. Read the rest of this entry »

Signing with the Tampa Bay Rays can immediately boost a player’s stock. Because the Rays have had success with free-agent additions in recent years, and are considered one of the game’s smarter franchises, fantasy owners tend to take notice when they bring a player to town. The track record of success does justify the excitement. In recent seasons, the Rays have turned around Kyle Farnsworth, Casey Kotchman, Fernando Rodney, Carlos Pena and Ben Zobrist, to name a few. Guys who had little to no fantasy value in the past have been key contributors on fantasy rosters with the Rays. This offseason was no different. Roberto Hernandez received some Rays’ buzz immediately after he signed, and has shown some signs of life recently. While Kelly Johnson rightfully avoided that excitement, he may also deserve a look in fantasy leagues.

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Let’s take another dive into the free agent pool,
With the hopes of finding a hitter with more than one tool,
So you don’t end up looking like a fool.

You may find more of Pod’s Poems on the forthcoming PoemGraphs, where we calculate RARP (rhymes above replacement poet) and discuss the ridiculousness of haikus (really, a poem that doesn’t rhyme? that’s NOT a poem).

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