Rankings Update: Catcher

by
July 5, 2010

A little later in the day than you’re used to, but it will be worth the wait. I promise.

My Hero
 Carlos Santana

That’s right. Santana has been tremendous, and while our sample size is small, I have no worries about his ability to keep it up. I’d like the K-rate to drop a couple percent, but I suppose we can live for only league average in one category. Personally, I am going to love paring him with Pujols in my keeper league.

Big Three
 Joe Mauer
Victor Martinez
Brian McCann

Victor’s injury hampers his value, so he slides to number three.

Power. So Much Power
 Miguel Olivo
Mike Napoli
John Buck

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

I’ve given up on trying to predict a batting average drop for John Buck. He had a BABIP below .300 in June, yet hit .270. Looks like he’s for real, and I’m buying in.

Happy to Have
 Kurt Suzuki
Jorge Posada
Miguel Montero
Buster Posey
Geovany Soto

Montero may have a small sample, but it’s a great one. He’s hitting over 30% line drives, and has cut his K-rate while raising his BB-rate. He’s not going to hit .394 all year (.441 BABIP), but his line will be better than it was last year.

I am Jack’s Catcher
 Ryan Doumit
Matt Wieters
John Jaso
Rod Barajas
Ivan Rodriguez
Ronny Paulino

Jack isn’t very picky when it comes to his catchers. Jaso was getting calls to move up, but as our sample grew we learned more and more, and my expectations didn’t really change.

The Rest of ‘Em
 Bengie Molina
Russell Martin
Carlos Ruiz
Nick Hundley
Yadier Molina
Jason Kendall
A.J. Pierzynski

Bengie’s arrival in Texas should help his numbers a bit, so don’t be afraid to give him a shot. I considered Jason Castro, but I don’t see him doing much this year. He’s a better option in NL-only keeper leagues, but that’s the only place I’d give him a shot.





 

Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.

19 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
kiluckzle
15 years ago

Who do you like better in a keeper league? Matt Wieters or Buster Posey? I had Posey through his hot streak and then dropped him for Wieters about a week ago…

0
Zach SandersMember since 2020
15 years ago
Reply to  kiluckzle

Still think Wieters has more overall upside. But, if giving up certain rounds draft picks (as it likely does), Posey may end up being the better value.

0
ddriver80
15 years ago
Reply to  Zach Sanders

Pick up J.P. Arencibia for keeper leagues if you can. He’s probably coming up for september, and is absolutely raking in AAA with high power, average ans is seriously improving his OBP

0