RotoGraphs Consensus Ranks: Catcher
It’s time now to start rolling out the rankings, as the drafts are starting to get scheduled and everyone’s prepping. Once we’re doing rolling these out, we’ll give you a spreadsheet with our rankings and steamer projections. That way you can erase my rankings and improve your experience, if that’s what you’re all about. You’ll notice that the ‘draft tools’ box to the bottom right is slowly filling up. And if you need a little ‘extra,’ there’s always FG+ to give you advanced fantasy research and player caps on 1250 player pages.
No more ado. Catchers!
One more year with Joe Mauer, and his move to first base might make him especially sexy this year. More plate appearances! Less wear and tear! Brian McCann might get some extra time at DH, plus he has that alluring short porch and a park that loves lefty hitters. Old man A.J. Pierzynski inspired some different levels of excitement, as did the young man with the high batting average on balls in play in Chicago. Looks like Devin Mesoraco is a staff favorite, and htere’s a little bit of love for Yasmani Grandal and A.J. Ellis. Nobody’s all that into Jarrod Saltalamacchia, sort of.
And if you’re complaining about someone ranked ninth to 18th… I dunno. Seems like a big pool of guys that could hit .260 with 18 homers (or similar value, since some will hit for more power, and some for a better batting average). It’s that mess of guys in the middle that seems to suggest that waiting on a catcher in a one-catcher mixed league is the way to go. Is there a huge difference between Jason Castro and Yan Gomes?
Rankings based on 5×5 roto, 12 teams, single-catcher with Middle Infield and Corner Infield spots, 14 hitters and 9 pitchers. Each ranker had their own mix of projections and intuition.
| RG | Name | Jeff | Zach | Mike | Eno |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buster Posey | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Joe Mauer | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | Wilin Rosario | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | Brian McCann | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| 5 | Carlos Santana | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | Jonathan Lucroy | 8 | 7 | 4 | 8 |
| 7 | Yadier Molina | 7 | 8 | 9 | 6 |
| 8 | Salvador Perez | 6 | 6 | 11 | 7 |
| 9 | Jason Castro | 10 | 10 | 7 | 9 |
| 10 | Evan Gattis | 9 | 9 | 8 | 10 |
| 11 | Matt Wieters | 11 | 13 | 10 | 12 |
| 12 | Wilson Ramos | 13 | 15 | 13 | 11 |
| 13 | Miguel Montero | 12 | 12 | 14 | 13 |
| 14 | Yan Gomes | 14 | 11 | 12 | 14 |
| 15 | Travis d’Arnaud | 15 | 18 | 15 | 19 |
| 16 | A.J. Pierzynski | 24 | 14 | 16 | 16 |
| 17 | Welington Castillo | 18 | 16 | 24 | 18 |
| 18 | Devin Mesoraco | 17 | 28 | 18 | 15 |
| 19 | Alex Avila | 20 | 22 | 20 | 20 |
| 20 | Russell Martin | 16 | 26 | 19 | 22 |
| 21 | Josmil Pinto | 23 | 17 | 31 | 17 |
| 22 | Jarrod Saltalamacchia | 19 | 24 | 17 | 31 |
| 23 | Yasmani Grandal | 31 | 19 | 25 | 21 |
| 24 | A.J. Ellis | 28 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 25 | Carlos Ruiz | 22 | 23 | 27 | 24 |
| 26 | John Jaso | 27 | 20 | 28 | 25 |
| 27 | Mike Zunino | 21 | 25 | 23 | 30 |
| 28 | Josh Phegley | 29 | 27 | 32 | 27 |
| 29 | Dioner Navarro | 26 | 32 | 29 | 28 |
| 30 | Geovany Soto | 30 | 33 | 21 | 33 |
| 31 | Derek Norris | 25 | 36 | 26 | 34 |
| 32 | Hank Conger | 32 | 31 | 35 | 26 |
| 33 | J.P. Arencibia | 33 | 29 | 33 | 29 |
| 34 | Chris Iannetta | 34 | 35 | 30 | 36 |
| 35 | Ryan Hanigan | 40 | 30 | 34 | 35 |
| 36 | Stephen Vogt | 40 | 40 | 37 | 32 |
| 37 | Kurt Suzuki | 40 | 34 | 36 | 37 |
| 38 | Martin Maldonado | 35 | 40 | 40 | 39 |
| 39 | Nick Hundley | 40 | 40 | 40 | 38 |
| 40 | George Kottaras | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 |
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
Yes! Love the preseason rankings. Great day.
Gattis at 9 is surprising. Can you expand on that a little? Right now MLB Depth Charts has him batting in the 4 hole behind Heyward, Upton, and Freeman. Production numbers alone should push him into the top 6, with his ceiling being higher. Good looking list otherwise.
**Looking at Jeff’s number for the 9, overall he is 10.
It’s probably related to the fear that he’s a terrible hitter who doesn’t wind up having a job.
Gattis is a low BABIP guy given his existing batted ball profile. He’s not likely to be an OBP or AVG gem, but he also hit the longest home run in the majors last year and he hit 21 HRs in 382 PAs. His power is mammoth and he’s going to bat clean-up per Freddie G’s comments yesterday. In fantasy, production numbers matter, they matter a lot, and with a little semi-quantitative reasoning you can all agree that the higher in the line-up you hit, the more PAs you get, the more productive you have the opportunity to be.
Jeff Zimmerman is a pretty smart guy, check this out, particularly the multipliers.
http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/hitter-evaluation-runs-and-rbis-part-2/
It was written a couple years ago, so the year index might be something less than 1, but the rest should be pretty sound.
Gattis projection (5×5 roto): 70R, 31HR, 83RBI, 0SB, .269AVG
-that’s based on a 16.5% HR/FB rate, a .280 BABIP, 566 PAs and the production numbers were developed using JZ’s research
Could be that 0.291 OBP….hacking only gets you so far
not that it’s a guarantee, but there is room for his walk rate to improve…he posted very respectable BB/K numbers at A+ and AA
Yes, it gets you Top Ten positional rankings from virtually every source that has ever published an article. Please tell me, one piece of evidence that suggests the OBP won’t go up if not significantly? Anything. Please do, I really need to see this, it’s been a pretty rough week. But yeah, rookies often force their way into 1st place lineups and then remain stagnant. I got it.
speaking for myself, I’m a little worried about defense from a guy that doesn’t have a ton of experience catching. Maybe it won’t be bad enough to sit him all the time, but with Doumit on the team, it might be enough to have him replaced at the end of games. That takes PA away.
Doumit has left some wondering whether or not he can handle the DH position on and off throughout the years. He will not be threatening anybody’s playing time. When you lose the amount of C the Braves have lost the past two years you do your best to prepare in case of a disaster. But Doumit is as bad as they come with the leather.
Check out Gattis’ defensive numbers exclusively at catcher. He was actually a really good pitch framer, and ranks in between Kratz and Avila as far as receiving goes. Gattis was a catcher until his bat forced its way into the lineup, even when McCann was catching, and all of his negative defensive value comes from his time in the outfield.