Archive for Catchers

Last week I told you to keep an eye on Washington backup Wilson Ramos.  He may have been listed as the backup on the team’s depth chart, but it has been widely speculated that he will receive the lion’s share of the work behind the dish for the Nationals this season as they slowly phase out a declining Pudge Rodriguez.  Platoons can be a tenuous situation for fantasy leaguers, so avoiding them is usually one’s priority come draft day.  But if you’re playing in a deep league or a league that calls for two catchers, you are sometimes forced to take a chance and hope you grab the better half of a split situation.  Here’s a couple of notable interest… Read the rest of this entry »

For any league, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on some of the backups behind the plate.  With the number of injuries that befall catchers each year, you never know where the next opportunity will reveal itself and enable you to grab a potentially decent bat for a traditionally weak position.  Nothing eye-popping here, but if you get the opportunity to squeeze out an extra 5 HR or 15 points in batting average from your backstop(s), you’re certainly going to be better off in the long run.  Here are a pair of guys you might want to keep on your radar this season… Read the rest of this entry »

OK, RotoGraphers.  Your Monday morning cup of coffee from this week forward will be accompanied by some sort of discussion revolving around catchers and all the fantasy deliciousness they provide.  Since the season has yet to begin and several of you are still waiting to draft, let’s talk about when is the best time to grab your help behind the dish.  Is it wise to invest a late 2nd/early 3rd round pick on Joe Mauer or is the position deep enough to wait until later?  Fresh cup of java in hand….let’s get to it… Read the rest of this entry »

Some of my earliest childhood memories stem from baseball games with my grandfather.  The cheapest seats possible, junk food galore, and baseball chatter like you’ve never heard.  It was from him that I learned the two most important facts in baseball:  every guy out on the field was a bum and free agency killed the game.  The first was the obvious frustration from a curmudgeonly old man, but the second still rings true in a lot of ways.  I could write pages on free agency, but that’s not why I’m here today.  I’m here today to discuss a few familiar faces from behind the dish, and what their new addresses bring to the fantasy table. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I debuted our aggregate pre-season Catcher Rankings, so today I just wanted to throw out a few names of players whom I think will steadily rise through the ranks as the season progresses. Sorry to all you Carlos Santana fluffers, but I don’t feel the need to perpetuate the hype. His play will do enough of that this season. But here are a few to keep in mind: Read the rest of this entry »

The 2011 baseball season is almost upon us, so we here at RotoGraphs put our collective heads together to come up with some aggregate positional rankings.  I’ll be taking the lead all year with the catchers, but as a group, here’s what we came up with for now:

Despite last year’s power decline, we know the potential is there so Mauer gets the nod for the top spot.  Welcome to the big time, Buster!

Happy to have any one of these guys on my roster.  Santana is on the rise, but this could be the last chance for Wieters in the fantasy trust department.

Stable group of guys who can just tow the line for your backstop position.  Martin could be a nice sleeper in hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium.

No major investment needs to be made here.  Some will rise, some will fall.  Arencibia’s power potential puts him at the top of the sleeper list.

Maybe a pair of diamonds in the rough in Lucroy and Snyder, but I wouldn’t want to invest more than a buck on the rest of the lot.

You’ve got to be pretty desperate to be living with these guys on your roster.

We’ll all be chiming in throughout the week with more detailed thoughts on some of the backstops and the overall rankings will be updated on a monthly basis, so stay tuned for more!

Things did not look good for Chris Iannetta when the Rockies re-signed catcher Yorvit Torrealba to a two-year deal prior to the start of the 2008 season. But Iannetta took over the starting job in mid-June and delivered 18 HR and 65 RBIs in 333 at-bats. Now, fantasy players are salivating over the prospects of a power-hitting catcher playing full time in Coors Field.

Iannetta prospered thanks to a .240 isolated slugging percentage. He had a flyball rate of 40.7 percent and when he hit the ball in the air, it left the park at an 18.2 percent rate. Iannetta destroyed lefties, batting .275/.398/.550 versus southpaws.

The big red flag surrounding Iannetta is his strikeout rate. He struck out in 27.6 percent of his at-bats last year, which would have ranked 10th in the majors if he had enough at-bats to qualify. However, Iannetta did not have such a poor contact rate in the minors. In 803 at-bats in the minors, he had a 20.7 K% and at Triple-A it was 17.1 percent.

In 2008, Iannetta hit virtually the same at home as he did on the road. He posted an .893 OPS in Coors and an .897 mark in neutral road parks. This was due to a fluke BABIP split, in which he posted just a .276 mark in his home games.

Iannetta should get around 150-200 extra at-bats next season as the Rockies’ full-time starter from the beginning of the season. Those extra plate appearances, along with an expected improvement in his Coors Field numbers, will boost him to the top half of fantasy catchers, with a chance to move into elite status if he can maintain his solid road numbers.