Archive for Kurt Suzuki

The Hot Stove Season has not really begun in earnest yet, but with the Nationals reaching an agreement with Kurt Suzuki on a two-year deal on Monday morning, we have our first fantasy-relevant player movement since the five-player swap between the Mariners and Rays back on Nov. 8. The move could bode well for Suzuki’s value in 2019, as he currently has less competition for playing time in Washington than he did in Atlanta. Reportedly, his deal will pay him $10 million over the two years, so it is conceivable that the Nationals could have the resources to dip back into the catcher market for more help.
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Here is Travis d’Arnaud before he was sent down on June 8th: .180/.271/.273/.241 (BA/OBP/SLG/wOBA).

Here is TDA after his return: .269/.315/.481/.346. He also tore it up (again) at Triple-A.

Here is TDA from August fifth onward: .280/.335/.510/.369. Yan Gomes, FYI, went .278/.313/.472/.340 albeit for the season.

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Let’s start with a multiple choice question.

1) Russell Martin has been lucky on the following balls-in-play type(s):

a) Grounders

b) Liners

c) Flies

d) at least Grounders and Flies

If you chose a) grounders, you would be wrong. If you chose d) flies, you would be wrong. If you chose b) liners, well… you could be partly right, however, the correct answer is d) at least grounders and flies. You could argue that there should be an e) option, ‘all of the above.’

According to Zach Sanders’ End of Season Catcher rankings, Russell Martin bamboozled his way into the top 10 at #7 overall and produced what would have been his 2nd best fantasy season if he approached 150+ games.

By bamboozled, I mean BABIP’ed.

Look at his 2014 ground ball, fly ball and line drive-related BABIP’s on each individual balls-in-play type in 2014 relative to his career; relative to 2013 (still with the Pirates); and relative to the mean if we considered his career rates as a one year performance:

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It’s not unusual to find several unexpected names among the top fantasy producers at a position nearly a quarter of the way into a particular season. Because they’re unforeseen, they aren’t necessarily among your league’s most owned players.

At some point, though, some antsy owner will have begun to question his loyalty to a player he drafted when the season-to-date performance of a player he didn’t is still rated higher in his league’s free-agent list. Even though at some point in the near future, regression to the means of both players would seem likelier than not to benefit him, ignoring signs of changes in their baseline performance and reliability.

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Happy Opening Day to you all. Hopefully you were able to enjoy at least some of it and didn’t spend your entire day sweating managerial decisions, pitcher blow-ups and closer changes too much. Obviously if you have a chance to pick up a player like Matt Lindstrom or Francisco Rodriguez, then fine, make your move, but looking back and playing the ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ game with your draft because Cliff Lee gave up eight earned runs to the Rangers does nothing positive for you. It’s the first day. Just relax. It’s a long, long season.

As a result of it being so early in the year, we have limited things to discuss with regard to the catcher position. Rather than try to force something out of one day’s worth of numbers, we’re just going to look at a few catcher situations that will probably require more of your attention than just the cursory glance. If you are using one of the following backstops on your roster, you may want to take note. Read the rest of this entry »

With the start of every month, we like to adjust the position tiers to help guide you towards expected risers and steer you away from some of the expected fallers. But obviously, the beginning of the month doesn’t always coincide with the best time for waivers, so I thought a mid-month stock report might help put guys on your radar that may not necessarily have been there before. Or, conversely, take them off your radar to save you some aggravation. Not every catcher will be mentioned so if your favorite doesn’t appear here, it’s not a personal slight. But feel free to mention him in the comments should he actually be doing something notable. So without further ado… Read the rest of this entry »

While it’s still fairly early, we should probably take a moment and see if we can evaluate some of these early starts to the season, both good and bad. We’ve got a guy like John Buck who is clearly playing way over his head right now and most everyone knows that he is clearly a “find the sucker in your league and sell high to him right away” type player but there are a few catchers out there where the jury is still out. Hot starts, cold starts — which do you believe in and which do you not? Here’s my take on three backstops who you might be wondering about… Read the rest of this entry »

Now that drafts are complete and the season has begun, it’s time to just take a quick scan of some of the catchers who are likely sitting out on your waiver wire right now. It’s not like you’re going to make a move and pick someone up, but given the health risks that come with the position, it’s just a good idea to stay prepared and keep a few names in mind as a “just in case.” It’s probably slim pickings out there right now anyway, but there are still a few names who may have some modest value attached, capable of growing further under the right circumstances. Read the rest of this entry »

Just three weeks left to go in the regular season and all that hard work you’ve done over the last five-plus months will have finally paid off, so long as you’re staying on top of things.  And that means making the tough decisions at the end of the year.  Let’s face it…we’ve got great players that just aren’t producing right now and you need to make sure you fill in the blanks with guys who are.  Our own Michael Barr wrote a piece discussing the idea of cutting Brian McCann and then there are guys like Alex Avila who should have been cut even longer ago.  Even Matt Wieters is struggling to keep his average over the Mendoza line for the last 30 days.  If it’s a keeper league, you’ll probably have to bite the bullet.  But if it’s a re-draft league, it’s time to cut the dead weight and get a catcher in there that can help. Read the rest of this entry »

Even though the positional rankings aren;t being updated monthly, the tiers are, so let’s take a look at some of the movement amongst the catchers.  We saw a few things happen with the May tiers but I held back any extreme movement because of sample sizes and questions surrounding performance sustainability.  This month, guys are moving… Read the rest of this entry »