Archive for Mike Napoli

Throughout the season, we ran a series of fantasy rankings for each position at the top of each month to help you keep track of the risers and fallers and to see who might be worth a sell high or buy-low effort.  Well, this week, we are rolling out a series of Keeper Rankings for each position to help you get a leg up on the competition and begin your preparation for the 2012 season.  Each author will take his assigned position and each post will be dedicated to a specific tier within that position.  With that, here is the top tier for catchers in keeper leagues.

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As the sun begins to set on another dazzling baseball season, fantasy baseball GMs, especially keeper league owners, have been evaluating their current players in an effort to determine how right they were in drafting certain guys as well as what the prospects may be for owning them in 2012.  The catcher position tends to be somewhat of an afterthought if you’re not talking about a top name like Brian McCann and Carlos Santana.  But what about a guy like Mike Napoli?  In case you weren’t paying attention, after a slow start to the season, Napoli put up some fantastic numbers and, frankly, commands your attention when discussing the top players at the position for this year and next.

Let’s just hit the basics, first and foremost.  Fantasy baseball is a numbers game and you’re only as good as your level of production.  While Napoli was used plenty as a DH this season, he played in 55 games behind the dish and therefore maintains his eligibility.  Here’s a a quick look at the basic stats that are important to the fantasy game:

*based on a minimum of 250 PA

That’s not too shabby for a guy who was, on average taken somewhere in the 9th or 10th round of your draft.  Not only do his overall numbers blow away most of the catchers in the game, but he actually outperformed numerous players at other positions that were taken ahead of him in almost every draft.  If you want to talk position scarcity, then we can make a pretty good case for catchers, no?  But we’ll just stick with the backstops for now.

Obviously, the thing that stands out the most is just how productive Napoli has been in the limited plate appearances he has received.  It just so happened to be one of the biggest knocks on him coming into the season.  Only once in his career had he topped 500 plate appearances in a season, and while he was no longer under the rule of the Jeff Mathis-loving Mike Scioscia in Anaheim, the Rangers had brought in additional help behind the plate despite trading a coveted bullpen arm for him.  The playing time question was certainly an issue.

But in typical Napoli fashion, he accepted his limited playing time and still mashed the heck out of the ball, even while missing most of June with an oblique strain.  It may have taken him the whole first half of the season to get things going in the batting average department, but the post-All Star break surge cannot be taken lightly, nor dismissed.  While yes, his BABIP shot through the roof in the second half, you also need to take note that he also improved his walk rate dramatically while also lowering his K% to a much more respectable level.  Given his BABIP totals over the last few years, you can definitely say that his .385 second half average was partially luck driven, but you can’t deny that he also worked hard to improve his plate discipline.

Napoli is arbitration eligible right now, and given what he’s done for the Rangers this season, it’s hard to believe he won’t be back in Arlington next year.  Maybe they give him more work, maybe they give him the same.  Either way, a backstop with a .246 career ISO mark and is capable of hitting above .270 (just to keep it low and realistic) certainly deserves consideration over some of the top, yet under-producing names out there.  Yes, oft-injured Joe Mauer….I’m looking in your direction.

As Eno said in his Stat Grabs piece the other day, there’s no time and probably no chance to grab a well-rounded player off your waiver wire.  We are officially at the midway point here in the final month of the season and those fighting for the title in their roto leagues or are battling in a late championship week in their head to head league are probably looking for specific category help.   Catchers aren’t usually the biggest contributors in the game, but for fantasy purposes, there are probably enough out there that are finishing strongly and can kick in a little assistance here and there.

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Back around the end of May, after a torrid start to the season, I posed the simple question about Tigers catcher Alex Avila — is he for real?  At the time of the piece, we looked at his .333 BABIP, his 30.0 K%, his gaudy 17.4% HR/FB and not only wondered if his .250 ISO was the real deal, but if these numbers were indicating an over-achiever who was headed for a significant drop.  Well, after watching him the rest of the way and looking at his current .304-17-65, it might finally be safe to say that he is, in fact, for real.  Now the question is, what do we do with him next season?

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Time to re-visit those monthly rankings, again.  As always, the criteria used for these is as follows:

1.  Current performance level
2.  Expected performance for rest of season
3.  Value based on standard 5×5 categories (avg over OBP)

One note, despite the fact that it is late in the season, we are not accounting for keeper value right now.  We are staying within the parameters of this season alone.  Injured players remain on the list at the bottom so we can just see who was up there from start to finish.  That being said, here’s how the catching position looks right now…. Read the rest of this entry »

As the season moves on, things are really settling in with the catcher rankings.  Not a whole lot of movement from tier to tier (almost none), but some movement within.  Remember, the criteria used for the rankings is as follows:

1.  Current performance level
2.  Expected performance for rest of season
3.  Value based on standard 5×5 categories (avg over OBP)

Here’s how it looks heading into July. Read the rest of this entry »

As we get ready to head into a new month, it’s time to update the 2011 Catchers Rankings once again.  Remember, the criteria for these rankings is as follows:

The arrows are used to highlight a player moving up or down in tier, but you’ll also notice some minor tweaks within the tiers as well.  Some that will obviously have more impact than others. Read the rest of this entry »

As important as matchups are to Pick Six (for more, see last week’s strategy post), the most important aspect of the game is to pick players that are good values at their positions.  Today, I’ll give a run down on some of the better (and poorer) values at the first two positions in Pick Six: Catcher and Corner Infield.  The numbers I’ll report are projected Points per Plate Apperance (Pts/PA), based on a weighted average of Oliver and PECOTA projections (a bit more weight to Oliver, because it’s more current).  YMMV depending on your preferred projection system, or your own adjustments to these systems.  Also, keep in mind that prices change weekly, and so this just represents a snapshot look at player value and may be obsolete by next week!

Catcher

Elite Three  (they cost a fortune, but they’re worth it):

Carlos Santana, $34.25, 1.42 Pts/PA
Brian McCann, $32.25, 1.37 Pts/PA
Buster Posey, $35.50,  1.33 Pts/PA

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With the calendar flipping to May, it’s time to re-visit the 2011 Catcher Rankings and see who has climbed closer to the top and who’s been dropping like a stone.  As you may recall, the RotoGraph writers got together before the season began and constructed a composite catcher rankings.  However, after gaining some feedback from all of you, I have decided to make my adjustments to the rankings based on the following criteria:

The arrows are used to highlight a player moving up or down in tier, but you’ll also notice some minor tweaks within the tiers as well.  Some that will obviously have more impact than others.  So without further ado, you may now cue the theme song to The Jeffersons… Read the rest of this entry »

For two of the last three off seasons, Michael Young dominated the headlines with his contempt for the Texas Rangers and his demands for a trade.  He was angry with the team for asking him to move from shortstop to third to make room for Elvis Andrus back in 2009 and then the whole story repeated itself this past winter when the team signed Adrian Beltre, asked him to move to DH and then traded for Mike Napoli, who was supposedly going to steal some at bats from him.  The fight was getting bitter and every time you turned around, there was a new rumor popping up as to where Young was going to land. Read the rest of this entry »