It’s that time of year again where all of us fantasy players are gearing up for our fantasy draft.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of us may have already had a draft or two as some leagues like to get it out of the way early.\u00c2\u00a0 Personally I prefer drafting as late in spring training as possible so that I know as much information as I possibly can.\u00c2\u00a0 Today we’re going to start our series of positional rankings starting with Catcher.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t believe in selecting a Catcher early in my draft, so I know I won’t have the top two or three at this position.\u00c2\u00a0 In my mind Catchers just don’t provide enough offense and tend to miss to many games.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d rather spend my cap or early draft picks at another position where the value is more to my liking.\u00c2\u00a0 That being said, here is my top 15, keep in mind that if the Yankees Jesus Montero were to somehow win the starting job, he easily vaults into the top ten, as it is, in keeper leagues he has to be drafted in the top eight.<\/p>\n
1.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins:\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone’s number one choice, but the power outage last season will concern quite a few owners.\u00c2\u00a0 The ballpark seems to be getting most of the blame as Target Field is not the homer haven that the Metrodome was, but a regression was also in order.\u00c2\u00a0 If first baseman Justin Morneau doesn’t come back from his concussion 100% healthy than teams may not even bother pitching to Mauer.<\/p>\n
2.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Victor Martinez, Detroit Tigers:\u00c2\u00a0 Martinez goes from a great hitters park and the green monster in Boston, to a pitchers park in Comerica Field.\u00c2\u00a0 Having Miguel Cabrera hitting either in front or behind you should assure VMart will see a generous amount of fastballs.<\/p>\n
3.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves:\u00c2\u00a0 Come next season McCann may no longer be considered the best catcher in the National League, but he still gets that designation until Buster Posey proves himself over a full season.\u00c2\u00a0 Power wise McCann is pretty consistent, averaging 21 home runs over the past five seasons, but his average has dropped each of the past three, something to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n
4.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants:\u00c2\u00a0 Not a bad rookie season for Posey.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure he probably should’ve started the season with the big club, but once promoted he proves to possibly be the best hitter the Giants have and leads the team to their first World Series in what seemed like a century.<\/p>\n
5.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Carlos Santana, Cleveland Indians:\u00c2\u00a0 Santana’s place in the top five shows just how weak the catcher position is.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that Santana is a bad player, he’s not, but for a player who only had 150 at-bats at the major league level before tearing up his knee to be this high up on my list actually hurts.\u00c2\u00a0 That being said, there is not much else to like offensively for Cleveland which could keep his numbers down somewhat.<\/p>\n
6.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Geovany Soto, Chicago Cubs:\u00c2\u00a0 Not sure why, but people seem to be a bit down on Soto.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps they are still remembering his injury plagued 2009 season.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure he only played 105 games last season, but did hit 17 HRs and bat .280.\u00c2\u00a0 If he were to play 140 games, those would be some pretty solid numbers you could be putting on the board.<\/p>\n
7.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Mike Napoli, Texas Rangers:\u00c2\u00a0 Napoli has had an interesting off-season, being traded to Toronto and then on to Texas.\u00c2\u00a0 Angels manager Mike Scioscia was never a big fan of Napoli’s defensive abilities so he was never going to play him full-time.\u00c2\u00a0 A trade was really the best thing for Napoli and his fantasy owners as now not only will he catch every day, but he is also playing in what may be the best hitter’s park in the American League.<\/p>\n
8.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Jorge Posada, New York Yankees:\u00c2\u00a0 Posada is still eligible at catcher this season even though he will be the Yankees primary DH.\u00c2\u00a0 The question is can Posada adjust to only getting four ABs a night and nothing else.\u00c2\u00a0 Not every player can make that change.\u00c2\u00a0 Theoretically this move should help Posada as catching will no longer beat him up physically thus allowing him to stay in the lineup for a longer period of time.<\/p>\n
9.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Miguel Montero, Arizona Diamondbacks:\u00c2\u00a0 Montero could be a few rungs higher on this list, but a torn meniscus short circuited his 2010 season and even after he returned to the lineup, Montero was never able to get untracked.\u00c2\u00a0 The trade of Chris Snyder to Pittsburgh last season means the full-time job is Montero’s and he won’t have to share playing time with anyone.<\/p>\n
10.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Matt Wieters, Baltimore Orioles:\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike Posey and Santana, who each came into the league with as much promise, Wieters has never been able to figure it out offensively.\u00c2\u00a0 Manager Buck Showalter is trying to reduce the pressure on Wieters by batting him lower in the lineup and telling him to concentrate on his defensive game and handling the pitching staff rather than worry about his hitting.<\/p>\n
11.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 J.P. Arenciba, Toronto Blue Jays:\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re looking for power and don’t mind the batting average sacrifice, than Arencibia could be the player for you.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s going to hit his share of home runs, but his K\/BB ratio leaves something to be desired as he will strikeout more than his share also.<\/p>\n
12.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Kurt Suzuki, Oakland Athletics:\u00c2\u00a0 Suzuki is sort of a safe catcher.\u00c2\u00a0 He will hit some home runs, drive in a good amount for a catcher, his average won’t help you, but won’t kill you either.\u00c2\u00a0 If you waited this long for a catcher and he is still on the board, you would have to be pretty happy with yourself.<\/p>\n
13.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Chris Iannetta, Colorado Rockies:\u00c2\u00a0 The ultimate tease at catcher.\u00c2\u00a0 Has the talent, plays in the best hitting ballpark in the National League, but goes through slumps that will drive a fantasy owner crazy.\u00c2\u00a0 One of those slumps found him sent back down to AAA last season, but he is expected to be the starting catcher for Rockies this season as they really don’t have another catcher on the roster who can play every day.<\/p>\n
14.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Russell Martin, New York Yankees:\u00c2\u00a0 Martin used to be a top fantasy catcher 2-3 years ago, but his numbers have fallen off a cliff the last two seasons.\u00c2\u00a0 Now he goes to a new team in a new league.\u00c2\u00a0 Pressure will be all over Martin to perform.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only because of pressure of playing in New York and their desire to win, but because phenom Jesus Montero will be waiting in the wings to take his starting job.\u00c2\u00a0 If you draft Martin, you better have contingency plans.<\/p>\n
15.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Carlos Ruiz, Philadelphia Phillies:\u00c2\u00a0 Quite a few catchers could’ve been put in this spot as it really is just a roll of the dice at this point.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you like Josh Thole of the Mets or Yadier Molina of the Cardinals, or the White Sox A.J. Pierzynski, just go with your gut and let it fly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s that time of year again where all of us fantasy players are gearing up for our fantasy draft.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of us may have already had a draft or two as some leagues like to get it out of the way early.\u00c2\u00a0 Personally I prefer drafting as late in spring training as possible so that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":785,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[471,3643,10848,13419,7185,270,13322,3429,5663,871,13423,13420,5697,5191,778,777,13422,11597,3418,756,13421,775,3544],"class_list":["post-12591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-brian-mccann","tag-buster-posey","tag-clearing-the-bases","tag-comerica","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-fantasy-draft","tag-fantasy-players","tag-fastballs","tag-first-baseman","tag-george-kurtz","tag-green-monster","tag-hitters-park","tag-jesus-montero","tag-joe-mauer","tag-justin-morneau","tag-keeper-leagues","tag-metrodome","tag-miguel-cabrera","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-positional-rankings","tag-target-field","tag-victor-martinez"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/785"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}