If I could have any catcher on my team it would be Joe Mauer. Unfortunately I don’t have him on any of my teams and I doubt I’ll get him in any of my upcoming drafts. The reason being his ADP of 26.8 is far too high for my liking.

Mauer is drafted so early because of position scarcity. Since catcher is viewed as a weak position and he is far and away the best backstop, owners justify spending a high pick on a player who finished last year with nine home runs, 75 RBI and one stolen base. I am usually a big proponent of position scarcity but not in Mauer’s case.

One reason is that catcher is as deep as it’s been in a long time. In addition to Mauer there are several top flight catchers such as Victor Martinez, Brian McCann and Buster Posey who offer good batting averages and have more power than Mauer. Also players like Carlos Santana (ADP 90), Geovany Soto (136.2), Miguel Montero (160.7) and Matt Wieters (170.1) offer great value in the middle rounds. They won’t hurt you in batting average and they too have more power than Mauer. Mike Napoli is going even later than all of them and he nearly tripled Mauer’s home run total last year. Keep in mind how scarce power has become in fantasy baseball.

If I were to rank every position on how important it is to get the best player at the position, catcher would definitely be last. Not because I think catcher is the deepest position but because it is the least important. Let me explain.

Because catcher is the most demanding position on the field, catchers get more rest than any other position player. As a result, they get significantly fewer at-bats than players at other positions.

Last year, Mauer led all catchers with 510 at-bats. The next position with the lowest number of at-bats for the position leader was first base with 609. That’s almost 100 more at-bats than Mauer! With catchers getting so many fewer at-bats, they won’t have as much of an impact, which is why catcher is the least important position. The low at-bat total is the reason why Mauer’s biggest strength, batting average, doesn’t nearly have as much impact as the batting average of someone like Ichiro, who will hit over .300 over the course of 650 at-bats.

The only way Mauer can justify his high ADP is if he hits close to 20 home runs or steals double-digit bases. However, both are unlikely to happen. The 28 home runs he hit in 2009 will never be repeated because his HR/FB ratio was an astronomical 20.4. To put that in perspective, Mauer’s HR/FB ratio was 6.7 last year and 6.5 in 2008. As for the stolen bases, Mauer hasn’t reach double digits since 2005 and he has a combined six steals over the past three years.

When the third round rolls along do yourself a favor and bypass Mauer’s name knowing that there will be plenty of good catchers available later in the draft. Instead, draft top talent at thinner positions such as Jose Reyes (36.8) or Dustin Pedroia (28.9).

Better yet, draft someone like Matt Kemp or Justin Upton. They are far more likely to have a greater impact in all five categories than Mauer.