We’re about 90 games into the 2011 season with the All-Star Break finally here. While the league takes its annual mid-summer hiatus, it’s time for us to get busy dissecting, analyzing and rethinking what we know about major league baseball. That process all starts here with our midseason re-ranking of the catcher position for fantasy leagues everywhere.
Once again, catcher is a veritable wasteland. Only one player, our top-ranked catcher at the mid-point, is in Yahoo!’s top 100 and just four even crack the top 200. Joe Mauer has played just 30 games and hasn’t hit a home run yet. Matt Wieters has been a huge disappointment once again but (somehow) has been the sixth-ranked catcher. Let’s just say I’m glad I’m only ranking 20 catchers.
Here’s how the catcher position should be ranked with all the emphasis placed on expected second half performance.
1. Brian McCann, ATL | 36 R, .310, 15 HR, 50 RBI, 2 SB
McCann is batting .300 for the first time since 2008 and is on pace for 26 homers, which would be a new career high. He’s ranked 67th on the season, leads all catchers in home runs and is tied for the lead in RBI. His .310 average ranks third at the position and is in the midst of what might be his best offensive season to date. After a disappointing 2010, McCann is back.
2. Victor Martinez, DET | 37 R, .316, 6 HR, 50 RBI, 1 SB
Martinez ranks second in batting average among catchers and is the only other backstop sniffing the top 100 (117 in Yahoo!’s game). The six homers he’s hit on the season are disappointing to say the least, but no other facet of his game has faded and he’ll get a ton of at-bats the rest of the way by virtue of being Detroit’s primary DH. Martinez’s power outage has happened before — remember his two homers in 73 games 2008? — but I think he’s due for a moderate bounce back. If I had to guess I’d say he’ll hit more than six home runs in the second half.
3. Joe Mauer, MIN | 12 R, .243, 0 HR, 9 RBI, 0 SB
Mauer is here on reputation alone. His two biggest strengths are his ability hit for average and score runs, the latter of which is something he’s done at an elite rate relative to his position. I was tempted to put Mauer ahead of Martinez, but what does Mauer do that Martinez hasn’t been doing?
4. Miguel Montero, ARI | 40 R, .272, 10 HR, 45 AVG, 1 SB
Last year Montero averaged 0.106 homers per game. This year he’s averaging 0.123 homers per game, which is basically the same rate as the 2009 version of Montero (0.125). His ISOs are almost all the same as are his run and RBI totals. The take home message here is that Montero is consistent, and consistently good at that.
5. Carlos Santana, CLE | 41 R, .231, 13 HR, 41 RBI, 3 SB
Santana batted just .198 in April but has batted over .260 in two of the last three months. He’s already had two five-home months and would be on pace for the same total i July if not for this week of rest for the All-Star Game. He might have the most raw power of any catcher and has a fantastic strikeout-to-walk ratio (68-to-62), something I always look for in young players.
6. Alex Avila, DET | 30 R, .286, 10 HR, 46 RBI, 3 SB
Just because we didn’t expect Avila to be this good doesn’t mean he won’t continue to be this good. I wrote a review of the catcher position on May 16 and what I said about Avila then applies to Avila now. Read it.
7. Mike Napoli, TEX | 28 R, .232, 12 HR, 33 RBI, 1 SB
Napoli stared the season strong with 10 homers in the season’s first two months, but then he missed a few weeks in June before coming back on the Fourth of July and smacking two homers and collecting six hits in six July games. Bottom line: Napoli is a .250 hitter who should average about five homers a month with solid RBI totals. He doesn’t have elite potential, but is up there with Santana in terms of power.
8. Matt Wieters, BAL | 31 R, .264, 8 HR, 34 RBI, 1 SB
Wieters hit four homers with 16 RBI in 22 April games but has just four homers and 18 RBI in 56 game since. His batting average is slightly above average for the position but nothing to write home about, and his best skill — throwing out would-be base stealers – doesn’t even help fantasy owners. It’s at this point in the rankings where the crop starts inducing yawns.
9. Yadier Molina, STL | 28 R, .282, 5 HR, 31 RBI, 1 SB
Molina is the 12th-ranked catcher and just the 333rd-ranked player overall at the halfway point this year. Like I said before, no one in this group is going to “wow” you, but some have their strengths. Molina’s strength is batting average. The rest is “blah” at best.
10. Miguel Olivo, SEA | 34 R, .223, 12 HR, 40 RBI, 2 SB
Olivo struck out 26 times with just one walk in June, but he also homered eight times with 19 RBI. He’s on your roster to hit homers, and he’s been doing that of late.
11. Wilson Ramos, WAS | 28 R, .251, 8 HR, 30 RBI, 0 SB
Ramos has been a nice surprise in Washington. While he’s not a great offensive player, he has shown the ability to get very hot for stretches, batting .358 in April and .346 thus far in July. Just make sure you bench him when he’s not hitting like Mauer.
12. J.P. Arencibia, TOR | 26 R, .222, 12 HR, 38 RBI, 0 SB
Arencibia had exactly four homers in April, May and June, but he’s batting well under .200 since June 1. Again, like everyone else, serious deficits somewhere that are kinda-sorta compensated for by mediocre performance elsewhere.
13. Jorge Posada, NYY | 20 R, .230, 9 HR, 29 RBI, 0 SB
Posada had a great June, batting .382 in 22 games that month, but so far in July he’s parlayed that into a disappointing 3-for-22 July (.136). He still has the same power he’s had in recent years (which isn’t a ton but still solid), but the real problem is his career-low line-drive rate fueling that .230 average.
14. John Buck, FLA | 29 R, .220, 10 HR, 32 RBI, 0 SB
Just another 18-20 homer, low-.200s hitter. Next please.
15. Rod Barajas, LAD | 15 R, .220, 8 HR, 21 RBI, 0 SB
Barajas missed a little time due to injury, but it’s the same old story.
16. Ramon Hernandez, CIN | 21 R, .322, 10 HR, 26 RBI, 0 SB
Does it seem like everyone on this list has between eight and 12 homers? Hernandez has a stellar .322 average, but his downfall is his lack of playing time as Ryan Hanigan steals a lot of at-bats.
17. Chris Iannetta, COL | 30 R, .214, 10 HR, 32 RBI, 3 SB
Iannetta batted .272 in May but hasn’t topped .182 in any other month. He has consistently hit three or four homers per month and I’m still a sucker for his potential, but at this point that’s probably a stupid move by me. Even though I’d take a flier on him, realistically he should be ranked down here.
18. Geovany Soto, CHC | 25 R, .228, 8 HR, 23 RBI, 0 SB
I seriously thought Soto was going to rebound this year. Nope. Aside from Barajas, Soto has the worst stats of anyone on this list. He had five homers in July but literally every other stat in ever other month is God-awful. If you have no one worth starting, Soto is worth the risk.
19. Jonathan Lucroy, MIL | 28 R, .280, 7 HR, 36 RBI, 0 SB
Lucroy is the seventh-ranked catcher and 276th-ranked player overall, but almost all of that is fueled by a ridiculous May in which he hit five homers with a crazy 20 RBI. He’s done as close to nothing in any other month as a player with a starting job can do, so don’t buy Lucroy in the second half.
20. Russell Martin, NYY | 26 R, .220, 10 HR, 36 RBI, 7 SB
Martin batted .292 with six homers and 19 RBI in April. He’s batted .184 with four homers and 17 RBI in May, June and July combined. ‘Nuff said.
Yikes…I’m glad that’s over.
There’s plenty to analyze here so feel free to leave your reactions in the comments section. And don’t forget to subscribe to our posts using your favorite feed reader, follow us on Twitter@BaseballProf and get our posts straight to your inbox!