Surveying the Position: Catcher

Sep 25, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez (27) reacts with Atlanta Braves catcher Brian McCann (16) after hitting a home run during the first inning at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
If you are playing in a league with us and you haven’t begun your fantasy baseball research for 2014, you have fallen behind. Soon fantasy baseball writers will release their ranking lists [How to Choose a Ranking List] for each position, going anywhere from 10 to 25 deep. But before we get to rankings, we need to study the positions as a whole, looking for trends or changes, or anything else really that will help us prepare for the upcoming season.

So in the next few weeks we will be surveying each position, pulling back and taking a bird’s eye view of each place on the diamond. Today we start with the catcher position.

History of the Catcher Position

First, let’s do a speedy review for the legion of history majors who are out of work and turning to fantasy baseball for solace. During the ’00s the top fantasy catchers were Jorge Posada and and Ivan Rodriguez, but Joe Mauer was nearly as good as those two, despite playing in half the games. Mike Piazza was winding down while Brian McCann was ramping up, Jason Kendall was adding a stolen base or two and Victor Martinez was hitting for average, but the the decade of the ’00s illustrate the point that outside of one or two fantasy baseball stars a season, the production from the catcher position drops off drastically. I wish I knew an even scarier word for drastic, because the drop off from the top tier catchers is typically very severe.

In addition to the ’00s, the ’10s have supported this claim. Yadier Molina has risen to provide quality fantasy value, coming just under Buster Posey and Joe Mauer. After these gentlemen the first few years of this decade have seen fine individual seasons from several catchers, but the consistency hasn’t been there.

The takeaway from this brief romp through catcher history is that each season there is likely to be just a couple stars at the catcher position, then a drastic drop-off to a large pool of also rans. That said, let’s move from this larger trend and zoom a little deeper.

Modern Trends in the Catcher Postion

The primary reason that most catchers don’t offer significant fantasy baseball value is the fact that they don’t come to the plate often enough. That’s the fantasy baseball consensus of the catcher position in a nutshell. The physical demands of the catcher position necessitates more frequent days off and leads to an increase in injuries. Catchers aren’t in the lineup every day, so while a player in the outfield or at another position on the diamond might routinely rack up 600+ plate appearances, Carlos Santana was the only catcher to have 600+ this season (although Buster Posey was close at 595), while just 10 catchers had even 500 plate appearances.

Catchers are rested more, dinged up often, and frequently bat near the bottom of a lineup, which means they don’t come to bat as often as other position players. Fewer at bats means fewer opportunities to drive in runs, score runs, or hit homers.

But there’s a silver lining. There are a growing number of catchers who are actually good with a bat and as a reward managers are getting them into the lineup by playing them at first base. In fact, 6 out of 10 of the top catchers were first base eligible. Buster Posey, Joe Mauer, Victor Martinez, Mike Napoli, and Jonathan Lucroy are 1B/C and while you don’t want to play them at 1B, it’s the extra at bats this gets them that is worthwhile as it increases their counting stats. Needless to say, give first look to one of those high plate appearance catchers for you fantasy team because they have more opportunity to accrue counting stats.

Before we go any further, let’s establish a ballpark baseline so you’ll have a better idea of the bare minimum you should expect. Assuming a 12-team league, a rosterable catcher so be at or better than this stat line:

You should be able to snatch the equivalent of the above ‘Replacement Catcher’ off the waiver wire, assuming you play in a one catcher league. Not bad, you’d say, and to say that you’d be wise. That’s not horrible and it illustrates that a perfectly reasonable strategy is to punt the catcher position, skipping the high prices of the elite guys while waiting to grab a flawed, but serviceable replacement on the cheap.

You’ll also notice a couple more things from the above replacement line.

• It’s easy to get double digit power out of the catcher position. Led by young mashers like Wilin Rosario, J.P. Arencibia and Evan Gattis, there were 26 catchers with 10 or home runs.
• Speaking of J.P. Arencibia, you don’t have to draft him and kill your average. It’s easier than ever to find a catcher who’ll bat .260+, which will come in close enough to your fantasy league’s average so as not to hurt you. In fact, 14 catchers has at least 300 plate appearances and hit over .260.

The Future of the Catcher Position

Catchers aren’t going to suddenly start playing more, that’s for sure. While more are doing on part time behind the dish and part time at first, that scenario just opens up more reps for a defensive first catcher that fits the stereotype of the poor average, low in the lineup game caller. So past trends have a high probability  of advancing forward as future trends.

Furthermore, with Brian McCann being the only significant catcher on the free agent market (meh on A.J. Pierzynski and Carlos Ruiz), there isn’t likely to be a monstrous shake up in playing time. Yet there is some young blood on the horizon.

At some point Devin Mesoraco will no longer be buried. Josmil Pinto isn’t as good as his small sample suggested, but with the Twins fielding a glorified Triple A team, he’ll get the opportunity to earn at bats. Welington Castillo, Yan Gomes, Derek Norris and Wilson Ramos will be worth a watchful eye this offseason, as will heralded prospects Mike Zunio and Travis d’Arnaud.

All this leads up to a position with a lot of potentially interchangeable parts, meaning there is little pressure to overpay. Keep this in mind for the 2014 draft.