I've talked a little about the paucity of good shortstops in the AL, and my colleague Chris Liss blogged about the position as a whole on Friday. Let's now direct our attention to individual players in the catcher pool, specifically looking at the endgame.
More catchers get drafted as $1 players or final round picks than other position players. Even those that choose to invest in one of the elite catchers for one of their catcher slots will often spend the minimum on their second slot, and others (particularly those using a Stars-and-Scrubs approach) will fill both slots with $1 catchers. In a mixed-league environment (particularly a 12-team mixed), the catcher pool is deep enough to make that a viable strategy this year.
The following players either went for 1 or 2 units in auctions I've done so far, or in the final three rounds of a draft, or are among the last 6-10 slots for their pool in our rankings. As always, your mileage may vary - in fact, the earlier these drafts are held, the more likely that they'll contain some anomalies. We'll break these catchers down into three groups - mixed (12-team), AL and NL.
Mixed League:
Michael Napoli - Napoli almost certainly will go for more in your auctions (how many catchers can post a .960 OPS anyhow?), but I picked him up for a buck in RotoWire's Mock Auction for our magazine. The lesson here is that auctions can occasionally produce strange results, and when a player is nominated can affect his price often as much as his skill level.
Jorge Posada - We used to share office space with an ardent and somewhat irrational Yankees fan that just hated Posada - in fact, called him "Slo-sada." This was back in 2005, before his huge 2007 season. Now Posada is returning from a shoulder injury, forcing some bidders to stay away.
Ramon Hernandez - Be careful not to overvalue the change in ballparks here - Hernandez |STAR|should|STAR| improve from last year's output ... but then again, we were saying that before drafts last year too.
Chris Snyder - Like Napoli, I like Snyder better in Scoresheet and Strat than in roto, because of his walk rate and lower BA.
John Baker - Baker quietly took over the starting catching duties for the Marlins down the stretch and held his own. He's not especially young or has a ton of upside, but he could provide solid production as a $1 player in a lineup that once again should be better than the public perception.
Others: Kurt Suzuki, Taylor Teagarden, Kelly Shoppach, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jeff Clement, Yadier Molina, Jesus Flores, Gerald Laird.
Endgamers that I'd avoid in mixed leagues: Miguel Olivo, Kenji Johjima, Rod Barajas.
AL:
Shawn Riggans - He'll have to fight off John Jaso for the backup job behind Dioner Navarro, but Riggans has a semblance of power that could prove useful if he ever got 250 at-bats.
Gregg Zaun - I could foresee a scenario where the O's started Matt Wieters in Triple-A to keep his service time down. Zaun would be the beneficiary of the resulting playing time.
Michael Barrett - Barrett has an outside shot of beating out Rod Barajas in Toronto.
Max Ramirez - This is an upside gamble - Ramirez is third in line for the catching job in Texas, but his bat is ready now. He's also a candidate to get dealt for pitching, in which case the acquiring team could plug him in right away.
NL:
J.R. Towles - Perfect "last year's bum" candidate.
Angel Salome - It's not hard to envision Jason Kendall getting dumped if the Brewers are out of it over the second half.
Miguel Montero - Could wedge into Snyder's playing time, could get dealt - the Red Sox were trying to trade for him this offseason.
Ronny Paulino - A change in scenery couldn't hurt; still has to beat out Chris Coste.