RADIO
What's up RotoBallers. Welcome back to my series on keeper leagues. Today I'll be taking a look at catcher keeper values for fantasy baseball (tier one), featuring Gary Sanchez, for those of you deciding what players to keep for your teams.
Keeper Value Rankings are intended for Keeper Leagues in which a fantasy owner must forfeit a designated draft round in order to keep a player into the up-coming season. These rankings are based on Keeper "Values". In the marketing world, Value can be defined as: the extent to which a good or service (player) is perceived by its customer (fantasy owner) to meet his/her needs or wants.
For these specific rankings, 12 team, 5x5 scoring, 23 man roster, Rotisserie league settings were used. If you play in a custom league with non-standard configurations, are thinking of keeping a player not on this list, or want to compare players on your team, follow me on Twitter @RowdyRotoJB or contact me via the RotoBaller Chat Rooms.
Editor's note: Be sure to also check out our 2017 fantasy baseball rankings dashboard. It's already loaded up with tons of great rankings articles and draft analysis. Aside from our tiered staff rankings for every position, we also go deep on MLB prospect rankings, impact rookies for 2017, and dynasty/keeper rankings as well. Bookmark the page, and win your drafts.
How My Keeper Valuation Formula Works
The Keeper Values are derived from my 15 step Keeper Valuation Formula. The product is a quanitative depiction of a players ability to meet/exceed fantasy owners needs based on the cost they payed for the player in the previous season (2016 ADP). The higher the score, the higher the return the fantasy owner will receive from the player, keeping him at his associated cost. Approaching Keeper selections with this "value" based attitude, will greatly increase the effectiveness of a fantasy owner's draft in a Keeper League.
| TIER | SCORE | EXPLANATION |
| 1 | >75 | Finders Keepers! These are the Elite Keeper Values. MUST BE KEPT. |
| 2 | 50-75 | Great Keeper values. Unless you have a full load of Tier 1 players, these guys need to be kept. |
| 3 | 25-49 | You are gaining value with these players, but not as much as your opponents are, potentially. Consider if your options are limited. |
| 4 | 0-24 | Break even point. Minimal value. Only consider if you have a large quantity of Keeper selections. |
| 5 | -99-0 | Keeping these players will hurt your overall draft, as you are not adding any value. Dont waste a Keeper selection here. |
| 6 | <-100 | The associated costs make it impossible to return any value, these players will ruin your draft. Stay far away. |
2017 Top Catcher Keeper Value
1. Gary Sanchez, NYY (23rd Round ADP) Keeper Valuation Formula Score: 94.23
The top Catcher keeper value of 2017 goes to the runner up in American League Rookie of the Year voting. The fact Gary Sanchez did not walk away with the award is still mind blowing to me, as in just 53 games he hit 20 HR with a .299 BA and 1.032 OPS. It was truly one of the most powerful rookie showings of all time. Don't believe me? Here is the top 25 SLG by rookies with at least 200 PA, all-time:
See some names you recognize underneath Gary Sanchez? His .657 SLG and .358 ISO were both all time bests by a rookie (min. 200 PA). They were also far and away the highest the 24 year old has ever posted in any level of the minors. There's no way he repeats his 2016 PA/HR pace, which was aided by the leagues highest HR/FB% (40.0), but with a 41.8 Hard% he instantly elbows his way next to Kyle Schwarber for the top power source at the position in 2017.
So how did Sanchez turn in such a magical two+ months at the plate? While I don't think anyone has an answer to that question, including Sanchez, I think pitch recognition played an important role. Sanchez wasn't out there getting tossed taters by minor league call-ups, in fact, he received the second lowest percentage of fastballs in the league. That's called respect. Hand in hand with not getting fastballs, he was thrown the highest percent of curveballs among catchers. Pitchers were expecting to pitch to your typical rookie, but instead got a veteran's plate recognition from Sanchez, as he posted positive values against every pitch according to Fangraphs.com.
Along with the impressive pitch recognition, Sanchez also showed a great ability in pitch selection. I am aware that a 24.9 K% is less than desirable, but when you are looking to go deep 20 times in 53 games, you're going to whiff a bit. Let me illustrate Sanchez's pitch selection skills in a few heat maps. As you can see in the first one, pitchers wanted to get Sanchez down and away. This is a typical location for off-speed pitches that are generally difficult for the youngsters to pick up on, and especially difficult to put over the fence.
But now take a look at his swing percentage chart, and you can see how well Sanchez did laying off these pitches.
This advanced ability led to one of the sexiest ISO heat maps you will ever see.
So we are now aware Gary Sanchez can absolutely mash a baseball. But he has to have some weaknesses, right? We have already mentioned the high strikeout rate, which I believe will remain, but also don't believe it is much of an issue for the power you'll receive in return. His 24.9 K% puts him in the company of some pretty terrific big leagues hitters such as J.D. Martinez and Freddie Freeman. What I believe is more of an issue is his performance against southpaws. It was a very limited amount of exposure, but Sanchez hit .189 with a 31.7 K% against LHP in 2016. The good news is that despite the greatly decreased contact ability against lefties, he still managed to keep the power stroke. As I mentioned before, he wasn't hitting cheap shots against September call-ups. In fact, of the six HR he hit off LHP, five came off David Price (twice), Drew Pomeranz, J.A. Happ, and Blake Snell. Bottom line: don't expect the 2016 splits to affect his playing time in 2017.
Currently, the RotoBaller Expert Rankings have Gary Sanchez as the third ranked Catcher in 2017, and 69th overall. This places Sanchez in the sixth round territory of your fantasy drafts. Obviously no one expects a repeat of the torrid two months to finish last season, but it is apparent Sanchez has made true believers in his ability to swing the bat at the big league level.
2017 Keeper Value Articles:
