August 31, 2017

Michael Griffin recommends catchers (C) who can be valuable waiver wire targets or adds to help fantasy owners for Week 22 of the 2017 fantasy baseball season.

OK. Wasn't it just June? There was still plenty of time for some catchers to right their ships after rough Aprils and Mays. Is it almost Labor Day and have kids already started having to worry about bedtimes because of school nights? Yes, the calendar is almost ready to flip to September and another season will be in the rear-view mirror sooner than later. Then the cold of winter will approach and we'll all be hunkering down, with visions of Spring Training dancing in our heads. Those of us who live in cold states will, anyway.

Speaking of hunkering down... right now, if you're still looking for a quality catcher who will carry you to a late-season surge for a championship:

If you didn't have people like Evan Gattis or Gary Sanchez already, it's not likely that the people listed here will be any kind of a difference maker. Still, any little bit will help, and that's all you really can ask for unless a spectacular September call-up does something.

10-12 Team League Catcher Pickups

Here are some catcher waiver wire pickups for Week 22, to consider adding to your teams. We'll show you three players to snag in 10-12 player leagues, and also three to look out for in two-catcher leagues. All of these players are just at or below 50% ownership in Yahoo! fantasy leagues.

Matt Wieters (WAS) 50% owned

Matt Wieters is back in favor. Sort of. He's still behind Welington Castillo, who replaced him in Baltimore after he went to Washington. That's because Castillo's having a better year than he is, but people need fairly warm bodies at catcher, especially in deeper leagues. Wieters has fewer homers than Castillo, but he has more RBI. That's because there's also an 80 at-bat disparity between them, but he's been serviceable in a pinch.

Wilson Ramos (TB) 37 % owned

Wilson Ramos is still getting snapped up at a fairly steady pace by fantasy owners. He's not exactly setting the world on fire, hitting .236/6/19, but he excited people when he hit a homer and drove in two runs on Aug. 28. That qualifies as a hot streak among many backstops. He's still better than a lot of other choices that would land in the two-catcher camp.

Robinson Chirinos (TEX) 13% Owned 

Why is Robinson Chirinos on this list and not on the two-catcher one? Power. He's got 15 homers in a lot fewer at-bats than other backstops. There's a good chance he would have over 30 if he had a full season. Fantasy owners are picking up on his value, with thousands of them grabbing him off the wire. Be one of them - hopefully, he'll hit a lot more over the walls in September.

Two-Catcher League Pickups

Mike Zunino  (SEA) - 31% owned

Mike Zunino continues having a great game every several contests... which is why he's still in this category. If he could put together a streak of consistency, he'd be in the other category in a heartbeat. Even with how dire the state of catching is, you can't afford to lose as much production day in and day out with someone like Zunino. He's still two-catcher league material.

Christian Vazquez (BOS)  14% owned 

Christian Vazquez is popular because of his 4-for-4 game on Aug. 28. He homered in that one too. So far nearly w,000 owners have picked him up since then. He's had a fairly consistent bat, hitting around .300, but he doesn't do much all around, which puts him in two-catcher territory. It's better than nothing.

Kurt Suzuki (MIN) 6% owned

Kurt Suzuki has homered three times in the past 10 games. That's given him 15 for the year. He's actually reached that total in fewer at-bats than Chirinos, but he's not played enough to warrant the 10-12 team status. If he has another good week or two, you may see him in the next category in the next column.

More Waiver Wire Pickups and Adds