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It's your resident catcher advocate here, with my weekly defense for baseball's most maligned position. Instead of giving into easy narratives about the lack of talent at the catcher position and how they're the kickers of fantasy baseball, I'm here to create a place where catchers are celebrated for how they can help our teams.
Each week, I will take a look at the upcoming schedule ahead and give you my favorite streaming options at catcher. By looking at lineup trends, amount of games ahead, the location of the games, and potential pitching matchups, I'll try to guide you towards catchers that I think can be most useful for you in the upcoming week. For each catcher listed, I'll also add a chart that will provide you with data about the potential opposing pitchers that I think are meaningful in terms of allowing potential fantasy production. Plus, I'll also give a short explanation about why this catcher made the list. Every week I'll also look back at my previous recommendations so that we can have some transparency about what's working or not.
Since many fantasy managers will pay no attention to the catcher spot, your ability to constantly look for the best matchups will be a good way to get an advantage over your competition.
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Last Week Check-In
Not including Sunday's games (5/30) - I told you before last week started that injuries made it a brutal week:
- Mitch Garver (4 starts) 5-15, 1, HR, 3 RBI, 5 Runs (WIN - he's heating up)
- Omar Narvaez (3 starts) 1-11, 1 Run (LOSS - he's been cold since coming off the IL)
- Jacob Stallings (3 starts) 3-11, 1 RBI, 1 Run (WIN - I guess. Pretty much a push)
- Tyler Stephenson (5 starts) 2-16, 2 RBI (LOSS - but man, the at-bats were there)
- Tomas Nido (4 starts) 3-13, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 Runs (WIN - you'll take this in deep leagues for sure)
SEASON STREAMING RECORD: 23-18
All matchup projections are made in conjunction with Roster Resource and @Rotoquotes on Twitter
Week Ten Catcher Waiver Wire (5/31 - 6/6)
For the purposes of this article, we are considering a "streaming catcher" one who is rostered in under 50% of Yahoo! leagues. Whether or not these catchers will be useful for you will depend entirely on your league size and the number of catchers you need to play. In order to help, I will keep a weekly list of "Untouchables," meaning catchers who, in my opinion, should NOT (if healthy) be dropped for a streaming option.
Untouchables: Catchers who shouldn't be dropped for these streamers in any format: J.T. Realmuto, Salvador Perez, Yasmani Grandal, Willson Contreras, Will Smith, Christian Vazquez, Buster Posey, and Yadier Molina.
Mitch Garver, Minnesota Twins
48% Rostered
This might be the last week we get to feature Garver on the streamers article. Over the last two weeks, Garver is hitting .320 with two HRs, four RBI, and six runs scored. His 1.189 OPS is best in the Majors among catchers over the span, and the Twins offense is starting to heat up across the board, which means more opportunities for runs and RBI. Then you have his schedule.
I mean, come on, look at that chart above. How can you not get excited about having hitters in your lineup against that series of arms? Brady Singer is the only arm on the schedule with any above-average metrics, and he's certainly not somebody we need to be afraid of. Fire up Garver again!
Omar Narvaez, Milwaukee Brewers
40% Rostered
All six of the Brewers' games are going to be at home in a hitter-friendly environment, which is another reason to love Narvaez this week. He's only been hitting .235 over the last two weeks, but he hits at the top of the Brewers' lineup, which has allowed him to be top-10 in plate appearances for catchers over that span. Getting consistent at-bats against the pitchers listed above is a good thing.
Don't be turned off by the red you see in the chart above; it's not anything that should be concerning. Matthew Boyd has good surface-level stats, but that HR/FB% is begging for regression and considering his strikeout rate has fallen this year, I think the balls are going to start carrying over the fence. The other start against the Tigers is a bullpen game, and, despite the Tigers' pen having pitched better since Michael Fulmer moved into the closer's role, this was one of the worst bullpens in the league for the first six weeks of the season, so I'm not ready to say it's all of the sudden a good unit. The four-game series against the Diamondbacks doesn't feature any arms we should be afraid of and also allows the left-handed hitting Narvaez to face all right-handed arms.
William Contreras, Atlanta Braves
23% Rostered
Despite not having a reputation as being an offensive catcher, Contreras has a 21.1% barrel rate and 92.8 mph average exit velocity during the 2021 season, so he is making the most of his chance to be the Braves' starting catcher. Over the past two weeks, he's hitting .250 with three HRs, eight RBI, and six runs scored. He's 5th among all catchers over that time with a 152 wRC+ and also 5th with a .942 OPS.
He'll have to make his hay next week in the four-game series against the Nationals because facing that trio of Dodgers arms is never an easy take. The slight bonus is that both Julio Urias and Clayton Kershaw are lefties, and the right-handed hitting Contreras will also get to square off against lefties Patrick Corbin and Jon Lester when they face the Nationals.
Jose Trevino, Texas Rangers
1% Rostered
This is all about Coors. Trevino has been seeing the ball well lately, hitting .280 with three RBI over the last two weeks. He hasn't been hitting for much power but the thin mountain air can change that, and this Rangers offense has a little more fight than we gave them credit for. While Jon Gray and German Marquez have both shown they can put together some good performances in Coors, it's still a matchup you want to attack.
Plus, look at the bright green in the HR/FB% column; if there's a time for him to carry one out of the park, it might be this week. The right-handed Trevino will then get two left-handed pitchers in the Tampa series before likely giving way to Jonah Heim for the finale against Tyler Glasnow.
Dom Nunez, Colorado Rockies
5% Rostered
If Trevino is here because of Coors then you damn well know Nunez is gonna be here with the Rockies playing six games at home next week. Now, Nunez and Elias Diaz have been splitting reps relatively evenly over the recent fews, but there's only one left-handed pitcher on the chart above, which means we should see more of Nunez.
He hasn't been particularly good of late, hitting only .095 with three runs scored over his past two weeks, but coming back home to Coors against that group of names above could just be the cure for what ails him. The trio of Rangers arms are all guys who have been hit hard at times this year and Frankie Montas hasn't looked at all like the pitcher we saw two years ago. The Athletics will also end the week with two unproven arms in Cole Irvin and James Kaprielian, who have never pitched in Coors before. Good luck, kids.
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