RADIO
Draft Patience Is A Virtue
Catcher is one of the shallowest positions in fantasy baseball which leads to wide varying opinions in regards to preseason rankings. Look no further than Yan Gomes, who ranges from 4th to 15th in our rankings. My personal rankings have a clear tier 1 (Buster Posey, Jonathan Lucroy, Carlos Santana, Devin Mesoraco), with the players in tier 2 (Yan Gomes, Evan Gattis) very close behind.
If you miss out on the players listed above, my best advice is to wait it out and fill other positions of need. Have no fear though; below I have listed three players who I believe will outperform their 2015 ADPs.
Russell Martin (ADP: 187)
Poor Russell Martin. He hits .290/.402/.430 (all bests since 2007) and finishes 7th among C in 2014. His reward? A preseason ranking of 13th among C. Yeah, he landed a 5yr/$82M contract, but I’m sure he’s feeling the burn.
I understand the skepticism among fantasy owners; as stated already he just posted his best stat line in seven years and had a career high BABIP (.336). On a positive note he did improve his BB% (12.8%) and K% (17%) in 2014 and was surrounded by a much improved Pirates offense.
In Toronto he’ll be plugged in the 2-hole for a lineup that averaged 4.46 runs per game in 2014 (5th in MLB) with protection coming in the form of Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and newcomer Josh Donaldson. The man he replaces, Melky Cabrera, produced a .288/.343/.440 line when batting 2nd in 2014 which, while not indicative of Martin’s performance, is a promising sign for things to come in front of JoeyBats.
Martin will see steady playing time along with the added benefit of DH days to keep him fresh, and I firmly believe Martin will produce top 10 numbers. Take him over Matt Wieters and Wilin Rosario.
Yasmani Grandal (ADP: 243)
I originally intended on featuring Travis d’Arnaud here, but he’s received plenty of love already here at Rotoballer. So I’m going to pivot and focus on another youngster, Yasmani Grandal.
Grandal was traded to the Dodgers in the Matt Kemp deal, in the process going from last to first in Runs per game in the NL last year. The lineup has retooled this offseason, adding Howie Kendrick and Jimmy Rollins, and they are still in the hunt for Cuban youngster Hector Olivera. This equates to numerous run scoring opportunities for the switch-hitting Grandal.
He was surprisingly poor in such situations last year, hitting .181/.276/.324 with RISP. Based on his offensive potential, I’m willing to give him a second chance considering his teammates surrounding him. He was recovering from an ACL surgery in the beginning of 2014 but came on strong at the end, hitting .291/.408/.519 with 4 HR in September.
The main concerns with Grandal are his durability and A.J. Ellis. Mattingly has stated publicly Grandal will receive the bulk of the playing time, but if Grandal is to eclipse the top 10 C he’ll need to have a full season. If he avoids significant time on the DL, he should outperform Wilin Rosario while going 4-5 rounds later.
Jason Castro (ADP: 280)
2014 was a disaster for Jason Castro. He posted a career-worst .222/.286/.366 line while seeing his BABIP fall 57 points from 2013. A closer look shows an increased K% (29.5%) and lower BB% (6.6%). Furthermore his GB % rose (44.8%) while his LD % dropped (19.6%). Not good signs at all.
In spite of those poor numbers he still produced 14 HR 56 RBI, which are respectable for the C position. He’s basically the same player as Miguel Montero at this point which isn’t a bad thing. The difference is you can wait to draft Castro for a couple rounds in deeper leagues.
We have Castro ranked 20th currently, more than fair considering his 2014 campaign and the fact he is batting at the bottom end of the Houston order. For deep leagues though he provides good value and is a strong candidate to eclipse top 15 status.
