August 5, 2017

Michael Griffin recommends catchers (C) who can be valuable waiver wire targets or adds to help fantasy owners for Week 18 of the 2017 fantasy baseball season.

When I looked at the ownership percentages on Wednesday, I was struck by how wide the difference is. There's a 30% difference between Brian McCann, who is at 79% and the next player, who is at 49%. Whoa, indeed. There is quite the gulf between ownership numbers.

This is what trying to navigate that chasm feels like:

You might see that Matt Wieters is below 50%. Ignore him. He's been steadily sliding down the ranks all season and has fallen this far thanks to a putrid July where he didn't hit a single homer. Fantasy owners are also dumping Alex Avila because his father, who is the Tigers GM, traded him to the Cubs, where he'll lose a lot of playing time to Willson Contreras. Thanks, Dad! See what gift you get next Father's Day!

10-12 Team League Catcher Pickups

Here are some catcher waiver wire pickups for Week 16, 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.

Welington Castillo  (BAL) 49% owned

Welington Castillo has been trending upward the past several days. He elicited a lot of interest when he had a four-RBI day on July 30. Such is the state of catching that even a one-day outburst will have owners' ears pricking up like starving dogs in a desert.

Mike Zunino  (SEA) - 29% owned

Mike Zunino is still being picked up by a fair amount of people. What's not to like about a catcher with a good chance of exceeding 20 homers over the course of the season? He's sitting on 16 now with August and September still ahead of him. He's more than capable of going on a couple more hot tears like he did earlier this season. Well worth a shot.

James McCann (DET) 6% owned

James McCann has also seen an uptick in ownership. Part of it may be because of the Avila trade clears the way to his having the Detroit catching job. Hitting over .400 over the course of a week is also another good reason for people to be snapping him up. He's also been driving in runs during that span. Grab him while he's still hot, folks.

Two-Catcher League Pickups

Manny Pina (MIL) - 11% owned

Manny Pina is still proving himself to be a popular one when it comes to the add/drop department. He's been hitting when he gets in the lineup, as evidenced by his .304 average. His hot streak, coupled with Stephen Vogt's injury, has given his manager ample reason to keep putting him in the lineup. He makes a fine addition in a two-catcher league.

Christian Vazquez (BOS) 3% owned

Now, a good portion of the 1,000+ fantasy owners who recently picked up Christian Vazquez may be Boston fans still riding the wave of euphoria from Tuesday's insane win over Cleveland (the Tribe and Sox have played some DOOZIES over the past decade-plus), but he was raking well before that walk-off homer. He's not producing enough to be in a one-catcher league, but he might vault up there if he keeps hitting like this.

Kurt Suzuki (ATL) 6% owned

Kurt Suzuki is this week's winner of the "Why The Heck Not?" competition. He's had at least one hit in four of his last five starts and fantasy owners have taken notice. Overall, he's at .266/12/33, which is not too terrible at all, especially in a two-catcher league. Why The Heck Not, indeed? We'll check back in two weeks to see who gets the slot then.

More Waiver Wire Pickups and Adds