June 2, 2017

Michael Griffin recommends catchers (C) who can be valuable waiver wire targets or adds to help fantasy owners for Week 9 of the 2017 fantasy baseball season.

Once again, it seems like catchers have about as much forward momentum, stat-wise, as Buster Posey did when he rushed out to protect Hunter Strickland after Bryce Harper charged the mound. Oh... wait.

Anyways, when I open the statistics page for catchers, this is what I feel like doing when I see nearly the same stats week in and week out:

10-12 Team League Catcher Pickups

Nevertheless, I will persist and will continue to look hard for backstops that can help you this week. Even though it does make me feel like I'm just repeating myself like Grandpa Simpson sometimes.

Here are some catcher waiver wire pickups for Week 9, 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.

Russell Martin (TOR) - 45% owned 

Russell Martin is starting to trend upward again. Hitting homers in back-to-back games might have something to do with that. If he keeps showing that he's getting past the injured shoulder that saw him on the disabled list for a while. Were that to be the case, it's possible that this is the last week we'll see him on this list. Then again, nothing's been certain with catchers this year.  Still, let's push him over 50 percent, shall we?

Francisco Cervelli (PIT) - 22% owned

Francisco Cervelli has been a lot more effective so far than many of the catchers that were chosen ahead of him. He's tied for third in runs among backstops and he's tied for seventh in RBI... all with a mere three homers. So, why is he owned by so few people? Well, people might still be shy about how he started off so well in 2016 and then fell off a cliff. Given the state of catching this year, that's not a valid concern so far.

Alex Avila  (DET) - 41% owned

Alex Avila's on here because James McCann hurt his hand, which means Avila's going to see his name on the lineup card a lot more often over the next week or so. He's already considered the fourth-best ranked catcher on Yahoo! Take that with a grain of salt, but he's hitting over .300, and he clubbed homer No. 7 on May 31. He may join Martin in the over-50 percent club for next week's column. Then what am I gonna do, huh?

Two-Catcher League Pickups

Austin Hedges (SDP) - 23% owned

Yes, Austin Hedges did hit a homer recently, which gives him nine on this season, putting him second among catchers. He's still been far too streaky to be considered reliable as the sole catcher, which is shown in his steadily declining ownership numbers. Until he shows otherwise, he's going to stay in two-catcher land.

Jett Bandy (MIL) - 11% owned

Jett Bandy still ranks over Manny Pina, even though he has two fewer runs. He has the edge in RBI and homers. It seeks like Bandy would be able to help more as a second catcher. Keep an eye on these two though. It could easily be Pina taking over Bandy's spot. Such is life at the catcher position this season.

Tony Wolters (COL) - 3% owned

Tony Wolters is still a runs machine. He's still first among all backstops in that category. Why is he in this section? There's the little issue of his having zero homers and a mere seven RBI. If he was able to improve on either of those, then I'd consider moving him up. Until then, he's going to continue to be invaluable in two-catcher leagues. People seem to be agreeing with me... he's moved up a whole percent since last week!

More Waiver Wire Pickups and Adds