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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
This does not include stats from Sunday 8/8
- Max Stassi (4 starts) 2-15 (LOSS - the playing time is still there)
- Pedro Severino (3 starts) 4-12 (WIN - batting average was nice)
- Austin Nola (4 starts) 4-15, 2 RBI (WIN - batting average was a plus with a few RBI)
- Alejandro Kirk (3 starts) 2-11, 1 RBI (LOSS - still waiting for him to turn it on)
SEASON STREAMING RECORD: 43-39
All matchup projections are made in conjunction with Roster Resource Probables Grid
Week Twenty-One Catcher Waiver Wire (8/16 - 8/22)
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 streamers in any format: J.T. Realmuto, Salvador Perez, Willson Contreras, Will Smith, Omar Narvaez, Christian Vazquez, Eric Haase, and Buster Posey.
Elias Diaz, Colorado Rockies
17% Rostered
It's pretty simple: when Elias Diaz is in Coors, you want him on your roster. On the season, Diaz is hitting .268 at home with a .816 OPS, .223 ISO, and 20% HR/FB rate. This week he'll get all six games at Coors and face a pretty salivating lineup of opposing pitchers as well. Yu Darvish is obviously one of the best pitchers in baseball, but he hasn't been himself since the crackdown on "sticky stuff" and also hurt his back in his last start, so we can't even be 100% sure he'll pitch this game. Zac Gallen has also not been 100% as he comes back from injury, and the rest of the arms are nothing to be scared of. The biggest thing for me is the amount of green I see in the HR/FB% column here. Considering all of these games are in the thin air of Coors, I love that.
Austin Nola, San Diego Padres
44% Rostered
Over the last two weeks, Nola is third among all catchers in wRC+, hitting .448 with seven RBI. The issue has been that the power has not followed. He's only slugging .552 despite the high batting average; however, he hits in a strong lineup that sounds like it will be getting Fernando Tatis Jr. back, which means Nola has RBI opportunities and gets to see more at-bats because the team scores runs and turns the lineup over a lot. Add to all of that the fact that Nola will play three games at Coors and I'm intrigued, even if the arms he faces have been solid this year. I'm also not at all concerned about the red in Kyle Gibson's row on the table above because I think he's been exposed as having been pitching above his head in the first half of the year. With Aaron Nola also struggling, there truly isn't one arm on this slate that scares me.
Tyler Stephenson, Cincinnati Reds
21% Rostered
Tyler Stephenson has been laying regularly over the last few weeks, stealing some starts at first base to keep his bat in the lineup, even with the Reds now being fully healthy. That makes sense when you see he's hitting .323 with three HR, six RBI, and six runs over the last two weeks. He is one of the few players to get seven games next week and faces a slate of arms that doesn't inspire much fear. Sandy Alcantara is a good pitcher capable of dominating a game, but he has hit a rough patch recently, so perhaps the Reds can capitalize. The feather in Stephenson's cap this week is that the Reds play all seven games in Great American Ballpark, which is a strong hitters environment.
Mike Zunino, Tampa Bay Rays
37% Rostered
I said Nola was the third-ranked catcher in wRC+, but Zunino is number one. He's riding a hot streak right now, hitting .321/.345/.821 with four HRs, six RBI, and nine runs over the last two weeks. When Zunino is on a heater, he can be a huge asset for your team, but I also love that he gets four games against a weak Baltimore pitching staff and then gets two of Chicago's worst starters to end the week. The Rays are one of the best teams in baseball, and there is a lot of green on that slate, so I'm rolling the dice on Zunino this week.
Carson Kelly, Arizona Diamondbacks
22% Rostered
Carson Kelly is a bit of a forgotten man because he's been dealing with injuries repeatedly throughout the year. However, he's hitting .323 over the last two weeks and will get three games in Coors next week, which has me intrigued if I'm in two catcher leagues. I don't think the Diamondbacks lineup is strong enough to make Kelly an option in one catcher leagues, and there is a lot of red on that table above, but we've already talked about the misleading stats of Kyle Gibson, so between that and the three games in Coors, I think Kelly can be an option in two catcher leagues.
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