RADIO
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 (6/13):
- Omar Narvaez (4 starts) 5-15, 3 Runs, 2 RBI (WIN - he should be over 50% rostered)
- Tom Murphy (4 starts) 3-15, 2 RBI (LOSS - didn't kill you but wasn't a great week)
- Jorge Alfaro (4 starts) 5-16, 2 Runs, 1 RBI, 2 SB (WIN - the SB were sneaky helpful
- Tyler Stephenson (2 starts) 3-10, 2 Runs, 4 RBI (WIN - but team is getting healthy again)
SEASON STREAMING RECORD: 27-22
All matchup projections are made in conjunction with Roster Resource and @Rotoquotes on Twitter
Week Twelve Catcher Waiver Wire (6/14 - 6/20)
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.
Omar Narvaez, Milwaukee Brewers
45% Rostered
Honestly, just roster this man. I don't understand it. On the season, Narvaez is slashing .311/.399/.500 with six home runs. He has a strong 17% strikeout rate and an equally impressive 10.5% walk rate and consistently hits at the top of an improving Brewers lineup, which means he's a good source of runs for your fantasy team as well. Over the last two weeks, he is 8th among catchers in wRC+ thanks to a .308 average, three home runs, nine runs, and four RBIs.
And now he gets to play four games in Coors? Come on! With Luis Castillo beginning to round into form and Tyler Mahle throwing the ball well, the Reds' matchups aren't great and you'll see a lot of red on this sheet, but it's a great ballpark to hit in, which means Narvaez will get seven games in super-plus offensive environments. Taking that into consideration, plus his success this season, I'm less worried about the lack of hard contact allowed by the pitchers on this sheet. Coors changes everything.
Gary Sanchez, New York Yankees
46% Rostered
After a brief time spent in a timeshare, Gary Sanchez is the starting catcher for the Yankees again. Over the past two weeks, Sanchez is 6th among all catchers in plate appearances, so he's found that regular playing time again. Over that span, he's also hitting .314. The power hasn't quite been there with only a .486 slugging percentage and one home run over these past two weeks, but the batting average and consistent playing time are what we like to see.
He's always going to have a good deal of swing-and-miss to his game, but the power will come and playing three games against Toronto in the bandbox of a stadium in Buffalo could be just the thing that gets him going, especially against arms like Steven Matz and Ross Stripling. He'll also see three lefties during his six-game week, which is positive news. I know the sheet looks red, which might scare you off, but I think the early games in Toronto will help prop up what could be a difficult series against Oakland.
Max Stassi, Los Angeles Angels
13% Rostered
Since coming off the IL, Max Stassi has been on fire. He leads all catchers with a crazy 313 wRC+, which, in overly simplistic terms, just means that he's been the best offensive catcher over that span. Which makes sense when you see that he's hitting .478 with a 1.000 slugging percentage, three home runs, nine runs, and seven RBI since coming off the IL. He's also in the top-10 in average exit velocity among all major league hitters over that span.
Seriously, the dude is crushing the baseball. Now he gets a relatively soft schedule that also allows him to face four lefties during the seven-game week. Sean Manaea has been strong to start the season, but Cole Irvin, Tyler Alexander, and Matt Boyd are not arms we should be running from, even if Irvin has looked good from time-to-time this season. Considering Stassi will also get a start against Jose Urena and could see at-bats against a Tigers bullpen that has a 5.19 ERA and allowed 1.6 HR/9, this is shaping up to be another good week for him.
Jorge Alfaro, Miami Marlins
6% Rostered
Alfaro is on the sheet again after a successful week last week. Over the last two weeks, the Marlins catcher is hitting .290/.389/.452 and while the slugging percentage hasn't been great, he's chipped in two stolen bases, which is super useful, especially from the catcher spot. Even without the home runs that jump off the page, Alfaro is hitting the ball hard with a 10% barrel rate and 40% hard-hit rate over that span, which means he's in a good position to take advantage of a particularly juicy slate of arms coming up this week.
Adam Wainwright is the best arm of the bunch, but none of them miss bats with much regularity, which means there should be a lot of contact this week, and the Marlins could be sneaky effective in a fair number of these games. The Chicago series is particularly alluring to me as Jake Arrieta, Zach Davies, and Trevor Williams have been below-average arms by almost every single metric this season.
Ryan Jeffers, Minnesota Twins
2% Rostered
After an injury to Mitch Garver (groin) that we don't need to speak about or think about, Jeffers has emerged as the primary starting catcher in Minnesota. There was some buzz on him coming into the season because of his potent bat, and he's starting to demonstrate that the buzz may not have been misguided. Over the past four weeks he's hitting .280 with a .640 slugging percentage, two home runs, and six RBI. With Byron Buxton (hip) returning for the Twins next week, the offense will get a significant boost, which should lead to more RBI opportunities for Jeffers, especially against this crew of pitchers.
There's a lot of green in that Seattle series, and there's really not one arm in the above chart that really scares you. In addition to the general level of talent, all three lefties that Jeffers gets to face are prone to giving up hard contact, even if Kolby Allard has been strong to start the year, considering his stats are a bit skewed by making 10 appearances out of the bullpen before joining the rotation. In his young career, Jeffers is hitting .343 with an .882 OPS off of lefties and .181 with a .589 OPS off of righties, so half of the match-ups against southpaws is a good thing here.
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