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
This does not include stats from Sunday 8/15
- Elias Diaz (4 starts) 5-15, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 6 Runs (WIN - Diaz in Coors is a lock)
- Austin Nola (4 starts) 3-17, 2 Runs (LOSS - but the playing time is nice to see)
- Tyler Stephenson (2 starts) 3-10, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 Runs (WIN - but he's starting to lose starts)
- Mike Zunino (3 starts) 2-12, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 Runs (WIN - you knew you were getting a low average)
SEASON STREAMING RECORD: 46-40
All matchup projections are made in conjunction with Roster Resource Probables Grid
Week Twenty-Two Catcher Waiver Wire (8/23 - 8/29)
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, Sean Murphy, Eric Haase, and Buster Posey.
Daulton Varsho, Arizona Diamondbacks
24% Rostered
Varsho cooled off a few weeks back, but he's starting to hit the ball hard again, rocking a .421/.522/.842 triple-slash over the last two weeks. He's second among all catchers over that span in wRC+ and will continue to find himself in the Diamondbacks lineup as long as he continues to hit. What's been most impressive to me over these last couple of weeks is that his walk rate (16.7%) has surpassed his strikeout rate (12.5%), which shows that he's continuing to get a better feel for the strike zone and I suspect that his talent with the bat will continue to win out now that he isn't helping pitchers out.
Another win for him is his seven-day schedule next week against this slate of pitchers. Every single match-up against the Pirates is a plus matchup, which is a tremendous way to start the week. I particularly like picking on the home run issues of Wil Crowe and JT Brubaker. You can add Matt Moore's home run issues to that as well and, as we've discussed a bunch here recently, I'm not worried about all the red in Kyle Gibson's line since much of that remains from a flukey first half of the season. Aaron Nola is the best arm Varsho will see, and really the only above-average arm, but he's had struggles of his own this year, so I would fire up Varsho with confidence.
Carson Kelly, Arizona Diamondbacks
25% Rostered
Considering Varsho is playing the field a lot, Kelly has also been able to find his way into the lineup regularly over the last few weeks. The myriad injuries he's suffered this year seemed to have sapped the power, but he's still hitting .290 over the last two weeks with four runs and four RBIs, so he's continuing to produce value as a now-forgotten streaming option. Given his seven-game schedule that we broke down above with Varsho, I think Kelly can be a solid option next week.
Riley Adams
2% Rostered
Even though most of us thought the Nationals would call up highly-touted Keibert Ruiz after the trade deadline, it's been the other newly-acquired catcher who has begun to make himself fantasy viable. Adams is hitting .409 over the last two weeks with a .636 slugging percentage and has lowered the strikeout rate to 24% over that time. He's still not walking, with only a 4% walk rate, but he's locked into pretty regular playing time, which is something we always like to see from our streamers. His .533 BABIP over the last two weeks is certainly not sustainable, but he has some legit pop, so he can help you in four of the five offensive categories when he's going right. I'm not sure he'll be able to keep up this level of production, but I like it to last one more week based on his schedule.
The games against Marcus Stroman and Tylor Megill don't seem as inviting based on the chart, but we've seen Megill struggle at times of late and Stroman does give up a lot of contact despite his strong ratios, so there is a chance for Adams to chip in some hits in that game. The real plus matchups will come against lefties Rich Hill and Jesus Luzardo, while the rest of the Marlins series against a rusty Elieser Hernandez and Nick Neidert is also pretty appealing. None of these arms should really be a threat to completely shut down the Nationals lineup, even in its current state.
Luis Torrens, Seattle Mariners
4% Rostered
Luis Torrens is back to getting regular at-bats since Cal Raleigh has been unable to really run away with the Mariners' catching job. While Torrens also hasn't set the world on fire, he has continued to produce solid pop in a competitive lineup, which has given him two HRs and seven RBIs over the last two weeks. It's not a tremendously exciting profile, but I like the upcoming schedule and regular playing time, so I think Torrens can be a good option in two-catcher leagues next week.
There's just too much green on this chart to ignore. I know Cole Irvin and Brad Keller have been solid of late, but both of them are simply average pitchers and the Mariners lineup can certainly do damage against them. The Royals will then throw out a trio of young arms that are exciting long-term but, in the case of Daniel Lynch and Kris Bubic, have really struggled this year. When you consider that three of these arms are also left-handed pitchers, I like this week even more for Torrens.
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