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 (5/9) - I told you before last week started that injuries made it a brutal week.
- Max Stassi (1 start) 0-3 (PUSH - placed on concussion-IL mid-week)
- Dom Nunez (4 starts) 2-15, 1 Run, 3 RBI (Loss - we like the ABs but not the production)
- Mitch Garver (4 starts) 3-15, 1 HR, 1 Run, 1 RBI (Loss - the week started strong but then faded)
- Pedro Severino (4 starts) 1-16 (Loss - another bat with the starts and no production)
- Andrew Knizner (4 starts) 1-12 (Loss - ugh)
SEASON STREAMING RECORD: 13-13
All matchup projections are made in conjunction with Roster Resource and @Rotoquotes on Twitter, which is a great fantasy resource for upcoming schedules.
Week Seven Catcher Waiver Wire (5/10 - 5/16)
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.
Tucker Barnhart, Cincinnati Reds
31% Rostered
Over the last two weeks, Barnhart has 32 plate appearances and Tyler Stephenson has 18, so this is still a 2/3 split in favor of Barnhart. That will play in a week where the Reds have seven games including four in Coors Field. I expect Barnhart to see five starts, but if he gets four then we're still looking at a strong week. He's hit a bit of a rough patch of late, but the veteran is hitting .296/.367/.507 on the season with a .211 ISO. In his career, he also has a 0.50 points higher batting average against right-handed pitching, and he will see only one lefty during the week.
Plus, did you look at the chart above? Woo boy. There are certainly some arms we love to attack here. Jon Gray weirdly pitches better in Coors than he does on the road, but those are three other arms that we are excited to have hitters face in an offensive environment like Denver. Plus, we've got games in solid hitter's parks all week, and look at all that green in the HR/FB% column! Considering Barnhart's power numbers this year, that could be quite a boon.
Dom Nunez, Colorado Rockies
13% Rostered
We're going back to the well here because the Rockies are one of the few teams with seven games this week and they play all of their games at home. Nunez has 34 plate appearances over the last two weeks to Elias Diaz's 21, so Nunez is still in the lead in the timeshare. In fact, Nunez is 12th overall at the catcher position in plate appearances over the last two weeks and, as we've talked about every week, when you're streaming catchers, you want to make sure you're locking in enough at-bats. While the results haven't been there recently, he has a .233 ISO over the last two weeks and 5 HRs on the season, so he has still proven to be a useful fantasy bat.
He doesn't have the best schedule during the week with some legit aces in Yu Darvish, Luis Castillo, and Sonny Gray on the hill. However, we know what the thin air in Denver can do to breaking balls, and we know that both Castillo and Blake Snell have struggled with home runs early in the year, so it's not enough to scare me off of a full week in that hitting environment. I mean, just looking down that HR/FB% column gives me hope for the week. The Reds bullpen has also been a real weakpoint for them so far and a four-game series means you're going to have to dip into the arms that don't throw the highest leverage innings. All of that works in Nunez's favor.
Yan Gomes, Washington National
12% Rostered
Over the last two weeks, Gomes is right behind Nunez with 32 plate appearances, confirming that the Nationals starting catching job is his. Over that time, he is also hitting .281 with a .594 slugging percentage and only a 9.4 K%. He is making consistent contact and making good contact, which is something that we want to see.
He also faces a relatively cushy schedule for the upcoming week. Zack Wheeler and Zach Eflin are solid arms, but he will likely avoid seeing one of them based on the way the timing shakes out. Then, just look at the rest of that schedule. There's a whole lot of green on that table. We have a few arms that we love to attack in Riley Smith, Chase Anderson, and Luke Weaver, and the Nationals offense could put up some big numbers in that Arizona series. I want some exposure to that lineup.
Jacob Stallings, Pittsburgh Pirates
4% Rostered
Stallings appears in this column every now and then because he is one of the few catchers who isn't really involved in a pronounced timeshare. He has the majority of reps locked in and is currently tied with Yan Gomes for the 13th most plate appearances by a catcher over the last two weeks, which is good news because being on a bad offense generally means fewer appearances, so we like seeing Stallings near the middle of the pack. Over that time span, he's also hitting .308 with a .438 OBP and an equal 15.6% walk rate and strikeout rate, which means he's seeing the ball well right now.
It's not the best schedule for Stallings based on early-season performance, but Sonny Gray is really the only true ace on the slate. All of the other options have a track record of allowing blow-up starts and are not massive strikeout arms (except for Kevin Gausman) so there is always a chance for an offense to get going against them. Jeff Hoffman has been particularly vulnerable lately, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Wade Miley come back down to earth after his no-hitter against Cleveland. This isn't a schedule I'm running to attack but also not one that is really scaring me away.
William Contreras, Atlanta Braves
14% Rostered
The chart above is really interesting to look at. All of the pitchers Contreras will face have produced solid ERAs, supported by predictive metrics, but they've also given up lots of hard contact or home runs. This is where the lower expectations of the catcher position play into our favor. The Braves, who have had their struggles as an offense, could produce some low-scoring games, but if Contreras is getting a few hits or perhaps even knocks one home run, then it could be the difference in your week. He's certainly more of a deep-league or two-catcher league option, but this schedule doesn't concern me.
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