Catchers to Watch
Catcher is often an after-thought when it comes to fantasy baseball. Here’s a few fantasy baseball catchers who you’ll want to target in your 2009 fantasy baseball draft.
- Ryan Doumit, Pittsburgh Pirates – Ryan Doumit played just 116 games last year, but managed to hit 15 homers with 69 RBI along with a .316 average. He’ll likely be backed up by a rookie, Jason Jaramillo, so Doumit should get most of the playing time.
- Mike Napoli, Los Angeles Angels – Napoli has never got a lot of starts. He played in just 78 games last year, but blasted 20 homers. He hit 10 in 76 games in 2007 and 16 in 99 games in 2006. Napoli hit .453 in September last year. In the past two years, Napoli and Jeff Mathis have each caught 153 games. Napoli is the better hitter, but Mathis the stronger defensive catcher. This may be the year that Napoli’s better bat wins the job on a more full-time basis.
- John Baker, Florida Marlins — Baker hit .299 with five homers in 61 games last year in his rookie season. He’ll be backed up by Mike Rabelo who hit just .202 last year and has a .234 career batting average.
- Kelly Shoppach, Cleveland Indians – Shoppach replaced Victor Martinez last year and did a great job. The Indians are going to find more time for Shoppach this season while Martinez plays more at first base. Kelly Shoppach was profiled in a previous post by Fantasy Baseball Dugout.
- Matt Wieters, Baltimore Orioles – Gregg Zaun will be 38-years-old in April and has the job of getting Wieters ready as the future Orioles’ starting catcher. Wieters was the fifth overall choice in the 2007 amateur draft so you know he can play.
March 15th, 2009 at 2:06 am
Its excellent to see Kelly Shoppach as one to watch. I was able to see him in Spring Training. He is striking out a lot. Hopefully this will improve as we come upon Opening Day.
March 15th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I’d love to see what kind of offense Napoli can provide over say, 125 games. It’s hard to say though, with 1. the SP’s the Angels have they’ll probably be more concerned with their catcher calling a good game/defense than the offense he can provide, 2. if all the outfield offense they have comes through I could see the defensive catcher coming out to make sure those big leads arent erased.
March 15th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Shoppach and Napoli have been on my radar since late last year, I’m just curious to see exactly what the Tribe do with Shopp since V-Mart is back.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I got shoppach in like the 20th round yesterday in my 12 team money league? I took Pablo Sandoval in the 13th? Made a few picks like that, after getting one guy 5 rds later i see matt cain or someone sitting there still and i was kicking myself, don’t get me wrong i cleaned up (or at least i think i did LOL) but the pitching value was tremendously deep…. same with other positions, like shoppach in the 20th!