I’m in three dynasty leagues that I impulsively attend to. I’m all about the win-now, so I’ll trade my top prospects for immediate impact. In all three of these leagues, I was looking to displace an empty prospect slot, and with my MLB catchers lacking value…
The following catchers were already owned in at least 2/3rd’s of those leagues: Austin Hedges, Jorge Alfaro, Gary Sanchez, Blake Swihart (be me, in one league), Christian Bethancourt and Reese McGuire. Tom Murphy (probably because of his eventual stomping ground, Colorado) and Stryker Trahan are also owned in at least one of the leagues.
There were two catchers not owned in one of those leagues, that I would perhaps recommend. From a fantasy perspective, Andrew Susac and Max Stassi get my stamp of approval. To be fair, Stassi made two appearances in the majors last year for the Astros before a concussion. To be even more fair, he’s also not tearing it up in AAA right now, however he’s a good defensive catcher (both game calling and preventing stolen bases) and has pop. He’s a slightly better Wellington Castillo. If you didn’t know I was talking deep leagues, now you do.
Andrew Susac of the San Francisco Giants is whom I really wanted to talk about. I now own him in all three of these leagues. People are about to notice him, so jump on this catching meatwagon now. If he wasn’t on the Giants, he’d perhaps be up in the majors already.
Our Scott Evans ranked Susac the #9 prospect in the Giants organization after last season, and after his AAA performance thus far, and I’m down with calling him their #2 between a slew of impact pitchers.
Here’s my favorite factor as he’s progressed through the minors (albeit in the hitter friendly PCL) using the following format – AVG(BABIP)/OBP/SLG:
A+: .244(.311)/.351/.380
AA: .256(.299)/.362/.458
AAA: .279(.305)/.386/.547
Enhancements across the board. More impressively, here is his Isolated Power Progression: .136, .202, and currently at .267.
As you can see, he’s not one to hit into elevated BABIP’s and San Fran will limit his homerun potential, but if you’re in OBP + SLG leagues (or OPS), this guy should be on your radar.
If I posted this prior to the 15th of May, his numbers would have been even gaudier as he’s 0 for his last 17. Keep your Dano-induced enthusiasm curbed as he’s 2+ years older than Posey at his arrival with less discipline and BABIP potential, but if Posey is steered toward 1B as of 2016 or gets injured in the meantime, this guy is a must-add in dynasty leagues.
It’ll take some bad luck to Buster Posey and/or Michael Morse for Susac to be up this year as Hector Sanchez has been sufficient displacing them as needed, but as of 2015, I think Susac could be an asset outside of the batting average category and these days, he won’t drag you down as much as it would have in the past.
Follow Dano on Twitter @Rotobanter and keep an eye out for his chubby catching impressions on Razzball Radio.
