It feels like just the other day the baseball regular season started. You wrote “I heart baseball” in permanent marker on your arm, then you met a girl who wrote “I heart guys who heart baseball” on her arm, then, during sex in August, you screamed out “I love you, Arenado!” and now you don’t have baseball or a girlfriend. C’mon, calendar, make like a soldier and turn to March. The only cure for the post-baseball season blues — recapping the preseason top twenty lists and being hand-fed Doritos. First up, Cool Ranch and our preseason Top 20 Catchers for 2015. It’s important to look back before we look ahead to 2016. To paraphrase the one and only B-Real, “How do you know where you’re at, if you don’t know where you’ve been? Understand where I’m coming from?” It wouldn’t be fair for me to preseason rank the players, then rank them again in the postseason based on my opinion, so these postseason top 20 lists are ranked according to our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. It’s cold hard math, y’all! Please, for the love that all is holy, don’t ask me if this is for next year. Anyway, here’s the top 20 catchers for 2015 fantasy baseball and how they compared to where I originally ranked them:
1. Buster Posey – Have absolutely nothing against Posey. Actually he seems like a good cat, assuming I liked cats and if saying ‘Posey cat’ didn’t make me sound like I was a villain from a Saturday morning cartoon. Drafting a top catcher is a good way to lose your league. You drafted a top catcher instead of, say, Arenado. Then someone else punted catcher and drafted Arenado. You ended up with Sandoval and Posey and lost to the person who drafted Arenado and just picked up Vogt, Martin, Norris, Schwarber…Do I need to go on? Preseason Rank #2, 2015 Projections: 67/22/85/.302/1, Final Numbers: 74/19/95/.318/2
2. Brian McCann – Here’s what I said in the preseason, “I love Steamer, but he’s crazy projecting McCann to hit 27 homers in 2015 in 528 ABs.” And that’s me quoting me! The moral of that story? Don’t second guess Steamer’s projections. Preseason Rank #9, 2015 Projections: 52/20/69/.248, Final Numbers: 68/26/94/.232
3. Evan Gattis – Nailed Gattis’s preseason ranking and projection! Pretty bummed he didn’t get catcher eligibility for next year. Pun points since Gattis used to be homeless. Preseason Rank #3, 2015 Projections: 67/27/81/.251, Final Numbers: 66/27/88/.246
4. Russell Martin – His power outburst can attributed to one thing: the turnstile Encarnacion and Bautista put in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse that required a cortisone shot to pass through to the field. Preseason Rank #17, 2015 Projections: 53/13/69/.248/6, Final Numbers: 76/23/77/.240/4
5. Carlos Santana – In ESPN leagues, Santana didn’t have catcher eligibility, so ignore this ranking if you played there, as I wish I ignored Santana in the preseason. Preseason Rank #1, 2015 Projections: 73/28/89/.254/4, Final Numbers: 72/19/85/.231/11
6. Salvador Perez – I hit on this in the next blurb, but this is the last guy I could’ve saw owning from April until October in 12-team leagues and shallower. It’s the age-old debate of Steve Winwood vs. Ron Popeil. The school of “If you see a chance to stream a catcher, you take it” vs. Set it and Forget it. Preseason Rank #6, 2015 Projections: 58/14/74/.286/1, Final Numbers: 52/21/70/.260/1
7. Stephen Vogt – I owned guys after this mark in my 12 team league, so don’t take this the wrong way, but from this point on, you were crummy with crackers if you held one of these guys all year long in a 12-team or shallower league. I believe, I believe, I believe in Stephen Vogt, but he didn’t believe in hitting for the final three months. Preseason Rank #21, 2015 Projections: 56/11/52/.288/2, Final Numbers: 58/18/71/.261
8. Derek Norris – Interesting thing to note here (not interesting at all), Norris came pretty close to hitting my preseason projections, but landed twelve spots ahead in the rankings. That means, offense is so down that a guy I project for yawnstipating numbers should be the 20th ranked catcher and ended up eighth. As Brad Ausmus would say, “Oy gevalt.” Preseason Rank #20, 2015 Projections: 50/12/59/.252/4, Final Numbers: 65/14/62/.250/4
9. Nick Hundley – The lesson to be learned from Hundley? A guy that is a .240 hitter becomes a .300 hitter in Coors. Preseason Rank #15, 2015 Projections: 51/15/58/.254, Final Numbers: 45/10/43/.301/5
10. Kyle Schwarber – You can say he was one of the best pickups this season, because, well, he was, but he also illuminates how terrible the catchers were. Schwarber was top ten for catchers, and he only played 69 games. Sexy number, and all. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 52/16/43/.246/3
11. Welington Castillo – It’s true, I didn’t rank The Boeuf, but I did mention him in Montero’s preseason blurb, saying how I wanted Castillo to get ABs because of his upside. To further emphasize how awful catchers are, Castilllo was really only ownable for two months. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 42/19/57/.237
12. Francisco Cervelli – I went back and double-checked my preseason rankings to make sure I didn’t miss Cervelli because I’m surprised I didn’t rank him. He didn’t change his name mid-season from John Jaso, did he? Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 56/7/43/.295/1
13. J.T. Realmuto – He had a season that would usually be a poor man’s Yadier season, but this year it was a rich man’s Yadier season, which makes him a middle income Yadier. I will call him, Ralph Nadier. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 49/10/47/.259/8
14. Wilson Ramos – Great year for Ramos from a fantasy perspective. No, he didn’t win people leagues or have a breakout year, but prior to this year, there was a glimmer of hope that if Ramos played for more than 30 games, he’d have a huge year. Ramos proved this year he’s not that good even in a full season, so, from a fantasy perspective, that’s good so we can stop holding out hope. Preseason Rank #8, 2015 Projections: 58/18/66/.262, Final Numbers: 41/15/68/.229
15. A.J. Pierzynski – Hey, it’s the other A.J. Pollock! Wikipedia tells me it could also be A.J. Polack or A.J. Polock. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 38/9/49/.300
16. Miguel Montero – In May, Kipnis scored 30 runs. In six months, Montero scored 36 runs. And you don’t think you should punt catcher? P to the fft. Preseason Rank #18, 2015 Projections: 45/14/62/.238, Final Numbers: 36/15/53/.248/1
17. Yasmani Grandal – I nearly nailed the preseason projections for OBPWulf. What do I win? Not having to say anything else about him! Preseason Rank #14, 2015 Projections: 53/17/64/.231/2, Final Numbers: 43/16/47/.234
18. Yadier Molina – How bad are catchers? Look at Molina’s final numbers. That crizzap is so awful his brothers couldn’t even swallow it. Preseason Rank #11, 2015 Projections: 64/10/72/.291/3, Final Numbers: 34/4/61/.270/3
19. Jonathan Lucroy – I didn’t rank him this low in the preseason, but I said to not draft him and ranked him easily the lowest of all fantasy baseball ‘perts. One comment from the preseason, “Your C rankings are bold and very different from other sites. I like that. I disagree on Lucroy though. A guy who could easily hit .300+/.370 with 15-18 HR is closer to Posey than Mauer at this point (I compared Lucroy unfavorably to Mauer in the rankings). The power isn’t sexy but it’s solid and in this AVG depressed age Lucroy is pretty valuable.” Another comment from the preseason, “I love your rankings. Agree with you more than anyone else. Question: Every source has Lucroy rated MUCH higher (most have him #2 catcher ). Why such a LARGE difference?” Cause I’m a witch. Preseason Rank #10, 2015 Projections: 69/12/61/.291/5, Final Numbers: 51/7/43/.264/1
20. Travis d’Arnaud – Injuries totally derailed his season or he’d be ranked much higher. The best is yet to come for the d’Governator! Preseason Rank #12, 2015 Projections: 60/19/71/.237/1, Final Numbers: 31/12/41/.268
