Javy Lopez

[Fenway05]

i guess the word is out on him!

[OneLoveBoomer]

I'm so high on Lopez I wonder if Mauer's still the better pick?

[pappymojo]

I thought sleeper might apply to players who are undervalued for whatever reason. Lopez is because he is listed as a catcher, but is actually a 1st baseman, or DH. I guess I'm unclear on what the definition of a sleeper is. (I'm not trying to be facetious here).

Basically, his value as a player is high because he's a catcher who can hit the ball fairly well compared to most other catchers.

Once he makes his move to first, though, he doesn't compare as well as a hitter against the other first basemen.

this is not a knock on lopez as a fantasy player at all. it's just that there are so many great hitters who play first base... Pujols, Ortiz, Teixera, Helton, D Lee, and those are the studs! What about Konerko? Helton? Hafner? Delgado? Berkman? Dunn? Sexon?

Is Javy Lopez even close to that level of a hitter? no, he's not.

But who are the stud catchers? Victor Martinez, Mauer, Varitek. Lopez could perform as well as any of them if things go his way.

Since Lopez IS available to you this year as a catcher, by all means grab him and use him because he will be a good player for you, and yeah the added roster flexibility is a good thing to have in a player, but this doesn't increase Lopez's value enough to be considered a sleeper in my book. It would be a very strange move or a desperate situation where you would ever play him at first.

A sleeper is a player that has a good chance to perform above expectations. I think Lopez has a good chance to perform to expectations.

[The Loveable Losers]

Since Lopez IS available to you this year as a catcher, by all means grab him and use him because he will be a good player for you, and yeah the added roster flexibility is a good thing to have in a player, but this doesn't increase Lopez's value enough to be considered a sleeper in my book. It would be a very strange move or a desperate situation where you would ever play him at first.

The point isn't how well he'll perform in the games in which he plays. It's that as a catcher he's averaged 111 games per season. As a first baseman he's very likely to top 140. Getting 140 games of a catcher eligible Javy Lopez is a MUCH bigger value than getting 111 games.

[quitesanemax]

Makes sense. Thanks! The reason why I value him more as a 1st baseman than I did as a catcher is because he will not need that day off every once in a while, as a catcher does. This is valuable, as you say, if you can play him at catcher, which I would be able to this year. Unfortunately, he wasn't available. Someone picked him up in the 3rd round... there was no way I was going to pick him up that early! I'll go without a catcher first.

[pappymojo]

maybe I'm too cynical, but I assume that they went out and aquired another catcher and moved Lopez to 1st due to health concerns. He did miss some time last year. My ranking of him remains the same.