A lot of catcher rankings IMO depends on league size and #Cs started. Assuming 12 or less teams and only starting 1 C I'd go..
1.)Brian McCann ATL 2.)Russell Martin LAD 3.)Geovany Soto CHC 4.)Joe Mauer MIN (Would be #3 but back issues linger) 5.)Victor Martinez CLE (Injury’s scare me and until he proves healthy) 6a.)Chris Ianetta COL 6b.)Ryan Doumit PIT 6c.)Matt Weiters BAL 9.)Pablo Sandoval SF (Assuming C elig) 10.)Jorge Posada NYY 11.) Mike Napoli 12.) Bengie Molina SF
Weiters gets that ranking even if he starts the year in AAA. The #13-16 Cs aren't that much worse than Molina and two months of fill in and four months of Weiters offers the potential for large stat differentials. More so than owning the guys I rank after him, and maybe even Ianetta and Doumit, which is why I'll rank them all at 6.
I agree with ranking Wieters above Sadoval/Molina/Posada/Napoli, but the only thing you have to realize when drafting him is that you have to end up drafting another catcher, which would probably stick you with someone like AJ Pierzynski . That part kind of sucks.
Napoli is not healthy to start the season - I would downgrade him on this basis. The Angels are saying he will can DH to start the season even though his shoulder will be too lousy to get behind the plate, but I think we all know to be a little circumspect about claims like this - there is a risk factor here.
As for Molina, keep in mind that he is 35 years old and does not exactly have a stellar track record of playing 130 games (last season aside) Yes he will put up nice counting stats hitting clean-up, but there are both health factors and age factors working against him - in aggregate these ammount to a big risk. I am not aware of too many Cs who maintain strong performance past age 35, and I would be pretty surprised if Molina (and Posada for that matter) are in the top 10 at the end of season.
When is comes down to the scrub Cs, I would rather go with someone like Navarro or maybe even Y Molina, who will not produce as strongly as B Molina on a game-to-game basis, but has a much greater chance to maintain health and current level of performance. I do not expect Y Molina or Navarro to duplicate last season's BAs (I am aware of the BABIP issues), but I still like them to provide better total value than B Molina when all is said and done.
Depends on the size of the league cause in a 10 teamer with 1 catcher I'll take Bengie Molina easily. If he goes down with an injury I can find someone to fill in.
Posada, Napoli and Molina aren't studs and all catchers carry more injury risk than most players, but there's really no one else to rank ahead of them. Maybe Shoppach? You spoke of Y Molina and Navarro, both of whom are light on power, don't run and won't have the R+RBI ops that these others will have. I'd personally rather have Baker or Clement as replacement level catchers. But they'll all be on the FA wire should a Posada, Napoli or Molina go down with an injury.
hot4tx wrote:Posada, Napoli and Molina aren't studs and all catchers carry more injury risk than most players, but there's really no one else to rank ahead of them. Maybe Shoppach?
Shoppach's playing time is a bigger issue than the health of Posada/Napoli/Molina. If Shoppach had a full time gig he'd be right beind Ianetta. Probably the same case with Clement.
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by hot4tx » Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:02 am 
