Your fantasy baseball draft(s) are right around the corner. Here’s my attempt at separating 20 catchers into five tiers.
Tiers are very subjective and one player could easily be considered just good enough or just bad enough to be in the next higher or lower tier.
Let me know what you think and check out my first basemen tiers, second basemen tiers, shortstop tiers, and third basemen tiers.
Tier 1: Carlos Santana, Mike Napoli, Brian McCann, Buster Posey
Napoli was a fairly big surprise in his first season in Texas. He had career highs in AVG (.320), HR (30) and RBI (75).
Tier 2: Alex Avila, Joe Mauer, Matt Wieters, Miguel Montero
Avila shouldn’t have a problem being full time catcher for the Tigers in 2012. His numbers rivaled those of teammate Victor Martinez, and that’s saying a lot.
Tier 3: J.P. Arencibia, Yadier Molina, Russell Martin, Geovany Soto
Just over one-fourth of Arencibia’s hits were home runs in 2011 (24/97). Soto has been inconsistent so far in his career but he has hit 17 HR each of the past two seasons.
Tier 4: Kurt Suzuki, Wilson Ramos, Chris Iannetta, Jonathan Lucroy
Believe it or not but Suzuki is one of the best fantasy options on the A’s. Ramos is a sleeper, hitting 15 HR and 52 RBI in his first season in the big leagues.
Tier 5: Ryan Doumit, Salvador Perez, John Buck, Ramon Hernandez
Perez is a guy to keep an eye on. He only played in 39 games in 2011 but he had a .331 AVG and 21 RBI in that span of time.