I think catcher is the most overrated position in fantasy baseball, and every year a majority of players in each league will make the same mistakes. Yes, having Joe Mauer on your team will be great if you can get him, but I don’t know anyone who sits there and says they won their league because they had Ramon Hernandez or Kurt Suzuki as their catcher.
Buster Posey showed signs that he could develop into a good fantasy hitter last year, but it probably makes more sense to wait a couple years and let him develop before you jump to the conclusion he’s the next Mauer.
However, my advice to all players would be to avoid a catcher during your draft unless you have a chance to take Mauer in the sixth or seventh round. Any earlier and the move is counterproductive because you would be passing on a different player who could have more benefit to your team in the long run.
When it comes down to it, most catchers will go on some sort of hot streak during the season, where they crack the top 100 rankings and have a solid two weeks of production. But in the end, almost all of the catchers are going to end up the same. They will have an average between .260 and .280, about 15 to 20 home runs, and 60 to 75 RBI.
Rather than taking a catcher who in most weeks will bring down your team average and use up a valuable roster spot, use that spot to take another starting pitcher, someone who you think could have a big year, or use it to cycle through free agent pitchers during the season.
Cycling pitchers in most cases will bring up your ERA and WHIP by nature, just because the more starts your team has, the more chances there are for someone to have a bad game. The benefit that you will get by cycling pitchers is your team will pick up wins and strikeouts, which could end up determining if you win the week or not if you are playing in a head-to-head league.
Unless you can get a catcher like Mauer without having to burn one of your early round picks on him, look to avoid a catcher altogether and cycle pitchers or pick up a player who has gotten hot at a position where you aren’t as strong. In the end, either option will do your team more good than taking the eighth or ninth ranked catcher.
By Trey Nelson
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