By Jim Higgins
I’ve been playing around some more with the formula I have created to rank players on a keeper league basis and have decided that while a formula can give me a good structure to my list, it has to have some human adjustment. In spite of the fact that he has shown some skills at some point in the minors, there is no way you can convince me Tyler Greene will be a Top 10 shortstop in the next three years and even if Derek Jeter will be pushing 40 soon, he will still be good enough to be in the top half of the shortstop lists.
With that in mind, I have decided that once I get the players ranked via my keeper formula, I will then need to adjust. Since there is no way to account for playing time and/or injury issues over three years, I will just have to assume I am skilled enough to make some judgment calls. Of course, if anyone out there has any suggestions, by all means send them my way.
With that in mind, I give you my current catcher rankings, projecting which players will be the most valuable over the next 3 years.
- Carlos Santana, Cleveland
- Joe Mauer, Minnesota
- Brian McCann, Atlanta
- Buster Posey, San Francisco
- Geovanny Soto, Chicago Cubs
- Chris Iannetta, Colorado
- Matt Wieters, Baltimore
- Carlos Ruiz, Philadelphia
- Victor Martinez, Boston
- Miguel Montero, Arizona
- Alex Avila, Detroit
- John Jaso, Tampa Bay
- Jorge Posada, New York Yankees
- Russell Martin, Los Angeles Dodgers
- Chris Snyder, Pittsburgh
- Ryan Doumit, Pittsburgh
- Ryan Hanigan, Cincinnati
- Kelly Shoppach, Tampa Bay
- Yadier Molina, St. Louis
- Nick Hundley, San Diego
- Rob Johnson, Seattle
- Kurt Suzuki, Oakland
- John Buck, Toronto
- Jason Castro, Houston
- Miguel Olivo, Colorado
- Adam Moore, Seattle
- Jonathan Lucroy, Milwaukee
- Josh Thole, New York Mets
- Jeff Mathis, Los Angeles Angels
- J.P. Arencibia, Toronto
- Ramon Hernandez, Cincinnati
- Gerald Laird, Detroit
- Ronny Paulino, Florida
- Yorvit Torrealba, San Diego
- Rod Barajas, New York Mets
- Jason Varitek, Boston
- A.J. Pierzynski, Chicago White Sox
- Ivan Rodriguez, Washington
- Jason Kendall, Kansas City
- Bengie Molina, Texas
As with the shortstop rankings, this list is more to give you an idea of who to keep if you are trying to decide between two catchers on your team and/or any catchers that may become available in your league. If you are in the process of rebuilding or are in the middle of a multi-year plan, it would be most valuable to target some of the young catchers at the top of the list.
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Where is Mike Napoli? (especially if traded)
Good catch Jon – I missed Napoli because he’s been playing more 1B and DH of late, and I would imagine that the move will be somewhat permanent. If Napoli were to stay behind the plate, I would probably rank him at #11. His power and experience put him near the top of the list while his batting average keep him out of the Top 10.