Catchers to Stream for Week 16 (7/22-7/28)

If you missed out on the cream of the crop at catcher and need help to address the problem, look no further. This article will address your concerns by looking at who might be the best streaming-caliber catchers for the week ahead.

First, we have to rule out any widely owned catcher. For the purposes of this list, that means anyone who has 50% ownership rate or higher according to FantasyPros consensus ranks. The ineligible catchers are:

Gary Sanchez – (New York Yankees)

J.T. Realmuto – (Philadelphia Phillies)

Buster Posey – (San Francisco Giants)

Willson Contreras – (Chicago Cubs)

Yadier Molina – (St. Louis Cardinals)

Yasmani Grandal – (Milwaukee Brewers)

Wilson Ramos – (New York Mets)

Omar Narvaez – (Seattle Mariners)

Christian Vazquez – (Boston Red Sox)*

 

Reviewing Last Week

 

In weeks past, I outlined guidelines for determining a streaming “win” and I’ll leave these up here each week as a reminder.

1. Batting average is king. When we stream a catcher, we’re not expecting multiple home runs, so a guy hitting .275 is helpful and I’ll consider that a plus. Anything over .300 is a super plus and a near-automatic win. That said, we have to keep in mind the number of plate appearances—under 10 PA diminishes that boost.
2. Home runs have a major impact. If you get two homers from the catcher position, it’s almost a guaranteed win, unless the catcher batted under the Mendoza line. However, a catcher can still be a streaming win without home runs if other factors are there.
3. Counting stats (R+RBI) are the lowest stat consideration because you’re not expecting them from your catcher anyway. They’re a nice bonus.

 

Christian Vazquez – (Boston Red Sox): 7/30, 5 R, HR, 3 RBI

The average is meh and probably hurt you, but I don’t think the rest is much to complain about. The truly sad thing for me is he is now ineligible for streaming, crossing that 50% threshold over the last week.

Roberto Perez – (Cleveland Indians): 3/27, 2 R, 3 RBI

Slumps happen, guys. That’s all that’s going on here.

Mitch Garver – (Minnesota Twins): 6/21, 6 R, 4 HR, 4 RBI

It would’ve been nice is one of those homers could’ve come with a guy on base, but four homers will play for sure.

Dave’s Streaming Record: 20-12

Scott’s Streaming Record: 4-3-2

 

Quick Thoughts from Week 15

 

A few weeks back, I gave up briefly on Omar Narvaez. One week later, I tried to reverse course as quickly as I could. I hope those of you who own him held on, as he’s come out of the second half swinging, going 12/26 with 4 HRs and 7 RBI.

J.T. Realmuto is finally swinging a bit again after returning from his groin injury, going three-for-five on Friday and bringing his season average up to .271. He’s still been a significant disappointment to those who drafted him in the third or fourth round.

Say what you want, but I’m about ready to give Buster Posey’s fantasy career a viking funeral. The Giants are going to be bad for a long time, meaning he’ll continue to post very poor R+RBI numbers, and he no longer looks like the near lock to hit .300 he was from 2010-2017, coming in at .255 this year. It’s a sad day.

We thought Danny Jansen was finally turning his season around and then he came out of the break posting a .296 average, which we love, but no HRs, which we don’t love. The Statcast numbers still look good as of late, so I’m not giving up yet.

Please, I don’t want to do it. Someone tell me I don’t have to do it. Fine, we’ll talk about him—since coming over to the Rays, Travis d’Arnaud is slashing .261/.318/.500 in 157 PAs, including a three-HR game vs the Yankees this past week. Those HRs constitute 5.4% of d’Arnaud’s CAREER homers and 33% of his season HRs. No, I don’t think he’ll continue to be a massive source of power and his average is nothing stellar either. Scott was able to latch onto another of d’Arnaud’s hot streaks earlier this season when he hit three home runs in a week. In fact, five of his nine home runs on the year have come in two starts versus four home runs in the other 51 starts. That’s not a recipe for success. Buy in if you want. I won’t.

 

This Week’s Streamers

 

Roberto Perez – (Cleveland Indians): Dan Richards wrote at length about Perez the other day, but it perhaps came at a poor time, as he’s hitting just .222 with a 30% K-rate. Here’s hoping he can swing his way out of it against the Blue Jays trio of Ryan Borucki, Aaron Sanchez, and Marcus Stroman, then the Royals quartet of Mike Montgomery, Jake Junis, Glenn Sparkman, and Danny Duffy. Yes, Stroman and Sparkman are pitching well and Junis is prone to good outings every now and then, but this is an overall weak slate for Perez.

Mitch Garver – (Minnesota Twins): I’m cautiously optimistic about Garver. He’s still playing with regularity, which I love, but he’s facing the Yankees for three games which I don’t love. Some of you may be quick to point out that the Yankees rotation is not all that good and the Yankee fan in me wants to get super offended by that, but you’re not wrong. Outside of Domingo German, the Twins draw CC Sabathia and JA Happ. But the Yankees staff goes well beyond those starters and they’re pitching better than you’d think. On the season and over the last 30 days, the Yankees as a whole are fifth and seventh, respectively, in SIERA. The good news is once they get past them and Lucas Giolito on Thursday, they get Dylan Cease and Ivan Nova. The possibility for upside is there but like I said, I’m very cautious.

I really only want to get behind those two this week. There are other guys who have a shot at doing well. Carson Kelly gets the Baltimore pitching staff, which could always be a recipe for success, but only one lefty on the week. The Braves have a tasty matchup with the subpar Phillies staff, but also have two off days this week so it’s hard to know if Brian McCann would get enough run in that time to make the stream worth it. I’m really hoping Ryan Lavarnway builds off of his miraculous 3/4, 2 HR, 6 RBI debut for Cincinnati last week. The team is hurting in a big way and could use a lift. So why not? Oh, because Lavarnway is bad, that’s why. There’s no Rockies excitement, as they’re on the road all week. I guess you could get excited about Josh Phegley, but I certainly don’t want to get excited about his .176 AVG with 0 HRs over the last month. No thank you.

(Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire)