Catchers to Stream for Week 4 (4/22 – 4/28)

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 Yahoo). 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)

Francisco Mejia – (San Diego Padres)

Francisco Cervelli – (Pittsburgh Pirates)

Austin Barnes – (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Willians Astudillo – (Minnesota Twins)

Omar Narvaez – (Seattle Mariners)*

As you can see, the three crossed-out names are now eligible for streaming consideration, as they dropped under 50% owned, and Narvaez is now ineligible. He’s had a phenomenal start to the year.

 

Reviewing Last Week

 

The past few weeks, I’ve had to ask Austin Bristow and Nick Pollack for their takes on a few close calls in my streamers, so this week, I decided to try to set some guidelines for a streaming win:

1. 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 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.

 

Welington Castillo – (Chicago White Sox): 4/11, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R

Not only did he give you a .364 average, but he also smacked two homers. This is the clearest example of a streaming win there is. Some didn’t like Castillo because he came in batting .083, but this is why you trust a guy to abuse weak matchups.

Tony Wolters – (Colorado Rockies): 5/15, 2 R, 2 BB

Wolters didn’t do much in terms of counting stats, but a .333 average over his three starts (before Sunday) is a clear win.

Austin Romine – (New York Yankees): 3/12, 3 R, RBI

After discussing him with a few members of the staff, I’m going to utilize my first “push.” The average doesn’t help, but it doesn’t hurt, and the counting stats do enough to be a positive, but not enough where he’s a clear win.

*The above blurb was written before Sunday’s slate. If you held Romine through Sunday’s game, he went 3/5 with 3 RBI bringing his week line to 6/17, 3 R, 4 RBI and that, my friends, is a big, fat W.*

Dave’s Streaming Record: 7-2

 

 

Quick Thoughts from Week 3

 

Most of you probably want me to talk about two names: Mitch Garver and Jorge Alfaro. Sure, let’s do it.

Garver smacked two home runs yesterday to bring his season total up to five and his average to .424 for the year. I get why you’d want to own him. When he plays, he tends to do a bunch of damage. But here’s the problem: He’s just not playing every day or even really close to it. Thirty of his 35 plate appearances on the year have come against righties—OK, you say, so we just play him when the Twins face righties…except he’s still not playing against all righties. This week, he sat three straight games ALL against right-handers…against Toronto. The Twins just have too many options behind the dish, between Astudillo, Garver, and Jason Castro. I can’t justify starting him or streaming him, but I get if you want to chase the upside.

Now to Alfaro—remember they said the devil would be attractive. Alfaro is posting a sexy .306 average so far along with three home runs and a .490 slugging percentage. Oh baby. So why am I not buying it? Because nothing has changed in his plate discipline—22% swinging-strike rate, 63% contact rate, and a god-awful 53% O-swing%. Yes, Alfaro is swinging at over 50% of pitches out of the zone. That’s not even talking about his .462 BABIP. Yes, Alfaro does carry a batted ball-profile that supports a higher BABIP (low pull rate, high line-drive rate, low fly-ball rate, low pop-up rate), but not this high. Remember he posted .406 last year, and the bottom just has to fall out of it soon.

I hate to play Debbie Downer, but it’s necessary to take the helium out of the hype balloons sometimes.

Gary Sanchez is expected back Wednesday, and not a day too soon. Fantasy owners, and the Yankees, need him back. Here’s hoping he gets back to his hot start.

I’m almost at the point where I’m willing to buy in on Willians Astudillo. He’s so close. Four starts in his last five is precisely what I want to see—I just don’t believe yet it can continue. If he does it for another week, then I want in.

The Braves dodged a catcher crisis when Tyler Flowers was not seriously injured and Brian McCann missed just the 10 days with a right hamstring strain. However, I don’t really want either one of them due to a playing time split.

Elias Diaz will finally be activated today. He will cut into Francisco Cervelli’s starts, particularly at the beginning, to get Diaz some reps at the MLB level.

Looking more into the Nats, Yan Gomes and Kurt Suzuki are back to splitting playing time. I don’t want either one right now.

Not that he’s really worth your consideration, but Grayson Greiner has earned the starting job with a full share of starts in Detroit.

 

This Week’s Streamers

 

Welington Castillo – (Chicago White Sox): Yes, I’m suggesting to ride with him again. Is this risky after he already helped me once? Yes. But he’s got the opportunity to strike again, getting three games in the friendly confines of Baltimore followed by three at home vs Detroit, and there’s not a dangerous arm in sight except Matt Boyd on Saturday. However, Castillo should avoid that game or Sunday’s game vs. Spencer Turnbull, as Sunday is a DANG. For what it’s worth, on top of this being a weak slate of matchups, Castillo is hitting at least .357 against each of the pitchers here that he’s faced before (David Hess, Andrew Cashner, and Boyd).

Tony Wolters – (Colorado Rockies): Wait, this is starting to look a lot like last week’s article. I know it is, and for good reason—Colorado stays at home for three to start the week with a rough matchup vs. Patrick Corbin sandwiched between Jeremy Hellickson and Anibal Sanchez. From there, the Rox get an off day and then get three against Mike Foltynewicz in his Still ILL start, followed by Touki Toussaint, and Max Fried. Nothing there is overly worrisome.

Those are the only two I feel comfortable recommending for purposes of my streaming record, but if you need another option, you can go with Josh Phegley against Texas and the Jays, or maybe Mike Zunino, whose only really tough matchup is Chris Sale.

(Photo by Quinn Harris/Icon Sportswire)