Catchers to Stream for Week 7 (5/14 – 5/20)

(Photo by Dan Sanger/Icon Sportswire)

For some background on this article and the list of ineligible catchers, check out Week 2’s article.  Kurt Suzuki and Jonathan Lucroy rose above 50% this week, making both ineligible.

Reviewing Last Week

It’s only Sunday so the week is not yet complete, but let’s look at how I did with last week’s streamers.

Jorge Alfaro (Philadelphia Phillies)- 3/12, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI

The average is meh, but a HR always helps. I’m gonna take the W here, but let me know if you disagree.

Tucker Barnhart (Cincinnati Reds)- 9/20, 2 R, 3 RBI

Barnhart raised his average from .236 to .275 so far this week. You gotta love that .450 AVG and the counting stats to boot. Atta boy.

Martin Maldonado (Los Angeles Angels)- 6/12, 1 R, 1 RBI

The counting stats leave a little to be desired, but how can you say no to a .500 AVG. Catchers should not be the guys you expect to get the counting stats anyway, so anything we can get in those areas is a bonus.

Streaming Record: 10-4

Looking Forward

Before we get to this week’s streamers, a few injury notes:

• Yadier Molina will miss another 3-4 weeks. Francisco Pena and Carson Kelly are splitting starts. Kelly should get more work, but his bat hasn’t made the argument yet. I don’t really want to own either one right now.
• Austin Hedges started swinging again and should be back by the end of the month.
• Matt Wieters went to the DL with a hamstring strain. Pedro Severino is holding the job down in the interim, but he’s not someone I’m interested in due to his career .368 SLG. He never displayed much pop in the minors either.
• Jason Castro is on the 10-day DL with a meniscus tear and Mitch Garver is holding down catching duties. I actually like Garver for fantasy purposes, as his quality of contact is up big time this year: VH% is up, HD% is up, and so is his fantasy stock.
• Stephen Vogt is facing season-ending shoulder surgery. That’s rotten luck. Expect Manny Piña to continue holding down starting duties.
• A bunch of people commented last week asking about John Hicks from the Tigers, who is catcher eligible and playing 1B with Miggy out. He’s never done anything in the bigs before and his SLG is already down 100 points in the last week, which I take as evidence that he had a fantastic week and that’s it. Miggy is due to return this week, which should eliminate Hicks’ fantasy value.

And now to the recommended streamers this week:

James McCann (Detroit Tigers)– The Tigers get a trio of tough matchups this week, drawing Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, and the no-hitting Big Maple himself, James Paxton. I’m actually not too worried though; Carrasco has been somewhat inconsistent, Bauer struggled in his last start and they’ll be facing Paxton for the second time in a week, which hopefully means they’ll have figured out how to stop him. For what it’s worth, McCann is 3/8 with a HR against Paxton in his career anyway. I don’t mean to say I don’t believe in Bauer or Carrasco, I love them both. But it could be good timing for McCann to succeed.

Robinson Chirinos (Texas Rangers)– After a Monday off day, the Rangers get the Mariners for two, but avoid Paxton, and four against the White Sox. Chirinos was my favorite sleeper catcher to enter the year, but he’s been off to an inconsistent start with a .175 AVG but 6 HRs. He’s got the right matchups this week to get his average climbing and take back the name Chirinos from Yonny.

Manny Piña (Milwaukee Brewers)– The Brew Crew gets Patrick Corbin and Zack Grienke in their first two games, but it’s smooth sailing the rest of the way: Matt Koch in Arizona, and Kyle Gibson, Fernando Romero, and Jake Odorizzi in Minnesota, though I do have to admit that Gibson and Romero are intriguing. This could go horribly wrong, but Piña sat yesterday and with a Thursday off day, he could play every game except Sunday as it’s a day game after a night game.