Back in February I predicted that Buster Posey and Joe Mauer would make full comebacks. In fact, this is what I had to say:
Here we have 2 catchers that are both coming off of injury years, but who previously were hitting 3rd in their respective line-ups. I am all in on both guys to be just fine this year, with a little more upside to Buster Posey.
Here were their numbers from the 2012 season:
| AB | Runs | HR | RBI | BB | K | SB | AVG | |
| Buster Posey | 530 | 78 | 24 | 103 | 69 | 96 | 1 | 0.336 |
| Joe Mauer | 545 | 81 | 10 | 85 | 90 | 88 | 8 | 0.319 |
Well, I think it is safe to say that I got one right! Joe Mauer and Buster Posey bounced back quite nicely, mainly due to getting back over 500 ABs, and should be top 5 fantasy baseball catchers (Posey likely at #1 and Mauer likely at #5) in 2013.
Overall catcher was a hard position to deal with this year, with down years from guys like Mike Napoli, Brian McCann and the overall number 1 guy for many, Carlos Santana. While there was one pleasant surprise at catch at least – Wilin Rosario – we can expect that going into next year catcher will once again be a crap shoot becaue catcher is the number one most physically demanding position in baseball.
- Guys age a little quicker at catcher, and it could be that Brian McCann didn’t just have a bad year, maybe catching has finally caught up to him and he is on the down slope of his career.
- Catchers are victim to injuries, a prime example is Posey in 2011. The brutal collision at home plate had him out the entire year. Luckily, Buster healed right, rehabbed well and has returned to form!
- Lastly, catchers need more time off or sometimes a position change to rest their legs, exactly what happened to Joe Mauer in 2011. Leg fatigue amongst other things crippled him for an entire year and his owners were hard luck loser because of that. To combat that the Twins are trying Mauer at a combo of catcher, DH, 1B and having still some days completely off. This is similar to the Victor Martinez model in Detroit who had him catch just enough to keep him as a “catcher” but keeping his bat in the line-up as much as possible.
Heading into the 2013 fantasy baseball season it will be curious to see if the Twins slowly move Mauer completely away from catcher, and the same with Cleveland and Carlos Santana. Heck, even the Giants play Posey at 1B quite a bit. If these guys end up losing catcher eligibility it will be interesting to see what the overall catcher position will look like for us, and how they would fair compared to not catchers for fantasy rankings.
However, until then, enjoy what these guys will bring to your 2013 fantasy baseball line-ups, as catchers that give you 500+ at bats are fantasy baseball gold!
