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My oh my, what a difference a year makes. Last year we had three top tier catcher options with Joe Mauer, Brian McCann and Victor Martinez. In 2008, only one of those guys remains a top option, Victor Martinez. Joining Martinez this season is only one other catcher for top billing status, and that guy is Dodgers backstop, Russell Martin.

McCann and Mauer have been relagated to 2nd tier status and are joined by Jorge Posada, who had a fantastic year in 2007.

Over the next few posts, we’re going to look at the player profiles in the catcher postion and talk a little draft strategy. There are a number of different strategies regarding catcher acquisition this season, but only four make real sense.

1. Pay big bucks, or use that early draft pick on Martin or Martinez. You’re, most likely, going to have to snatch these guys in the late second round or third somewhere.
2. Draft Mauer, Posada, or McCann in the early middle rounds (5th - 8th rounds) and bank on position scarcity screwing everyone else who didn’t use option #1 or #2.
3. Take the boring route (read: somewhat solid numbers, not much wow factor) and grab a veteran like Kenji Johjima, Ivan Rodriguez, or Bengie Molina in rounds #10 through #18.
4. Or, you could gamble on one of the young, rising stars like J.R. Towles, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, or Geovany Soto in rounds #12 through #21.

So far, in mock drafts, I’ve been using either option #2 or option #4 for the most part.

Coming next… player profiles for tier 1 and tier 2 fantasy catchers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Catchers, Draft Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.