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Here is the list of fantasy catchers who play in the American League Central Division. You’ll only find players on this list that will or could make a fantasy impact in 2008.

1. Victor Martinez | Cleveland Indians
2. Joe Mauer | Minnesota Twins
3. Ivan Rodriguez | Detroit Tigers
4. A.J. Pierzynski | Chicago White Sox
5. John Buck | Kansas City Royals
6. Mike Redmond | Minnesota Twins
7. Kelly Shoppach | Cleveland Indians
8. Jose Morales | Minnesota Twins
9. Donny Lucy | Chicago White Sox
10. Vance Wilson | Detroit Tigers
11. Matt Tupman | Kansas City Royals
12. Toby Hall | Chicago White Sox
13. Mike Rabelo | Detroit Tigers

Update: The 2008 AL draft list has been posted on the 2008 fantasy baseball draft list page.

I’m going to break down each position by league and division. After I am finished with all of that, I will then compile a complete draft list for you and move things around into many different formats to fulfill all your fantasy needs.

Let’s start with AL West catchers. The only players making this list are catchers with fantasy value or potential value for 2008.

1. Kenji Johjima | Seattle Mariners
2. Jarrod Saltalamacchia | Texas Rangers
3. Kurt Suzuki | Oakland Athletics
4. Mike Napoli | Los Angeles Angels
5. Gerald Laird | Texas Rangers
6. Jeff Mathis | Los Angeles Angels
7. Rob Bowen | Oakland Athletics
8. Jeff Clement | Seattle Mariners
9. Landon Powell | Oakland Athletics
10. Max Ramirez | Texas Rangers

Update: The 2008 AL draft list has been posted on the 2008 fantasy baseball draft list page.

After saying earlier in the day that Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera were going to hit the open market in an hour, the Yankees have signed their 36-year old catcher to a 4-year $52 million dollar deal.

But once the Yankees offered Posada the four-year pact, it was practically a done deal. Posada’s first choice was to stay in pinstripes, and unless the Yankees were unwilling to go for a fourth year, there was little doubt it would happen.

The Yankees probably overpaid, but what choice did they have? Yorvit Torrealba, Paul Lo Duca or Damian Miller were not going to adequately replace Posada, who had a tremendous year both at the plate and behind it last season.

This move doesn’t shock me at all. They definitely did overpay but like the article says what choice did they have? The free-agent market for catchers definitely wasn’t a good one at all.

Hopefully the Red Sox follow suit and give Mike Lowell the fourth year and get this thing over with.

It’s going to be a busy week for the teams in MLB as the deadline looms on the exclusive negotiating period with their free agents. When the clock strikes midnight tonight, free agents can talk to any of the teams about a contract for next year and years to come.

So what does this mean for the Red Sox? It means that they better hope their contract offer of 3-years $36 million is good enough for Lowell or they risk the potential of losing him. I fully expect Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein to be burning up the phones of Lowell’s agents, the Levinson brothers, all day today.

It will be interesting to see what happens with other free agents like Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Barry Bonds, Francisco Cordero and others.

There is a fantasy baseball impact on this as well as many of you out there participate in fantasy baseball leagues. Some of you participate in AL-only and NL-only leagues as well as mixed leagues. With some of this AL and NL-only leagues being keeper leagues, your hoping that your star free agent on your team doesn’t switch leagues. I’ve had this happen to me when Jim Thome was a free agent with the Indians. He ended up signing with the Phillies and it hurt my team for the following season.

Today also marks the start of the big four awards in MLB, the AL & NL Rookie of the Year, the AL & NL Cy Young, the AL & NL Manager of the Year and the AL & NL MVP’s. This is how the schedule breaks down this week and next.

Nov. 12: AL and NL Rookies of the Year
Nov. 13: AL Cy Young
Nov. 14: AL and NL Managers of the Year
Nov. 15: NL Cy Young
Nov. 19: AL MVP
Nov. 20: NL MVP

Not only has top prospect,[tag]Jarrod Saltalamaccia[/tag], hit 2 home runs tonight against the Nationals, but he’s playing first base for the fourth time this season. One more appearance at [tag]first base[/tag] (a position of weakness for the [tag]Atlanta Braves[/tag]) will qualify him at first base for eligibility purposes on Yahoo.

It’s been rumored throughout the Braves camp for the past month or so that Bobby Cox plans to work Salty into at least a part time role at first base. With Scott Thorman hitting below .230 for the season, if Salty keeps hitting like this he’s likely to see more games out in the field, instead of behind the plate.

With the chances of Indians starting catcher, [tag]Victor Martinez[/tag], growing that he’ll be placed on the DL, [tag]Kelly Shoppach[/tag] will become the catching answer in Cleveland for the duration of Martinez’ injury. But could that stay behind the plate be longer for Shoppach?

“Shoppach has more power, is better defensively, and has a much better arm than Martinez. He’ll never hit for average, but if the Indians want to keep Martinez at 1B to protect his legs then this could be a major development.”

If you plan on stashing Shoppach, in anticipation he’ll remain behind the plate once Martinex returns, beware that most projections show him as a one category guy.

PECOTA sees a .230/.308/.420 line from Shoppach, with 10 HR in 234 ABs. So he could threaten 20 bombs if he got 400 ABs. He’d be a one-category guy, but still. ZiPSs chimes in at .219/.291/.392 with 13 HR in 324 ABs.

[tag]Minnesota Twins[/tag] catcher, [tag]Joe Mauer[/tag], has a stress reaction in his in the fibula of his left leg. Huh? This malady could bench Mauer for as little as 2 weeks and as much as 6 weeks, depending on whether the injury remains a reaction and doesn’t turn into a stress fracture.

As great as Mauer is, I feel it’s now time to let someone else take the risk of drafting him. For those of you struggling with the top tier catcher decision, move Brian McCann above Mauer and maybe even Victor Martinez as well.