Results tagged ‘ Yasmani Grandal ’
Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Catchers
I’ll be compiling lists of the top players at each position for 2012 Fantasy Baseball in the coming weeks. Overall rankings will consist of their value in a points format, earning points for each H, R, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, basically a formula of Total Bases + RBI + Runs = Total Value. I’ll begin with catchers. You’ll see their stats for 2011 below their names with 2012 Projections in ITALICS
1. Mike Napoli, Texas
.320/.414/.631, 25 2B, 30 HR, 75 RBI, 85/58 K/BB in 369 AB
.295/.389/.560, 30 2B, 27 HR, 81 RBI, 101/68 K/BB in 446 AB
Napoli has always had power but he sat so often for the AMAZING Jeff Mathis on the Angels that he never got a chance to truly breakout. He finally got a chance and became a near-MVP talent in Texas in 2011. He may not repeat the AVG, but the power is real, especially in that lineup and ballpark.
2. Carlos Santana, Cleveland
.239/.351/.457, 35 2B, 27 HR, 79 RBI, 133/97 K/BB in 552 AB
.279/.401/.531, 31 2B, 33 HR, 91 RBI, 123/101 K/BB in 549 AB
I may be higher on Santana than most, but he’ll make more contact in 2012 and he posted these numbers in his first full season. The sky is the limit and the value in Santana is that he plays 1B and DH when he isn’t behind the plate.
3. Alex Avila, Detroit
.295/.389/.506, 33 2B, 19 HR, 82 RBI, 131/73 K/BB in 464 AB
.286/.391/.511, 35 2B, 21 HR, 86 RBI, 124/76 K/BB in 471 AB
4. Yadier Molina, St. Louis
.305/.349/.465, 32 2B, 16 HR, 65 RBI, 44/33 K/BB in 475 AB
.301/.342/.437, 29 2B, 14 HR, 63 RBI, 46/36 K/BB in 461 AB
5. Buster Posey, San Francisco
.311/.374/.521, 31 2B, 23 HR, 82 RBI, 83/65 K/BB in 476 AB
We all know about his injury last year, but reports show he is ready. His 2010 stats were: .305/.357/.505, 23 2B, 18 HR, 67 RBI, 55/30 K/BB in 406 AB. Expect the same, maybe more.
6. Miguel Montero, Arizona
.282/.351/.469, 36 2B, 18 HR, 86 RBI, 97/47 K/BB in 493 AB
.276/.349/.471, 33 2B, 20 HR, 84 RBI, 101/56 K/BB in 489 AB
7. Brian McCann, Atlanta
.270/.351/466, 19 2B, 24 HR, 71 RBI, 89/57 K/BB in 466 AB
.281/.363/.485, 21 2B, 22 HR, 79 RBI, 81/71 K/BB in 483 AB
8. Matt Wieters, Baltimore
.262/.328/.450, 28 2B, 22 HR, 68 RBI, 84/48 K/BB in 500 AB
.276/.339/.490, 29 2B, 27 HR, 84 RBI, 97/61 K/BB in 506 AB
9. Joe Mauer, Minnesota
.287/.360/.368, 15 2B, 3 HR, 30 RBI, 38/32 K/BB in 296 AB
.313/.394/.411, 31 2B, 8 HR, 71 RBI, 79/76 K/BB in 496 AB
It’s well documented about Mauer’s knee issues last season. I can see him taking a Carlos Santana/Victor Martinez approach to stay in the lineup. He won’t ever come close to his 2009 power outburst, but he can have value due to the ability to drive the ball in the gaps of Target Field.
10. Devin Mesoraco, Cincinnati
.180/.226/.360, 3 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 10/3 K/BB in 50 AB
.265/.329/.449, 18 2B, 14 HR, 59 RBI, 72/21 K/BB in 374 AB
Mesoraco will be a top catcher once he isn’t sharing the position. He’s capable of hitting 15 homers in about 350 AB, and will settle into the Cincinnati lineup near Votto and Bruce to see plenty of good pitches. He’s someone to watch in Keeper Leagues, but he’ll have value right away.
11. Geovany Soto, Chicago (N.L.)
.228/.310/.411, 26 2B, 17 HR, 54 RBI, 124/45 K/BB in 421 AB
.268/.335/.445, 28 2B, 23 HR, 73 RBI, 147/56 K/BB in 447 AB
Shoulder woes have sapped Soto’s value and possibly led to some offensive struggles, particularly with strikeouts, in 2011. He may become a trade chip for the rebuilding Cubs in 2012, but he needs to build his value and show that he is healthy. He can still hit, but can he do it consistently?
12. Jonathan LuCroy, Milwaukee
.265/.313/.391, 16 2B, 12 HR, 59 RBI, 99/29 K/BB in 430 AB
.269/.318/.401, 21 2B, 13 HR, 54 RBI, 112/41 K/BB in 456 AB
13. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Boston
.235/.288/.450, 23 2B, 16 HR, 56 RBI, 119/24 K/BB in 358 AB
.251/.301/.450, 27 2B, 19 HR, 62 RBI, 126/38 K/BB in 438 AB
It wasn’t always pretty last year for “Salty,” but he shows enough power and plays in the right lineup, so he has value. He has always been huge and awkward behind the plate, but the Red Sox only have Ryan Lavarnway ready, and he isn’t ready defensively, and may never be ready defensively, to steal time from him.
14. J.P. Arencibia, Toronto
.219/.282/.438, 20 2B, 23 HR, 78 RBI, 133/36 K/BB in 443 AB
.231/.313/.479, 25 2B, 24 HR, 83 RBI, 145/31 K/BB in 471 AB
Arencibia doesn’t have a whole lot of time to hold down this job. If he doesn’t show that he can make consistent contact in 2012, he may lose time to Travis d’Arnaud really soon. Even being young, he may find himself as trade bait or moved off of the position. We’ll see if that is enough motivation for him.
15. Russell Martin, New York (A.L.)
.237/.324/.408, 17 2B, 18 HR, 65 RBI, 81/50 K/BB in 417 AB
.249/.337/.415, 19 2B, 15 HR, 61 RBI, 80/61 K/BB in 443 AB
16. Wilson Ramos, Washington
.267/.334/.445, 22 2B, 15 HR, 52 RBI, 76/38 K/BB in 389 AB
.271/.339/.456, 24 2B, 19 HR, 68 RBI, 91/49 K/BB in 467 AB
17. Chris Ianetta, Los Angeles (A.L.)
.238/.370/.414, 17 2B, 14 HR, 55 RBI, 89/70 K/BB in 345 AB
.242/.359/.408, 19 2B, 12 HR, 57 RBI, 91/76 K/BB in 453 AB
18. Kurt Suzuki, Oakland
.237/.301/.385, 26 2B, 14 HR, 44 RBI, 64/38 K/BB in 460 AB
.229/.291/.376, 21 2B, 10 HR, 38 RBI, 71/31 K/BB in 398 AB
19. Miguel Olivo, Seattle
.224/.253/.388, 19 2B, 19 HR, 62 RBI, 140/20 K/BB in 477 AB
.212/.239/.371, 17 2B, 12 HR, 39 RBI, 131/16 K/BB in 348 AB
20. John Buck, Miami
.227/.316/.367, 16 2B, 15 HR, 57 RBI, 115/54 K/BB in 466 AB
.234/.327/.381, 18 2B, 16 HR, 54 RBI, 111/58 K/BB in 439 AB
KEEPER LEAGUE PLAYERS TO WATCH:
Travis d’Arnaud – TOR
Wilin Rosario – COL
Jesus Monter0 – SEA: He’d be a top 10 talent “IF” he gets Catcher Eligibility
Yasmani Grandal – SD
Christian Bethancourt – ATL
Sebastian Valle – PHI
Gary Sanchez - NY (A.L.)
Derek Norris – OAK
Andrew Susac – SF
GM for the Day: San Diego Padres
The hiring of Josh Byrnes as real GM and the theft of the front office by Theo Epstein in Chicago was just the beginning of the Padres offseason. The trade of Mat Latos to Cincinnati for four very good pieces was followed up by the trade of the team’s top prospect (2011) to Chicago, when they sent Anthony Rizzo to the Cubs for Andrew Cashner and slap hitting outfield prospect. The influx of talent in the deal with the Reds was the team acknowledging that they can get by without an ace in Petco Park, but they needed to find some guys who could rake there. That is where Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal come in. And, while Edinson Volquez has been awful the last couple of seasons when he wasn’t injured, he could become an ace in Petco. The Padres are loaded with some solid prospects throughout the system, but it will be interesting to see what they do with them and how those prospects adjust to the cavern of offensive death that San Diego calls a home ballpark. Building around Cameron Maybin and Yonder Alonso seems to be the best option at this point for the team, as far as the offense goes. This is their current 25-man roster:
2 Catchers: Nick Hundley and John Baker
1B: Yonder Alonso
2B: Orlando Hudson
3B: Chase Headley
SS: Jason Bartlett
LF: Carlos Quentin
CF: Cameron Maybin
RF: Will Venable
Bench: Jesus Guzman (1B/3B), James Darnell (3B/OF), Logan Forsythe (INF), Chris Denorfia (OF)
Starting Pitchers: Cory Luebke, Tim Stauffer, Clayton Richard, Dustin Mosely and Edinson Volquez
Relief Pitchers: Huston Street, Luke Gregorson, Andrew Cashner, Joe Thatcher, Ernesto Frieri, Josh Spence and Anthony Bass
The Padres have a lot of things that they could do. Signing Free Agents isn’t really one of them. They have a lot of talent on the way, some they probably won’t have room for. While they have James Darnell ready to take over at 3B or left field, they would need to wonder where he’s going to end up when Jedd Gyorko is ready in mid-2012. It’s a problem many teams would like to have. Darnell will be 25 this month and posted an OPS of .953 in Double-A and Triple-A in 2011, while Gyorko will be 23 for the entire 2012 season and he posted a .952 OPS between High-A and Double-A in 2011. Add in that current 3B Chase Headley is just 28 this season and while he only posted an OPS of .773, his .773 OPS was the highest of all Padres with at least 300 at bats. Sad. If Headley could play anywhere else but Petco, like all of the Padres, his 2011 Road OPS of .864 shows the kind of player he could actually be. The acquisition of Carlos Quentin was nice for fans who want to see some runs, but you have to wonder if Petco will destroy his value, as well.
Pitching seems like a crapshoot. Aaron Harang was able to post a 14-7 record with a 3.64 ERA in 2011 after posting an 18-38 record and 4.71 ERA for Cincinnati from 2008-2010. Cory Luebke moved from the bullpen to the rotation and became the Padres ace, posting a 5-9 record with a 3.48 ERA from July on when he was a starter full-time. If the Padres are able to have Tim Stauffer (3.73), Dustin Mosely (3.30) and Clayton Richard (3.88) continue to pitch effectively, and the offense gets a little bit of life from the influx of acquired talent, the Padres could be a lot better than the 71-91 that they were in 2011.
I would change a couple of things right now. I would put Carlos Quentin in right, move Chase Headley to left, and give James Darnell a shot to see what he can do before he is pushed off of third by Jedd Gyorko. If Darnell flops, he could become trade bait or a nice bench bat. This puts the best offense on the field. I would also go ahead and put Yasmani Grandal on the Opening Day roster. He’s only played 49 games at Double-A or higher, but he has a very advanced approach and John Baker isn’t going to make your team better now or any time in the future. Grandal might make Nick Hundley better by providing competition and keeping him fresher. The middle infield is aging quickly, as Orlando Hudson and Jason Bartlett become the players that no one wants to take on, as evidenced by Winter Meeting trade talks that went nowhere as the Padres hoped to shave payroll. They could get help at 2B with Cory Spangenberg in the next year, but SS is going to be an issue as their top SS prospect was just drafted last year, Jace Peterson. Rymer Liriano is the prospect to watch. He could obliterate pitching in the California League and become a monster propsect in 2012. He is a future star in the outfield, Petco or not.
Robbie Erlin and Joe Wieland, stolen from the Rangers for Mike Adams, could make an appearance in San Diego in 2012. Erlin is a lefty with amazing Minor League stats whose control and repertoire will make him valuable to the Padres. The pitching staff is fine right now with who they have. I would love to see how Edinson Volquez does after another year to recover from Tommy John. I still feel that the deal with Cincinnati was a total robbery by San Diego, as the Padres got a potential star at first and catcher, as well as a solid bullpen arm to go along with the veteran, Volquez.
After pulling a few strings, this is the 25-man roster I would have heading to San Diego:
2 Catchers: Nick Hundley and Yasmani Grandal
1B: Yonder Alonso
2B: Orlando Hudson
3B: James Darnell
SS: Jason Bartlett
LF: Chase Headley
CF: Cameron Maybin
RF: Carlos Quentin
Bench: Will Venable (OF), Chris Denorfia (OF), Jesus Guzman (1B/3B) and Logan Forsythe (INF)
Starting Pitchers: Cory Luebke, Tim Stauffer, Clayton Richard, Dustin Mosely and Edinson Volquez
Relief Pitchers: Huston Street, Luke Gregorson, Andrew Cashner, Joe Thatcher, Ernesto Frieri, Josh Spence and Anthony Bass
Right in the Ace
If you could please explain yourself, Walt...
Wow. When I saw that the Reds acquired Mat Latos, I was pretty pumped. He’s a front-end of the rotation type with some pretty good stuff. Latos is under team control until the end of the 2015 season and will be arbitration-eligible next year. He just turned 24 and holds a career 27-29 record with a 3.37 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 429 2/3 IP. While I saw one Reds fan react that he “has a losing record, what a horrible deal,” the peripherals on Latos’ stats show that he has great skills and probably just suffered from that fact that the Padres suck and they can’t score runs in Petco Park. With that being said, this deal was an absolute fleecing by new Padres GM Josh Byrnes, who bent over Walt Jocketty and stole the old man’s decency without any KY Jelly. This deal was DREADFUL for Cincinnati on so many levels.
Level One: Cincinnati uses the “small-market” card more than Al Sharpton uses the “race” card. You worry about how you’re going to move on or be able to function when you’re paying Joey Votto $17 million in 2013? Well, who are you going to replace him with now? Yonder Alonso may have been a horrible outfielder, we know this from the 24 chances he had to field in 16 games there in 2011. That’s a great use of judgment. That would have been like saying Hitler had good ideas in when he appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933 before seeing what he actually became…ok, so not that drastic but give me a break! Alonso isn’t arbitration-eligible until 2015, he can’t become a Free Agent until 2018, and you give him up in the deal? Sure, he could have bombed since he struggles against lefties and “can’t field”, but who plays first when your “small-market” team can’t afford to re-sign Votto?
Level Two: Edinson Volquez won 17 games in 2008, had elbow issues and was shut down in 2009, more elbow issues in 2010 followed by Tommy John surgery and came back in 2011. Elbow issues followed by Tommy John surgery result in a pitcher taking 12-18 months after surgery to regain their form, and, especially, their control. Volquez’s control never came back last year, but it was due to. The fact that he was tossed in based on his most recent results was absolutely asinine. Volquez’s fastball was 93.6 mph on average in 2008 and was sitting at 93.4 last year. While his ERA and WHIP has increased, he was still a work in progress. The Reds did a good thing by not locking him up long-term, but they shouldn’t have given up on him for nothing.
Level Three: Yasmani Grandal just turned 23 in November. He played at three levels in 2011, posting a .305/.401/.500 slash, ripping 31 2B and 16 homers. He wasn’t in the Reds plans due to the presence of Ryan Hanigan (who is signed on the cheap) and Devin Mesoraco, another slugging catching prospect who just arrived in Cincinnati late last season. Grandal and Alonso alone for Latos is pushing it. They are both top prospects, having been honored by Baseball America as the #3 and #4 prospects in the Reds system this season. The Reds aren’t the Rangers, Rays or Jays as far as the strength of their system, but they have elite-level talent in Mesoraco, Billy Hamilton, Alonso and Grandal.
Level Four: Who is your closer next year? Nick Masset? Bill Bray? Maybe it could have been the kid who will be 24 next May and posted a 93/28 K/BB and 2.03 ERA over 62 IP last year between Double-A and Triple-A…Brad Boxberger. Young guys can sometimes dominate as closers. Need examples? Neftali Feliz and Craig Kimbrel. BAM! No more evidence needed. You want to build a solid bullpen with a “small-market” payroll? You give opportunities to guys like this and you don’t give someone like Francisco Cordero a four-year, $45 million deal like the Reds did in 2008. You could have signed Votto and Bruce to a Ryan Braun (8-year, $45 million) or Evan Longoria (6-year, $17.5 million) lockdown, long-term deal to avoid the arbitration process and keep them on your roster. Unfortunately, the ultra-conservative nature of the city and folks of Cincinnati would have probably flipped out at such a notion.
Mat Latos is good and has the potential to be an ace. Unfortunately, the Reds got railroaded in the ace in this deal. Their aces will be sore and fans want to hunt down the ace of Walt Jocketty when Votto leaves and they have a journey-man first baseman because the team traded their future for an short-term answer. If you have such a problem locking up Free Agents, do you think you should be mortgaging the future on those short-term solutions. I don’t believe so. However, I am a lowly blogger and someone with white hair is in charge of the Reds, ruining the franchise by listening to Dusty Baker and making decisions based on his expertise. Horrible trade.
