Hey i am pre ranking my players for a draft i am about to do... i was ranking my players and i saw that under catchers Willingham is rated better then Loduca by a lot. I wonder why any ideas.... who should i take for catcher?

Willingham has the potential to hit for power and maybe a decent average; Lo Duca won't hit that many hrs, he never has, but he will hit for average, or kind of. Long balls count a lot when it comes to fantasy. I don't think they take into account the defensive skills of the player, so that is pretty much irrelevant. If you can grab Victor Martinez that would help you some, he's very good. He'll get you 20+ hrs, a decent average and he will give you RBI's in the 80-100 range in that Indians line up. Hope that helps.

Willingham's going to be a top 5 catcher this year. He's a good sleeper but half your league will know about him. Let others draft the first 4-5 catchers and then pounce. Both he and Hermedia are on most people's radar so don't wait too long on either.

 

Otherwise don't worry too much about catchers. The few established catchers almost always get picked too high in most drafts. Don't reach on a guy like Varitek or even Victor Martinez when other more productive offensive players are there.

 

Just draft the best hitter available in the first 4-6 rounds regardless of position. OF is not as deep as common advice suggests since you will need to start 3-4 per team. SP is almost always overrated. Hitting wins. Speed and power.

Another thing to take into consideratin with the catcher position is the number of off-days these guys are forced to take. In Willingham's case, he has a chance to go well beyond the average number of games you get from a regular starting catcher because he may play a bunch in left field, a far less physically demanding position.

 

An example of the benefit of a guy playing a different position while maintaining catcher eligibility was Brandon Inge the last couple of years. While his numbers tended to be average at best for a starting third baseman, he proved one of the best fantasy players at the catcher position, particularly considering how late he went in most drafts.

Josh Willingham is a dark horse, and should be taken as your catcher in the later rounds. Their is alot of pitching sleepers, so worry about offense first, Willingham is being projected to hit around 20 homers with a solid average do to his skill to hit to all fields. If you can take Victor Martinez do it, but don't think twice to pick Willingham even OVER Jorge Posada.

 

 

SIDE NOTE: Please view Yahoo Sports expert advice, just noticed they have some good stuff you might want to watch, players to avoid, sleepers, dark horses, go for it, it's right on the Fantasy page!