The Generals examine the Fantasy All Stars for the first half, and their prospects for the second half, beginning with Catchers.

With the All Star break rapidly approaching, it’s time to look at the best fantasy performers at each position. For purposes of this analysis, we will only look at this year’s performance. No automatic bids for just showing up. To make this list, you need to be the best performer thus far.

Catchers:

NL: Russell Martin (LAD)

This one is easy. Martin is having an amazing fantasy season:

AB R HR RBI OPS
271 45 9 51 .845 . . . AND 13 SBs!!

A .300 hitting 20-20 catcher? Fantasy Gold. The Baseball HQ indicators of base performance indicate that his performance is sustainable. His xba is .303 vs. a “real” avg of .298. His power and speed ratings are at above average levels for an mlb hitter, let alone a catcher. There’s a strong argument that powered by his lofty sb totals for a catcher, he is the best fantasy catcher in baseball right now. Two causes for pause:

1) he hits lots of ground balls (49%) vs. 18% line drives and 33% fly balls. If he keeps this rate in the second half, he may not hit as many home runs, and his avg could drop if his hit rate drops from 32% to 28% (i.e. - if those ground balls lose their “eyes”);

2) will he break down? 271 at bats is second only to Victor Martinez, our AL Fantasy All Star He should reach last year’s total of 415 at bats by the end of July. That said, he’s only 24, and shows no signs of slowing down (1,100 + ops this week). Watch the legs: if he continues to run, rest assured that he’s healthy and fresh.

AL - Victor Martinez (CLE)

This one’s closer. VMart edges out J Posada (NYY)

Player AB R HR RBI OPS
Martinez 277 40 14 63 .911
Posada 257 41 9 45 .934

Posada has 5 less home runs, but 5 more doubles. The 15 rbi’s help tip the scales for VMart, offsetting Posada’s higher ops (the difference is in the obp - Posada .407 - VMart .380).

VMart’s xba of .319 and his performance stats (32% hit rate, 9% walk rate, 23% line drive %, roughly 1-1 gb to fb ratio) indicate that his production is supportable, and there is no reason barring injury or bad luck (lower h%, hr/fb rate) that he should not continue producing the rest of the year.

Posada’s lofty but falling batting average (.339 from the .360’s) is 43 points higher than his xba of .296. In May, Baseball HQ forecasted a decline in avg. as Posada’s hit rate (then 41%) reverted to his 30% career norm. Now his hit rate is at 40%. HQ projects Posada to hit .293 the rest of the way, which would result in a .316 end of year average. This will not win him a batting title, but it’s a career year in a contract year. Currently age 35 (36 in Aug), how much longer will he catch? Will the Yankees commit to a 4-5 year contract. Yet another off season dilemma for the Yanks (see Mariano Rivera).

Next, we will go around the horn, looking at the rest of the infield Fantasy All Stars.