Fantasy Showdown: Geovany Soto and Top Catchers

The person who asked the question had looked to see who was better than Ramon Hernandez, phrasing it a million different ways, thus my answer intro.

Q: Ramon Hernandez or Geovany Soto?

A: It seems your main question is where does Ramon Hernandez rank among catchers? If you approach it that way, Hernandez's stats don't add up to a top-tier catcher. In most leagues, he's a backup. 12-team leagues, there are better players to own. If we look at the stats right now, here's how I'd rank the top 15 catchers (excluding Posada, who's out for another 6 weeks or so):

1) Soto. His offensive numbers have been great for the first month of the season. There isn't a reason to expect a fall off in that lineup.
2) Joe Mauer. Steady, great production. As long as he's healthy, I like him to be a top-5 catcher all year.
3) Victor Martinez. Multi-position eligibility and the best power of any catcher.
4) Russell Martin. Not quite the power of Martinez, but adds speed.
5) Brian McCann. Just can't not like this guy's production
6) Bengie Molina. Even in SF, he's good for production
7) Ryan Doumit. Gives both C and OF eligibility in most Yahoo leagues and has been raking in that Pittsburgh lineup. Has moved out of the platoon from last season
8) AJ Pierzynski. Consistent, but his average will scare you
9) Mike Napoli/Jeff Mathis. The concern here is this could end up being too much of a time share. Both these guys play well.
10) Ivan Rodriguez. History speaks volumes
11) Gerald Laird. Until Saltalamacchia comes up.
12) Jason Varitek. Swinging the bat better than his average shows
13) Kurt Suzuki. Has the full-time gig with Kendall gone and is really proving himself as a decent offensive player.
14) Jason Kendall. This feels about right.
15) Paul Bako/Ramon Hernandez. I'd put either of these two about here. Hernandez just gets more at bats. Offensively, he's slipped every year. Baltimore is already falling off that fast start and he needs runners on to drive in. His power numbers just aren't there either. These other guys are certainly ahead of him for most of the season.

Other important names that will factor into the equation include Jeff Clement, Chris Ianetta, and obviously, Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Salty has the greatest potential to do some damage, especially in the back half of the year. He'll likely be taking over full-time at that point. The Rangers will look to ease him in now, sitting him against left-handed pitching anyway because his splits there are pretty bad. But he's my favorite to make some noise. When I wrote this response, he hadn't been called up yet. Now that he has, it's worth putting him in the top-10. Clement may not catch, but he'll play somewhere and the kid can hit. He may be at first or at the DH spot, but he's going to do well because of his approach. He's a line drive hitter that works the gaps and has a little pop to show for it. He gets some playing time and he'll do fine.