I’m in a twelve team, straight draft league. We get to keep 12 players from the previous year. I have to decide who to keep for my twelfth pick. I need to chose one of the following: Carl Everett, Jeromy Burnitz or Javy Lopez. This is a 5×5 league. Who do you suppose will have the best year.
I want to say Javy Lopez. He’s a catcher after all, and that should count for something. But by your examples I’m guessing yours is a NL Only league, and in an NL Only league there isn’t really enough position scarcity to justify taking a catcher over an outfielder if the outfielder is a more productive hitter.
In a mixed league Javy is the fifth best catcher available, which makes him worth a goodsized bump up. But even so, Everett will produce bigger numbers even if he has a modest year, and the outfielder’s good year will far outstrip anything Lopez is capable of.
If all the good catchers in your mixed league are frozen, go for Javy. But if you’re not going to get stuck taking a minus-valued backstop, I’d go for Everett. His upside is far, far greater, at least if he doesn’t go psycho.