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mauer is such a lock here it's not even funny. he's a top 5 overall player in this setup.
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Top 5? Hardly. Not only will Mauer force the earliest pick of the bunch, but on average he would be drafted last of the 3.
You dont want the anchor of your team to be your catcher. Considering it is more hitting favored league, I actually would probably go Atkins, but if you like pitching, go Webb.
You can still grab a McCann or Martin or VMart in later rounds; Mauer is gonna be bad value for the sucker who drafts him in the 3rd round.
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http://fantasysports.yahoo.com/analysis/...gue=fantasy/mlb
the fact that the league is so hitting-centric and mauer is so far ahead of the other catchers is precisely the point. for a long time i've heard the argument that you don't want to build your team around a catcher because there's a huge dropoff to the replacement if your stud gets hurt. that just means he's more valuable! by this theory you can't build your team around pujols because the injury dropoff is too big.
i would probably take mauer around 10th in a 5x5 league; add in two more hitting categories he excels at, and where other catchers are quite poor, and he is worth even more. the 120 fewer strikeouts he will give you than ryan howard is a huge gap.
you are welcome to disagree, but this is a thread to ask me questions, so i'll voice my opinions, and i think it's a crime not to keep mauer here.