Last year April went by, Joe Mauer was injured, and life went on. Then May happened and Joe Mauer started to hit home runs. Not only did Mauer hit for more power than he ever had, he went on to have a career year, and very likely a top ten all time season by a catcher (probably one of the best by WAR standards, but we won’t focus on that).

In the Fantasy world Joe Mauer owners had to sit on a month with some likely back up catcher who may or may not have helped in anyway. When he came back he out hit all catchers by a massive margin.

Joe Mauer hit 5 more home runs than any other catcher, 11 more hits, and out walked all other catchers. He did this while missing a month. I only mention this over and over again because its incredibly impressive.

Here’s a quick rundown from last year at the catcher position and their wOBA based fantasy points.

Joe Mauer 491 (19.64 points a week)
Victor Martinez 441 (17.64 points a week)
Brian McCann 337 (13.48 points a week)
Kurt Suzuki 320 (12.8 points a week)
Russ Martin 313 (12.52 points a week)
Yadier Molina 310 (12.4 points a week)
Jorge Posada 288 (11.52 points a week)

and so on.  Joe Mauer did not play all season so he averaged 23.38 points a week if you subtract time spent on disabled list. Joe Mauer was so much better than every other catcher. If you were up against Joe Mauer and you were lucky enough to have Victor Martinez, you already had to make up 6 points. 6 points was roughly 2% of the total points in an average week scored.

2% does not exactly scream super awesome, Albert Pujols provided the same advantage on a weekly basis, but unlike Pujols. The 7th best player at his position wasn’t providing half the production. If you were not a V-Mart owner, and you had someone like Jorge Posada, or some blend of average catchers, you were more than 10 points behind.

Roughly 1.5 of the 6 match ups were decided by less than 10 points. This small advantage could have turned ~25% of fantasy matches.  Joe Mauer’s average draft position according to MockDraftCentral.com is 12. In the last 100 mock drafts, Joe Mauer was never taken before 4th overall, and as late at 19th.

While fantasy baseball is a lot on luck, and circumstance, and I cherry picked some of the stats, but Joe Mauer was pretty amazing last season, and even if he slows down this season, he’s so much better than other catchers, that he could be the best fantasy player in 2010, he was in 2009.