![\"http:\/\/a323.yahoofs.com\/ymg\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts__26\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts-787405017-1270825465.jpg?ym5XN9CDGNT52jVn\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/a323.yahoofs.com\/ymg\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts__26\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts-787405017-1270825465.jpg?w=780\")
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As we discussed in last month’s position primer<\/a>, there’s not exactly a shortage of elite young prospects at catcher right now. Three of Baseball America’s top 10 minor leaguers<\/a> are catchers, and so is the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2010 MLB Draft<\/a>. <\/p>\n For near-term fantasy purposes, Cleveland’s Carlos Santana<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> could very well be the most interesting backstop who hasn’t yet arrived in the big leagues. The switch-hitter made his Triple-A debut with the Columbus Clippers on Thursday, and it went better than anyone could have reasonably expected. Santana was 4-for-5 with two homers, one double and four RBIs. His team absolutely destroyed Indianapolis, 17-4. And it happened to be Santana’s 24th birthday. <\/p>\n So that’s a pretty good day. If you’ll check the box score from Thursday’s massacre<\/a>, you’ll notice that Columbus’ opening day lineup also featured Russell Branyan<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> (3-for-3, double, RBI) and a collection of names that have haunted AL\/NL-only rosters in recent seasons (Crowe, Duncan, Buscher, Bixler, Carrasco). If you’re involved in an International League fantasy setup, let’s hope you drafted a Clipper-heavy roster. (Also worth noting: Pedro Alvarez<\/a>(notes)<\/a>,<\/span> the No. 2 overall pick in the 2008 draft, homered for Indy. He’s a good bet to finish the season in Pittsburgh). <\/p>\n As for Santana, it would hardly be a surprise to see him make the jump to the majors relatively soon, prior to the All-Star break. He isn’t blocked by anyone too intimidating; Lou Marson<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> and Mike Redmond<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> are a combined 0-for-11 for Cleveland thus far. Santana needs to simply continue hitting as he always has — 44 total homers over two seasons, .431 OBP in ’08, .413 in ’09 — while demonstrating that he’s recovered from off-season hand surgery<\/a>. He’s of course already owned in competitive dynasty leagues and AL-only formats. When he arrives in Cleveland, he’ll be a recommended mixed league add, too. <\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Photo via AP Images <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As we discussed in last month’s position primer, there’s not exactly a shortage of elite young prospects at catcher right now. Three of Baseball America’s top 10 minor leaguers are catchers, and so is the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2010 MLB Draft. For near-term fantasy purposes, Cleveland’s Carlos Santana(notes) could very well be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3567,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-712996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-2ZtW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3567"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":814634,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712996\/revisions\/814634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}