In my preseason preview of fantasy catchers, I warned that drafting a catcher with consistent offensive prowess is not often an easy task.
That seems to be true thus far in the 2009 baseball season with many top-tier catchers being unproductive. Fantasy owners have probably endured some level of frustration at catcher unless they have Victor Martinez or Bengie Molina on their team.
The top two catchers in fantasy baseball coming into the season, Joe Mauer and Brian McCann, have each spent time on the disabled list. Mauer missed the Twins' first 22 games; McCann lost 13 games with vision problems before returning to the Atlanta lineup Friday night.
Fantasy owners who have either Mauer or McCann are probably through the worst part of the season now that they have their top backstops back in the fold. Other owners, though, are still in search of an effective catcher.
Jorge Posada was having a good season, hitting .312 with five homers and 20 RBIs until a hamstring injury on Monday landed him on the disabled list. Ryan Doumit, a chic option as a top-10 catcher, broke his wrist on April 19 and is out for another two months.
Even those catchers that are healthy are not performing well. Entering Saturday, Russell Martin and Geovany Soto had combined to hit .224 with no home runs and 18 runs batted in. Chris Iannetta had his power stroke working with six home runs but was hitting a mere .212. Matt Wieters is stuck at Baltimore's Triple-A affiliate.
Fortunately, for fantasy owners looking to bolster their roster behind the plate, a number of previously unheralded catchers are enjoying good seasons at the plate.
One of the bright spots for the lowly Washington Nationals is their catcher Jesus Flores. Flores is in his third year with the Nats and his first as the everyday catcher. Through Friday, Flores was hitting a respectable .314 with four home runs and 15 RBIs. Flores is currently on pace to hit 23 homers and drive in 86 runs.
Historically, Flores has not had a lot of power; only once in the minors did he reach double figures in home runs. He did go deep eight times last season in 324 plate appearances, so he could conceivably leave the yard between 12 and 15 times this year. Flores is currently a free agent in two-thirds of all leagues and might be a good long-term solution.
John Baker quietly earned the Marlins' catching job after a strong second half of 2008. Baker hit .299 with five homers and 32 RBIs in 61 games last year. This season, Baker is continuing to hit well, although he does not have a tremendous amount of power.
Baker was hitting .288 through Friday with 21 runs scored. Only Victor Martinez has crossed the plate more times among catchers than Baker. The Florida catcher has three home runs and 14 runs batted in, so he is not the greatest long-term solution. He does serve as a good stopgap until a fantasy team's primary catching gets it going. Baker is available in roughly half of all fantasy leagues.
Of the catchers who have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, Oakland catcher Kurt Suzuki has the second-highest average at .324. Suzuki is another catcher that will not threaten opposing pitchers with long-ball potential, yet he does have the ability to drive home base runners when he has the chance.
In a stretch of a dozen games from April 21 to May 6, Suzuki had 13 RBIs. Of course, in the previous 12 games, he had not driven in any runs. Despite his inconsistency in the RBI department, he is a steady batsman and can help fantasy owners immediately in the one-fourth of leagues where he is a free agent.
Dan Massey's Fantasy Sports appears each Sunday. E-mail him at dmassey@lnpnews.com. 
