3/13 update: I have since updated these rankings on March 13th. Check out those rankings here.
It's day 3 of our 2017 Starting Pitcher rankings for Fantasy Baseball after going over the Top 20 and Top 40 and now we're going through the Top 60. It gets a little trickier now as you need to balance upside and stability as you're beginning to close out your pitching staff.
Tier 4: Trailer Parkour Boys
41. Garrett Richards (Los Angeles Angels) - New tier here of eight guys that are pretty dang risky, but come with a thrill that some people will enjoy chasing. Just like those fools climbing absurdly tall buildings without harnesses n stuff. Anyway, there is a reason I've called Richards a PEAS for a while and it is tempting to called him APPEASED but I'm not fully sold. The most obvious question mark is the fact that his 2016 was shortened by a UCL tear that somehow didn't require TJS. He should be back as the opening day starter for the Halos, but the obvious concern is still there. But if we're assuming a fully healthy Richards, what can we expect? I'd say about a 8.00+ K/9 with a walk rate hovering 3.20 BB/9 and an ERA around 3.40. That's...fine? To be fair, there is plenty of room to grow - his Fastball is gorgeous and will be the catalyst for a 50%+ groundball year, mixing in Two-Seamers with a sweet Cutter. I mean, I love the idea of Richards - Cutters one way, Two-Seamers the other, with Sliders going down and the ocassional slow hook to mess around with batters. Oh, and then there's his Changeup that I refuse to acknowledge since he only started throwing it last season and it did not look pretty. There's big potential here if he harnesses his command of his heater, but you can't expect that when he's been away from the game this long and he doesn't have a history that would indicate it was right around the corner. At the end of the day, Richards could be overlooked in your drafts - he deserves to be drafted in the top 175 - just don't expect the impact size of Richards to be all that big. Was that a terrible joke? Yes. Yes it was.
IMHO…. Shoemaker deserves more credit. He fundamentally took off last year, because he changed his pitch mix. The new Shoe is a hard to square up guy with respectable k rates. I think you’ll see a solid floor be established next year with mid-3s era along with respectable k/9.
I’m not necessarily against that and I’m higher on him than the ADPs thus far…There have been a bunch of stretches in his career that have been horrendous though and that risk is still apparent even as he started throwing more Splits and moved away from his Slider.
Problem is that he’s now nearly a straight two-pitch pitcher, which doesn’t make me incredibly confident as far as upside goes. He’ll need to mix in that Slider more and throw it better if he wants to be a consistent force.
(Also, fix that damn Fastball Shoemaker!)
How concerned are you about Ross’ injury history?
Not all too much? I think it isn’t significant enough to turn me away for 2017
Having watched him pitch more than a few times, I feel like if he could just stay healthy for a season or two and could really figure out how to use the sinker/split-change to set up that slider he could be really nasty, but until he does that he won’t develop at all.
Good gosh..are you going to be posting a love list anytime soon?? I’ve read your top sixty and I can’t take seeing all these gosh darn risky pitchers that are probably going to end up on my team cuz I tend to draft hitters in my early rounds. I’m sick to my stomach.