Starting Pitcher Streamer Rankings – 8/16 & 8/17

Every day of the 2022 baseball season, I’ll be looking at today and tomorrow’s slate of scheduled starting pitchers and ranking their matchups for your fantasy baseball streams.

There’s a lot that goes into this and you can hang out with me on Twitch.tv/pitcherlist to talk about the specific ranks as I make them every weekday morning from 9am – 11am ET. If you have questions about these ranks, please ask during the morning Twitch AMA. Those are my office hours as I generally don’t answer comments on the site.

There are four tiers to these rankings with 12-teamers in mind:

Auto-Start – Just do it. Don’t overthink this, start the man.

Probably Start – I’m likely starting these arms, though I recognize there is more risk than we’d like there to be. Either it’s a tough matchup for a good pitcher or a weak lineup for a volatile arm.

Questionable Start – There are situations where I’d take the chance, either with strong enough upside on the ability side, or a poor offense that a pitcher could take advantage of.

Do Not Start – The reward is not worth the risk. Don’t do it.

Obviously, there will be circumstances where pitchers should move between teams for your situation specifically and these new tiers should act as a little more help than the straight table from last year.

Please keep in mind that streaming is far from a perfect play. In fact, if they work out over half the time, I’d consider it a success. These matchup rankings & streamer picks are going to be wildly different than the actual results throughout the year, so please, have sympathy before the scathing comments and tweets. I’m only trying to help!

Make sure to read the notes if you’re wondering why I’m favoring certain pitchers over others – I won’t get to everyone and hopefully I answer what questions you will have.

There is a second table for tomorrow’s starting pitcher matchups as well, helping everyone get a jump on their nightly pickups. Please note that these matchups are subject to change, though, and there will be times when I have the incorrect pitcher going. I thank you for your future understanding.

Finally, there are my streaming picks of the day, and please keep in mind that I am forced to pick a streamer every day. Those highlighted in Green are in the second tier and I’d roll with them everywhere. The most common are those in Yellow in the third tier and should be decent if you’re searching for something on a given day. Finally, those are Red are those I really don’t want to start (they are labeled as “Do Not Start”, after all) but have no other choice. Don’t stream these guys until you are truly desperate. A streaming pick is defined as “rostered in 20% or fewer leagues,” which really emphasizes the point that I’d be happy if over 50% of these worked. I could do the whole sub 30/40% rostered, but there’s no fun in that. You can use the rankings to realize who would be those picks, instead.

(Opener) – Outlines that a pitcher is being opened for that day & the pitcher listed will follow the opener.

As I do my rankings, I thought it would be helpful to showcase a table of how we’re ranking offenses:

I’m sure it’ll change through the year + there are differences to be made about teams vs. LHP or RHP, but it’s a great general table that y’all should keep in mind.

Alright, let’s get to it.

 

2022 Streamer Record: 70-53

 

Today’s Starting Pitcher Rankings

 

• We have your standard aces in the top tier, mixed with some Nestor Cortes as he faces the Rays. He seems back on track and the Rays aren’t a terrifying crew to stop us from starting him.
• Brandon Woodruff and Dylan Cease are faced with the toughest challenges on Tuesday, though their ceilings are too high for us to reconsider, especially the roll Cease has been on for the last two months.

 

• The second tier is a tough one to wrangle. I’m leading with Charlie Morton as he faces the Mets, though he has been a bit more volatile than we’d like across the last six weeks.
• There’s a grouping of Zach Plesac, Sean Manaea, Merrill Kelly, José Quintana, and Justin Steele who could arguably be interchanged as they all face weak opponents. The Tigers are just that poor on the road and against right-handers that Plesac leads the way, though I’m starting all five of them wherever – including today’s streamer Justin Steele against Natty Lite.

 

• I wonder if the San Diego Padres aren’t quite as talented of an offense as I’ve been giving them credit with the additions of Soto and Bell. It makes me consider Edward Cabrera more favorably than I expected as he’s produced in both of his starts since returning from the IL.
• Sonny Gray and Taijuan Walker round out the tier, each coming in with questions. Gray’s breakers aren’t the pitches we want them to be and Taijuan Walker’s first-half magic may be dwindling, but I think managers with them on their squads will let them start regardless.

 

• The third tier begins with Jeffrey Springs against the Yankees. I’ve dug Springs command lately + the Yankee offense is sputtering and it may dictate a strong outing on Tuesday.
• Despite facing off against the Pirates, I don’t have a whole lot of faith in Nick Pivetta, making it a coin flip in my mind, similar to Kyle Gibson on the road in Cincinnati.

 

• In the bottom tier, some will be tempted to start José Suarez or JP Sears against decent offenses. I don’t think either one has enough of a ceiling to encourage risking their floors.
• The rest of the tier is awfully underwhelming, even Jakob Junis against the Diamondbacks. He’s not replicating the elite slider & changeup we saw earlier this year and has too high of a chance of lasting fewer than five frames.

 

Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher Rankings

 

• There are only two “defacto” plays for Wednesday with Max Scherzer and Carlos Rodón sitting at the top. You don’t need me here.
• We could have more names inside the auto-start tier, but I elected to only add Jordan Montgomery as he’s been as comfortable as can be as part of his new team in St. Louis. He’s been given another gift in Rockie Road and I don’t see a reason not to start him.

 

• In the second tier, all four of these names have an argument to be in Tier 1. George Kirby has dominated the Angels, the Marlins aren’t much of an offense for Mike Clevinger to deal with (I’m worried about Clev’s underwhelming secondaries), Tyler Mahle gets a favorable matchups against the Royals, and Cal Quantrill squares off against the Tigers on the road. This should be a lovely stroll in the park for Cal.

 

• The third tier begins with our streaming pick of the day in Drew Smyly. His curveball has been fantastic over the past few weeks and an evening with Natty Lite could return another high strikeout total with the hook consistently earning whiffs.
• Both Smyly and Domingo Germán are a step above the rest of the options inside this tier. Germán gets a mediocre Rays offense and has been competitive with his entire arsenal in his limited time in the rotation. There’s a solid Win chance present as well (despite the struggles of the Yankee offense) and I’d feel fine letting him get the pearl.

 

• As for the rest of the tier, it’s hard to feel comfortable. Nick Lodolo hasn’t had his command and can be labeled as a Cherry Bomb as he faces the Phillies – his stuff is great and could lead to him soaring, or he could allow multiple longballs inside Cincinnati’s home park.
• Rich Hill looks tempting against the Pirates, but we never know how long he’ll go for and if he has enough in the tank to make it worthwhile.

 

• The final two are Corey Kluber and Michael Kopech facing two strong lineups. Kluber faces his former team in New York and may come out ahead with their bats failing to come through recently. Still risky, but you may be okay here.
• As for Michael Kopech, his velocity was up last time out, though we’ve seen it fall back down constantly, and without his best stuff, the Astros could have their way with him. Be careful here.

 

• The bottom tier has more intrigue than usual on Wednesday. Ranger Suárez is hoping to replicate the late season magic of 2021 and may survive an evening in Cincinnati. Eric Lauer + Jake Odorizzi each have difficult lineups ahead as well, though they each have the ability to go 5+ strong and could pull it out.
• I have a soft spot for Cole Ragans as he faces the Athletics. His performances haven’t been worthwhile so far, though his stuff speaks to nibbler along the edges who could thrive against a weak offense like Oakland. I wouldn’t chase it, but something to keep an eye out for.

 

• It’s not fair Daniel Lynch and Austin Voth have to deal with the Twins and Jays, respectively, as my adoration is growing for each of them. It’s far too risky on Wednesday, but I may be leaning on them later on in the year.
• And then there’s Touki Toussaint, who I can see managers favoring more than I am against the Mariners. I don’t believe his command is as good as we saw last time out and the Mariners are a dangerous squad. I’m avoiding this.

 

Featured Image by Drew Wheeler (@drewisokay on Twitter)