The List 6/24 – Ranking The Top 100 Starting Pitchers Every Week

[pitcher_list_new list_id=”32912″]

 

Fringe Starters

 

 

What is happening!

It’s another week and another edition of the Top 100 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball.

Before I dive into the player notes, here’s an outline of how I’m handling The List this season:

• Previous/Best/Worst columns removed
  • These took a heavy chunk of loading time and ultimately provided very little value. The change arrows themselves are all that’s needed
• Tiers added
  • As much as I hate making tiers (When do they start and end? How big are the cliffs?), ya’ll have been asking for them and I’m here for all of you. Please understand how hard it is to accurately place them and don’t get too worked up about it.
• Labels added
  • There’s often confusion as to why a pitcher is a spot or two above or below another. These labels should help understand what each pitcher brings to the table, showing that some pitchers may be better or worse for what you need.
  • Hover over them (or tap on mobile) to see each label’s name next to the pitcher.
  • Ratio Focused = Their value lies in you chasing their ERA/WHIP more than strikeouts and Wins.
  • Toby = Boring arm that doesn’t excite you, but you stare at the waiver wire and accept that he just okay enough. You don’t like that he’s around the office, but he gets his work done.
  • Cherry Bomb = Volatile pitchers who are either “super sweet” or “blow up in your face.” Heed warning.
  • Ace Potential = I define an ace as: 3.40 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 24% K rate, 6.0 IPS. It’s why you see some surprising names as having the upside of an ace.
• Fringe Starters added
  • There are always a handful of starters I badly want to add to The List but I don’t have enough room. I’ll always have this table at the end for a collection of starters – in no order – that I also heavily considered, as well as why they could be relevant
  • This will be where IL Players will land. I’ll mention where they would slot when healthy.

Please let me know how you feel about these changes and I’m looking forward to another fun year assessing the wonderful entity that is the SP Landscape.

On to the notes! Remember, these ranks are for 12-teamers in H2H categories leagues.

 

Player Notes

 

• Another week, another mention of the putrid SP Landscape. It’s why Zac Gallen is instantly Top 50. It’s crazy, it’s not right for the number itself, but I don’t have a choice given how questionable the end of the Top 50 is. Remember, it’s all relative.
• It’s been super fun to watch Walker Buehler over the last month, allowing me to raise him to #8 behind his teammate Hyun-Jin Ryu. Meanwhile, Luis Castillo has to take a small dip as you have to wonder if his walk rate is going to stick around through the season.
• I’m not sure if y’all realize, but Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke are surprisingly similar pitchers this year and it’s about time I treated them as such.
• I thought I would be lowering Andrew Heaney more, but when all the guys around #30 have their warts, I’ll favor the one who has had only one truly bad outing that could easily be fixed moving forward.
• Chris Paddack returns and he’s clearly Top 30 again. Sweet.
• The rise of Lance Lynn continues as there’s little arguing that he deserves a Top 35 spot. I could see some pushing for Top 30 and I don’t blame you at all, there’s still a bit of wonder if this magic is going to disappear in heartbeat. He could continue climbing to Top 20 when all is said and done. We’ll see.
• With Rich Hill hitting the IL, it’s hard to figure out what the Dodgers will really do with the SP #5 spot. Will Ross Stripling or Julio Urias definitively take the spot? Will they both get roughly three/four frames each in these games? You never know, but one could easily get the chunk of the volume and will easily make an impact for your team.
• It’s about time I gave more love to Marcus Stroman, though I really don’t want to. Yes, that’s a weird thing to say. I think his production will fade over the summer, but you have to favor him over other options until that happens (it may never!).
• There are a lot of young arms rising to the majors now and I’m all for giving them a shot as guys like Steven Matz, Jose Quintana, and Julio Teheran are far from precious on 12-teamer rosters. I’m favoring Adbert Alzolay and Austin Voth over Elieser Hernandez and Jordan Yamamoto as each carries a strong fastball and could make an impact. No, I don’t buy the current level of production from the young Marlins duo. They just don’t bring enough stuff to the table.
• Dallas Keuchel finally returns to the majors and I’m not incredibly thrilled, but he should be steadily okay for your team. I placed him above the aforementioned rookie tier as his stability will be welcome during the tumultuous season, but his ceiling is lower than that of the youngins’.
• Dakota Hudson isn’t an arm that I anticipate being a Toby through the full year, but it’s about time I overlooked him as he’s been a solid play for a good while now.
• There were plenty of names that are very borderline droppable in leagues that are around simply because there aren’t any other options. Adrian Sampson, Martin Perez, Michael Pineda, and Trent Thornton all took understandable hits, while introductions of Vince Velasquez, CC Sabathia, Marco Gonzales, Anthony DeSclafani, and Michael Wacha could be short-lived.

(Photo by Justin Paradis – @FreshmeatComm)