(Photo by Patrick Gorski/Icon Sportswire)
What. Is. Happening. The floodgates are open as we begin our coverage of 2018 and beyond. As with every season, we launch with the Top 20 Starting Pitchers for fantasy baseballl for 2018. Strap in, I'll be covering over 150 pitchers this week.
Tier 1: Four Score
1. Clayton Kershaw (Los Angeles Dodgers) - He's the best pitcher on the planet. You know this, your father knows this, your battery mate from high school knows this, your barber knows it. His career ERA has gone down every year as it currently sits at 2.36. If someone tells you there is a better starter in baseball, it's just wrong. However, you're going to read your fair share of articles claiming Kershaw should be dethroned as the #1 SP in fantasy land and it all hinges on one point: Kershaw's back forced him to the DL in two straight seasons, reducing him to 21 in '16 and 27 starts last year. That's not a bad argument, and I don't entirely disagree with it. The point that is often left out is that none of Scherzer/Sale/Kluber made more than 32 starts last season. Injuries are commonplace, and outside of a few arms here and there and those part of the "Hertz Tier" where you'll be thrilled to get 25 starts out of them (you'll see it in the Top 40), I'm going to be lenient on docking points for "injury risks." Everyone is an injury risk. If you take Scherzer over Kershaw, you're not only banking that Kershaw gets hurt, but also that Scherzer doesn't. That's also ignoring the much better chance of Kershaw outperforming Scherzer across the innings he does pitch. I won't own him - I'm taking hitters in the first three rounds because I believe I can get value later and through the year - but if your thing is to grab a starter early, then the first off the board should be TATIAGA: The Ace That Is Always Gonna Ace.
Great read. Love the new site. Looking forward to more articles!
Thanks BT! Today’s just a small taste of the content we’re going to giving everyone moving forward – think eight articles a day when the season starts.
Took me a minute to realize I was on Pitcherlist.com (linked from /r/fantasybaseball). Looking forward to the new format and being unable to focus on work for the duration of the season. Thanks!
Feeling goooooood about getting Price so late in the mock :D Now if only I can get close to that in the REAL drafts!
So excited for reading a year of PL articles! This is awesome! Great job Nick & staff.
Is NFBC ADP generally considered to be the best resource for draft planning?
I’m excited to read about Godley tomorrow at #21 :)
Great read ,so excited about some Swings and misses coming our way,with breakdowns to follow of course!
You seem to be shockingly low on all 4 Cubs pitchers (assuming Arrieta re-signs)
I don’t think I could find another guy that doesn’t think any of the big 4 of the Cubs is a top 20 pitcher…
Is it that surprising? The NFBC only has one of the four inside the Top 20 – Jose Quintana – who is currently the 19th SP off the board.
Lester and Hendricks should be out of the Top 20 without a doubt, I can see an argument for Arrieta and Quintana, but to me they both have their flaws that push them just outside of it.
Why do u guess the humidor will be installed around June? Have u heard the rock band Avatar?
Hail the Apocolypse is amazing.
It’s just a loose guess. The latest from the Diamondbacks was that they were planning an announcement around opening day, which to me suggests they would be announcing something that would be completed well into the future. About two full months seemed right, who knows, really.
You should be member of BBWAA!
Ha, thanks!
That would be an incredible honor, though I don’t think I meet their requirements just yet of attending MLB games as a member of the press.
Someday maybe…someday.
Noice. Do you consider Archer an SP2 or 3?
I think SP 2 considering his strikeout ability.
Not someone I’m targetting as I’ll be targetting Price with at a much bigger discount than Archer, or if I miss on him, I’d gladly go Castillo/Godley instead.