[pitcher_list list_id=”18782″ season=”2018″ include_stats=”1″]
Welcome to The List – The weekly top 100 rankings of starting pitchers in fantasy baseball for the rest of the season. Use this list to help make choices on the waiver wire and as a tool to gauge trade value in your fantasy leagues. These rankings are made with 5×5 H2H standard 12-team leagues in mind.
Let’s talk about how the SP landscape has changed since last week:
- David Price too a drop, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given his walk tendencies thus far. I don’t think this is a freefall for him, but his value is clearly on the downward trend while guys like Patrick Corbin, Trevor Bauer, and Sean Manaea should demand more on the market.
- I had no choice to drop Shohei Ohtani (injury questions), Garrett Richards (inconsistent performances) and Jose Berrios (back-to-back poor horrific outings, the Reds? Really?), though keep in mind that it turns into one massive grab bag starting around Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers and going down.
- An oblique injury took Robbie Ray out of his start on Sunday and I have to imagine he’s landing on the DL for a good while, forcing a massive drop.
- Jose Quintana looked like his old self over the weekend, while also averaging 92.5mph in Coors, allowing me to move him back up. Expect good things moving forward.
- Another good jump came from Michael Fulmer who suddenly elected to miss bats – 24 whiffs! – and deserves more attention.
- Jameson Taillon and Mike Clevinger each fell a decent amount, but don’t let the sheer number turn you away from them. I couldn’t deny guys like Miles Mikolas, J.A. Happ, Rick Porcello, and Eduardo Rodriguez there well-deserved jumps, and it makes sense given the lack of strikeouts from Clevinger + the lack of polish from Taillon. Still, they are at the bottom end of a long tier and are still good buy low options.
- There’s been a huge debate about Nick Kingham’s spot, and given his excellent debut with a well-commanded heater and excellent slide piece, I slotted him in the Top 70. Pick him up for his next start of Friday and see what the Pirates do after that.
- In addition to Kingham, there’s plenty of discussion about Caleb Smith who fanned 19 in his last two starts. I’m not sold that his command is here to stay – Kingham’s is better – but he deserves your attention as he gets the Reds in his next outing.
- Once again, Kyle Gibson has earned the spotlight after showcasing a fantastic slider against the Yankees, fanning 10 and becoming a popular pickup for his two starts this week.
- With the demotion of Jack Flaherty, it’s now time to favor Luiz Gohara as the better stash, who looks to be just over a week away from a possible promotion. Given his assumed security in the Braves’ rotation and similar upside, he gets the nod over Flaherty.
- A large number of players made their debuts this week: Walker Buehler was called up and made a quick impression – given Hill’s absence, he needs to be added in 12-teamers. Trevor Cahill and Tyler Skaggs each performed well despite a tough pair of matchups, while Junior Guerra, Brandon McCarthy, and Ivan Nova have proven to be solid streaming options.
