[pitcher_list list_id=”21606″ 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:
- There were a lot of injuries this week, from Shohei Ohtani to Stephen Strasburg and Mashiro Tanaka, paired with bad news to Yu Darvish and a big shrug to Walker Buehler’s situation. Please note this when looking at the plenty of positive changes this week as nearly everyone got some bump due to this.
- Regarding Buehler specifically, you may be surprised to see little change to his rank. Simply put, he was going to be capped innings wise anyway, which means that the overall season outlook doesn’t change a whole lot – in fact, in some ways it could be better for those that are in H2H leagues, as Buehler could now theoretically be around for your playoffs depending on how much time he misses.
- There was a bit of shuffling in the 20-45 range, primarily with ratio-types like Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks, and Dallas Keuchel seeing movement down as upside arms like Dylan Bundy, Eduardo Rodriguez, Andrew Heaney, and Jameson Taillon all showing many signs of being legit #2/3 arms through the year.
- Ross Stripling continues his hot season and even with a questionable outing yesterday, it was time to slot him at #40.
- I’m surprised how much I like Mike Foltynewicz’s slider, but his jump to Top 50 was more influenced by my distrust in Sean Manaea and Kenta Maeda, while the injured stars of Darvish/Buehler/Tanaka/Ohtani also fell behind.
- Joining The List this week are Clay Buchholz (new cutter could be legit), Domingo German (high risk/reward arm), Seth Lugo (may get time in the rotation), Dylan Covey (groundball fiend), and Marco Estrada (plenty better with changeup last two starts).
- Making room for these pitchers and leaving The List are Shelby Miller (not worth the stash), Julio Teheran (five straight games with 3 walks, always a headache, even against the Padres!), Jordan Lyles (rare upside expression with a terrible floor), Anthony DeSclafani (could turn into a Toby, just wasn’t enough room for him and haven’t seen the stability yet), and Nick Kingham (demoted to the minors, will rejoin the list the moment he returns, but we don’t know when that will be).
- I sat and stared at this List trying to find room for Ivan Nova, but ultimately he’ll get slotted as #101 for those that have a gripe. Mike Fiers (shocking, I know), Zach Eflin, and Steven Wright were also heavily considered but there simply isn’t enough room to feature everyone.
