Here are your morning rankings for today’s starting pitcher options.
It’s not perfect and will be far from the actual results at the end of the day, though it should give guidance for those questioning who to slot into your lineup on a given day.
Note: I’ve made a change moving forward to this daily article. I’ll now be including 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.
Pitchers highlighted in yellow = Possible streaming options.
FS = False Starter where there is an assumed opener actually starting the game.
Red = Postponed.
Today’s Starting Pitcher Rankings
| Rank | Pitcher | Matchup |
| 1 | Trevor Bauer | @ SEA |
| 2 | Noah Syndergaard | @ PHI |
| 3 | Aaron Nola | vs. NYM |
| 4 | Clayton Kershaw | vs. CIN |
| 5 | Luis Castillo | @ LAD |
| 6 | Yusei Kikuchi | vs. CLE |
| 7 | Yu Darvish | @ MIA |
| 8 | Jon Gray | @ SD |
| 9 | Joey Lucchesi | vs. COL |
| 10 | Trevor Richards | vs. CHC |
| 11 | Matt Shoemaker | @ MIN |
| 12 | Freddy Peralta | vs. STL |
| 13 | Martin Perez | vs. TOR |
| 14 | Heath Fillmyer | @ CHW |
| 15 | Dakota Hudson | @ MIL |
| 16 | Shelby Miller | vs. LAA |
| 17 | Ervin Santana | vs. KC |
| 18 | Hector Velazquez | vs. BAL |
| 19 | Matt Harvey | @ TEX |
| 20 | Dan Straily | @ BOS |
Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher Rankings
| Rank | Pitcher | Matchup |
| 1 | Stephen Strasburg | vs. SF |
| 2 | Tyler Glasnow | vs. BAL |
| 3 | Matthew Boyd | vs. PIT |
| 4 | Robbie Ray | @ ATL |
| 5 | Shane Bieber | @ SEA |
| 6 | Jack Flaherty | @ MIL |
| 7 | Joe Musgrove | @ DET |
| 8 | James Paxton | vs. BOS |
| 9 | Chris Sale | @ NYY |
| 10 | Jon Gray | @ SD |
| 11 | Max Fried | vs. ARI |
| 12 | Jose Quintana | @ MIA |
| 13 | Collin McHugh | @ OAK |
| 14 | Mike Minor | vs. LAA |
| 15 | Kyle Gibson | vs. TOR |
| 16 | Kenta Maeda | vs. CIN |
| 17 | Aaron Sanchez | @ MIN |
| 18 | Steven Matz | @ PHI |
| 19 | Brandon Woodruff | vs. STL |
| 20 | Nick Pivetta | vs. NYM |
| 21 | Pablo Lopez | vs. CHC |
| 22 | Frankie Montas | vs. HOU |
| 23 | Dereck Rodriguez | @ WSH |
| 24 | Nick Margevicius | vs. COL |
| 25 | Mike Leake | vs. CLE |
| 26 | Jorge Lopez | @ CHW |
| 27 | Tyler Mahle | @ LAD |
| 28 | Reynaldo Lopez | vs. KC |
| 29 | Dylan Bundy | @ TB |
| 30 | Matt Harvey | @ TEX |
(Photo by Samuel Stringer/Icon Sportswire)
Start one
Kikuchi vs CLE
or
Flaherty @ MIL
I have a hard time trusting Pivetta over Montas, despite the tough HOU matchup. I call it PTSD, Pivetta Traumatic Stress Disorder.
It’s a risky play either way, I figured I’d go with the higher strikeout upside in Pivetta.
I’d bench both in 12-teamers though.
Thoughts on Trevor Cahill if he gets the start over Harvey? My opponent has 16 projected starts this week compared to my 8. Pitching cats: Wins, QS, Ks, ERA, WHIP, Saves and Holds. Thanks
Not the worst play out there, though if you’re that overmatched in volume, I’d focus on ensuring you nail down WHIP/ERA. You may find yourself losing all of it if you just throw everything at it.
Didn’t see Lucchessi vs. Hoffman on 4/15 ranking.
Thanks for the heads up! Just added them in.
Just a heads up you’ve got both Jon Gray and Matt Harvey pitching both days.
Hey Nick, I think this is an awesome list. Do y’all have any feelings on tiering this out like you do “The List?”
Curious what that would accomplish. They are already ordered – don’t know what arbitrary tiers would do. Whether you start any of them is completely based on your league’s settings.
One of the few daily articles I like on ESPN gives an estimated Gamescore to each of that days’ pitchers. The great part is they have them ordered 1-?, but that Gamescore gives you an idea of if it’s a strong slate of pitchers.
Sometimes that dropoff between the guy at 4 and 5 on a given day is rather large. On other days the 13th ranked pitcher could be as good as the 5th on a weak day. I feel like tiers would help distinguish confidence level to supplement the rank. Or at least some extra information that shows why they’re ranked the way they are.
Hey Sean, thanks for the feedback!
I’m trying to avoid the full on sit/start approach and want to give more of a guiding hand for those debating between a few options.
I have hesitation saying flat out “don’t start” since some days you have no choice but to start those guys.
I’ll think about this. It wouldn’t be much work to add another column of “Start” “Maybe” “Sit”, but again, I’m not sure if that’s what we want.
Skipping Thor today and might regret it. Limited to 7 GS. W, QS and Ks rule and I don’t love the matchup. I would greatly prefer Nola here. Should be a fun game to watch for sure.