Every day of the 2022 baseball season, I’ll be looking at today and tomorrow’s slate of scheduled starting pitchers and ranking their matchups for your fantasy baseball streams.
There’s a lot that goes into this and you can hang out with me on Twitch.tv/pitcherlist to talk about the specific ranks as I make them every weekday morning from 9am – 12am ET. If you have questions to these ranks, please ask during the morning Twitch AMA. Those are my office hours as I generally don’t answer comments on the site.
There are four tiers to these rankings with 12-teamers in mind:
Auto-Start – Just do it. Don’t overthink this, start the man.
Probably Start – I’m likely starting these arms, though I recognize there is more risk than we’d like there to be. Either it’s a tough matchup for a good pitcher or a weak lineup for a volatile arm.
Questionable Start – There are situations where I’d take the chance, either with strong enough upside on the ability side, or a poor offense that a pitcher could take advantage of.
Do Not Start – The reward is not worth the risk. Don’t do it.
Obviously, there will be circumstances where pitchers should move between teams for your situation specifically and these new tiers should act as a little more help than the straight table from last year.
Please keep in mind that streaming is far from a perfect play. In fact, if they work out over half the time, I’d consider it a success. These matchup rankings & streamer picks are going to be wildly different than the actual results throughout the year, so please, have sympathy before the scathing comments and tweets. I’m only trying to help!
Make sure to read the notes if you’re wondering why I’m favoring certain pitchers over others – I won’t get to everyone and hopefully I answer what questions you will have.
There is 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.
Finally, there are my streaming picks of the day, and please keep in mind that I am forced to pick a streamer every day. Those highlighted in Green are in the second tier and I’d roll with them everywhere. The most common are those in Yellow in the third tier and should be decent if you’re searching for something on a given day. Finally, those are Red are those I really don’t want to start (they are labeled as “Do Not Start”, after all) but have no other choice. Don’t stream these guys until you are truly desperate. A streaming pick is defined as “rostered in 20% or fewer leagues,” which really emphasizes the point that I’d be happy if over 50% of these worked. I could do the whole sub 30/40% rostered, but there’s no fun in that. You can use the rankings to realize who would be those picks, instead.
As I do my rankings, I thought it would be helpful to showcase a table of how we’re ranking offenses. Dave Swan does an incredible job of showcasing future SP matchups every 2-3 weeks in this article, and I’ve elected to use his offense ranks to share with all of you here:
I’m sure it’ll change through the year + there are differences to be made about teams vs. LHP or RHP, but it’s a great general table that y’all should keep in mind.
Alright, let’s get to it.
2022 Streamer Record: 3-3
Today’s Starting Pitcher Rankings
- It’s ace day and I mean ACE. DAY. That’s 17 auto-starts and if you have any qualms with the order of these fellas, by all
Johnsmeans, change them as you like. Yes, even José Berríos facing the Yankees after his 0.2 inning disaster is worth your time. He’s The Great Undulator, after all. - Fine, one more note. I have Robbie Ray a bit further down than you’d expect after his seven-inning performance for two reasons. 1) The White Sox are great against lefties. 2) His velocity was down two ticks last time out. Here’s to him overcoming both.
- In the second tier it’s…Eduardo Rodríguez. And just E-Rod, alone. I was even tempted to push him into the third tier as he wasn’t particularly sharp in his first start of the season and the Red Sox are a strong squad. Still, he has the potential to go deep in this one and if you’re rostering Rodriguez, you’re likely starting him.
- I almost had both Nick Lodolo and Triston McKenzie in this tier as well, but I felt better pushing them down into tier three. I’m incredibly excited about Lodolo, but I wonder what his pitch count will be (maybe I’m being too harsh with Hunter Greene going over 90 pitches!) + it’s Great American Ballpark. It’s the same situation for McKenzie, who doesn’t get to face his own squad. I’m excited for both this year, but be cautious if you can in their first outings.
- Joining the youngins in the third tier are two vets. Merrill Kelly becomes the streaming pick of the day with Lodolo rostered in 71% of FanTrax leagues and I’d pass for the most part. I enjoyed watching Kelly fan seven Padres, but the Astros are a tough crew and even with Kelly’s potential of going 5-6 frames, I’d not take the risk.
Zack Greinke did well against the Guardians to kick off the year, but the Cardinals are a bit tougher and I’m not sure Greinke has the stuff to make this worthwhile.Update: The Cardinals vs. Royals game has officially been postponed due to rain.
- In the final tier, there are a pair of intriguing options if you can look past their risk. Zach Thompson is making his first start of the season against the questionable Cubs offense and if he’s allowed to flirt with 80 pitches, there could be a Win in store…or his cutter and curve could fail and this disappoints everyone. Don’t risk it.
- I absolutely adore the strikeout potential of Josiah Gray given his filthy curve and slider, but his fastball gets crushed often as he fails to wield it properly, and facing the mighty Atlanta offense is a danger I don’t want to face.
Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher Rankings
- How would you rank the starters in tier one? I’m electing to go with Charlie Morton as the top play simply because he doesn’t have it as rough as the other starters. If you feel better about Sandy Alcantara against the Phils or Shohei Ohtani against the Rangers, go for it all you like.
- I added Adam Wainwright and Kyle Gibson to the end of the top tier as they should be given the full green light in their starts. Waino was pushed back to Thursday with the rainout and is likely to keep rolling against a middling Brewers lineup, while Gibson is fresh off a 10 K performance and could continue the trend in Miami.
- In the second tier, I wrestled with where we should place Luis Severino. He’ll be around 75 pitches against a mighty Jays lineup, but his velocity has returned to 96/97 mph with the Yankee bats on his side. I understand carrying hesitation, which is why he’s been demoted to the second tier for this week.
- Logan Gilbert was also dealt a tough hand against the White Sox and don’t let his first outing concine you he’s fully developed already. There are still kinks to iron out in his slider and changeup and they could be exposed against Chicago.
- The third tier is small and contains ole’ Zack Greinke as he now faces the Tigers instead of the Cardinals. Not a whole lot changes with the new opponent and he’s a decent play for a Quality Start if you need one.
- I don’t feel great about this one, but I’m choosing Joan Adon as Thursday’s reluctant streaming pick. He faces a mediocre Pirates team and could feature a good enough fastball/slider combo to produce in 5-6 frames.
- In the bottom tier, I wouldn’t call myself a fan of any of these starts. There’s a chance Coffee Cakes (JT Brubaker) is able to produce against the Nationals, or maybe Kyle Freeland’s strikeout spree against the Dodgers continues as he hosts the Cubs in Coors, but these are spins of the wheel I don’t want to make.
- Lastly, keep your eye on Cole Irvin. I hate his matchup against the Rays, but if he’s still featuring 92-93 mph velocity with improved secondaries, this outing could pave the way for some streams in future weeks.
Featured Image by Drew Wheeler (@drewisokay on Twitter)