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: 4-3
Today’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 convince 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.
Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher Rankings
- It’s your standard first tier on Friday. You have your aces – Carlos Rodón, Freddy Peralta (please) – you have your solid pitchers who you’re not sitting – Chris Bassitt, Pablo López, Dylan Cease – and you have that one guy who is good enough with a fantastic matchup.
- That man is Zach Eflin as he gets the Marlins. You drafted him specifically for his starts against Oakland and Miami and we’re still rolling with it. Just don’t feel the need to hold on for his next start in Coors.
- The second tier is a short one today. First up is The Bear as he faces off against the Orioles of Baltimore. I still don’t love his heaters and cutter, but the curve and change are certainly good enough to make this worthwhile.
- It wasn’t the best of season debuts for Tarik Skubal, but I think he’s stuff is good enough to warrant a start against the Royals.
- Then there’s the questionable tier. Oh lordy this is a lot. I want to begin by saying that the third tier is generally a place for starters I don’t want to start. If I am rolling them out there with bravado of any kind, they are in tier 2. Got it? Cool.
- I can do a blurb on essentially everyone in here but I’m going to try to condense it as much as possible. Bear with me
- Joe Ryan wasn’t looking great in his first start of the year and gets the mighty Sawx on Friday. I believe in him long term, (h*ck, I believe in him before April is over) but this start gives me the willies.
- The streaming pick of the days is Reid Detmers as he gets the Rangers. If this were a worse offense, I’d be rolling him out there in tier 2, but Texas is looking strong early. As for Detmers, I believe he’s plenty better than the first start of the year and has legit upside we’ll be seeing shortly. Will it be in this one? Ehhhh we’ll see.
- Nick, that wasn’t a whole lot of confidence in Detmers and there are so many other names in this Tier! Well they aren’t so great either, you know. There’s a game happening in Coors and that’s all kinds of trouble. Kyle Wright was solid in his first start, but the Padres could mess him up if his command is any worse. On the other side is (likely) the exciting debut of MacKenzie Gore, but how long will he go? And against Atlanta?!
- Some are still hyped about Tony Gonsolin who gets a solid matchup against the Reds in Los Angeles, but I don’t have much faith in his slider returning as we want it to. He’s looked shaky for a good while now and I’m not ready to commit.
- So take your pick if you’re searching for a Friday starter. Maybe Ross Stripling against the Athletics is the best one in the end as the Jays wanted to give their starters an extra day of rest early in the season. Or, why not, Drew Rasmussen’s ridiculous BABIP stretch continues against the powerful ChiSox lineup.
- Oh and there’s Nick Pivetta and Miles Mikolas as well because sure, let’s get everyone in here. Pivetta is a strikeout play with risky ratios, while Mikolas is the opposite, hoping to capitalize on the best defense in baseball behind him.
- In the final tier, I can see some being tempted by Jake Odorizzi or Brad Keller. Odorizzi could still be piggy-backed by the Astros, preventing him from going 5+ frames & faces a decent offense in Seattle. Keller had himself a strong outing against the Guardians, but I have a little more fear of the Tigers squad. If you’re dire for a QS, Keller could be the answer, but otherwise there isn’t enough to chase.
- For one more consideration, Mitch Keller gets the Nationals and will likely earn a strikeout per inning. His slider and curveball are not fully developed yet, though, and there’s a low floor here that I’d advise you to avoid altogether.
Featured Image by Drew Wheeler (@drewisokay on Twitter)