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 – 11am 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.
(Opener) – Outlines that a pitcher is being opened for that day & the pitcher listed will follow the opener.
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: 24-10
Today’s Starting Pitcher Rankings
- The top tier begins with Shohei Ohtani and we should all be so thankful for it. What a time to be alive.
- Do I feel that Sandy Alcantara is the de facto #2 play? Not really given his recent command questions. That said, the rest of the crew here do not have the best matchups and I’ll keep the faith that Sandy has a TIARA and will showcase last year’s slider once again.
- At the bottom of the top tier, there’s The Great Undulater himself, José Berríos. I know it’s against the Yankees and he hasn’t been himself, but Berríos is one of those arms who performs how he performs regardless of opponent. He fluctuates like this every season and if you have him rostered, you start him. This is the way.
- I’m also a fan of Alex Cobb hosting Rockie Road in San Francisco. Cobb’s last start looked like everything we’ve wanted from Cobb this year, making Wendesday’s game a prime opportunity for resounding success.
- In the second tier, I had some trouble with the bottom half of arms. Chad Kuhl has been on a ridiculous run with his improved slider and while I’d hope he could face Arizona a second time, the Giants aren’t as scary against right-handers in their home park.
- Ian Anderson has been a Cherry Bomb this season and I understand some wanting him in the tier below. He’s looking better across his last few starts than the atrocity we saw in early April and with the Red Sox struggling, I’m throwing him out there.
- There’s also Jameson Taillon as he’s fresh off a strong outing against the same Jays crew last week. I think if you have him on your rosters, you’re letting him fly.
- Our streaming pick of the day can be found in the second tier for the first time in a while with Nick Martinez facing the Cubs. While I don’t think that Martinez is quite as polished as he can be at the moment, he went seven strong last time out and the Cubs shouldn’t be a major hurdle to stop his momentum.
- The third tier is a short one and starts with Adrian Houser against the Reds. I know, he just had that start and disappointed us, but considering this tier is all about 50/50 chances, you can argue that his sole bad start was the wrong side of the coin.
- With Aaron Civale going 30% curveballs and 30% cutters last time out, I can’t but wonder if this start against the White Sox (poor against right-handers!) will generate some extra hype for Civale moving forward…or we may see him return to his April self with a 90 mph heater.
- And why not, Vince Velasquez has earned a surprising amount of whiffs lately and the Guardians aren’t the toughest opponents out there. I could see this working one more time.
- In the bottom tier, Zach Logue could draw some eyes against the Tigers. I don’t think there’s enough here to properly chase for me to consider starting him, but there’s an outside chance he puts together 5+ frames to make it worthwhile for daring managers.
- There are plenty of unfamiliar names in the bottom tier and in general, avoid them. Watch what they do in their young careers and maybe we’ll start A.J. Alexy or Ryan Pepiot down the road – don’t put yourself in harms way now.
- That includes Brady Singer as he returns from the minors. I sure hope he’s doing more than sinker/slider these days.
Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher Rankings
- We have only a few games on Thursday with many teams using their matches as a buffer day for their rotations. It means only Dylan Cease sits inside the Top tier, looking around like John Travolta and wondering where everyone went.
- In the second tier, Luis Garcia gets the Twins and should be safe to start. His cutter was incredible last time out and while the heater wasn’t at 95 mph, I’m hoping we see both the velocity and the cutter excel in this one.
- In the third tier, Josh Winder is coming off a fantastic outing but gets a proper challenge against the Astros. He’s a 90/91 mph kitchen sink guy who happens to throw 94/95 and it gives him a chance to earn outs without damage against any squad.
- Our streaming pick of the day is a tough choice and I’m leaning toward JT Brubaker as he faces the lowly Reds away from Cincy. Coffee Cakes has his breakers working as of late and this is as much of a gift of a matchup as he could hope for in PNC Park.
- I almost gave the nod to James Kaprielian after fanning seven in his previous outing. I see him in the same mold as Anthony DeSclafani, Cal Quantrill, and Casey Mize, making this a worthy stream if you need the extra start this week.
- With Jordan Hicks sitting under 70 pitches in each of his last two games, I’m a little hesitant to chase a strong outing against the Orioles, despite their unintimidating lineup.
- The Yankees had a doubleheader earlier this week, forcing a sixth starter for this turn of the rotation. They’ve elected to go with Luis Gil for the spot start, who fanned nine and walked none in his last start in the minors. Don’t get too excited – he walked eleven batters in his three previous starts combined. It’s a 50/50 if this works.
- I also don’t love the idea of starting Taijuan Walker against the Nationals. His fastball velocity was down once again last time out and without a strong fastball, Walker becomes a glutton for punishment.
- In the bottom tier, there really isn’t much to chase. Connor Overton has been serviceable as of late and maybe he can make it work for another start against the Pirates.
- Don’t rule out Beau Brieske performing well against the Athletics – I wouldn’t gamble it in my 12-teamers, but those in deeper leagues could find five innings with decent ratios against a mediocre lineup.
Featured Image by Drew Wheeler (@drewisokay on Twitter)