Starting Pitcher Streamer Rankings – 5/4 & 5/5

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.

(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: 20-7

 

Today’s Starting Pitcher Rankings

 

• Despite the volatility we’ve seen from Freddy Peralta this year, he’s hosting the Reds on Wednesday. Yeah. The Reds.
• It’s unclear at the moment if Shohei Ohtani is indeed starting against the Red Sox as he’s nursing a groin injury. If he’s pitching, you start him. Update: It’s Reid Detmers, who lands in the “Questionable Start” tier as we have yet to see his slider effectively come into play.

 

• The second tier isn’t as comfortable as we normally see. Nestor Cortes Jr. and Alex Wood each have unfavorable matchups but if you have them rostered, it’s in your best interest to start them regardless.
• MacKenzie Gore is still in the Padres rotation (for now) and a date with the Guardians should be beneficial to managers who have held tight through the haze.

 

• Our streaming option of the day is Kyle Bradish, who has an all-around solid repertoire and should be a safe bet against the Twins.
• I was tempted to put Ian Anderson into the second tier as well, but the Mets offense has done damage and Anderson has yet to find a comfortable groove.

 

• If you’re looking for another streaming option, consider Elieser Hernandez as he faces the Diamondbacks. His slider is legit and the Snakes are not.
• We have a sea of Toby pitchers in the third tier, from Madison Bumgarner and Corey Kluber to Adam Wainwright and Cal Quantrill. All can make this work, the question is if the reward is worth the risk.

 

• Speaking of risk, the second half of tier three is filled with Cherry Bombs. We’ve seen both sides of Kyle Hendricks and the White Sox, despite performing terribly against right-handers this year, may display Hendricks’ ugly side.
• Matt Brash and Garrett Whitlock are confusing plays for Wednesday. Brash has an elite ceiling, but has fallen in a valley lately and could face a ton of trouble against the Astros. Whitlock only tossed 60 pitches last time out, making for a short ceiling against a tough Angels crew.

 

• There’s a chance Dylan Bundy pulls it off against his former squad, but after last week’s fall from grace, it’s hard to confidently place your bets in his favor.
• I wish I could believe more in Tony Gonsolin, but his slider hasn’t returned the number of strikes I want to see, his velocity is down, and the Giants rough up pitchers constantly.

 

• In the bottom tier, José Quintana is fresh off a Golden Goal, but I’d be shocked if he were able to replicate success against the Tigers.
• I’m a bit intrigued about Austin Gomber, though he performs much better on the road than in Colorado, where his breakers aren’t quite as impressive.

 

• Update: We have many doubleheaders after Tuesday rainouts, which means Alex Faedo is likely making his MLB debut, Mike Clevinger’s return from TJS comes today, and many starters were bumped to Thursday, like Cal Quantrill and Tarik Skubal. Plan accordingly.

 

Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher Rankings

 

• Lots of fun arms are going on Thursday, though none of them are the defacto #1 play with most facing tough opponents. These are auto-starts for a reason, though, and don’t overthink it. Start em all.
• Yes, Jesús Luzardo deserves to be included in this crew today as the Padres aren’t a monstrous lineup to get in the way of a potential double-digit strikeout performance from Luzardo.

 

• In the second tier, I wish Miles Mikolas were facing a weaker crew, but given how well he’s pitched after his initial stumble, you’d be hard-pressed to find a manager who doesn’t let him fly in San Francisco.
• Between Tarik Skubal and José Urquidy squaring off, take your pick. I’m leaning on Skubal as he’s showcased a higher ceiling as of late, but Urquidy’s deep arsenal could prevail as he’s facing a weaker offense.

 

• The third tier isn’t nearly as rough as we normally see. The first three plays are all facing middling teams and could prevail, including Hunter Greene despite his drop in velocity. The Brewers have woken up in the past two weeks though – 103 wRC+ across the last 14 days – so be cautious if you can.
• Opposite Greene is our streaming pick of the day, Adrian Houser. I have little adoration for his approach, but the Reds are the Reds and Houser could go six strong.

 

• It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Nick Martinez, who has had an even split of helping vs. hurting this season. He gets the Marlins, who like the Brewers have been a little above average recently. Here’s to hoping he brings his best stuff to the table for a smooth time at the park.
• The final two arms – Cal Quantrill and Taijuan Walker – each have tough squads to endure and could have a rough go of it, even if Walker just survived the Phillies & Quantrill simply “finds a way” often.

 

• In the bottom tier, I have little interest in these pitchers, even in deeper leagues. There’s a chance Spenser Watkins pulls it off, or Chris Archer survives on the other side, but I don’t think it’s worth the risk.
• I do wonder if Tanner Houck will follow Rich Hill in this outing like we saw last week. It could make a sneaky chance at a Win…if the Red Sox are ahead against Shohei Ohtani.

 

Featured Image by Drew Wheeler (@drewisokay on Twitter)