Starting Pitcher Streamer Rankings – 6/14 & 6/15

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: 41-24

 

Today’s Starting Pitcher Rankings

 

• It’s a short top tier on Tuesday with Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Dylan Cease, and Logan Webb all clearly leading the way. Don’t think twice, just do the dang thing.
• Some may not feel as though Chris Bassitt deserves a spot in the top tier given his recent struggles. It’s absolutely fair and I don’t have an issue dropping him into the second tier. Personally, I think his skill set is still intact and he’s worth the gamble against the Brewers. If you have him, you’re starting him.

 

• In the second tier, Sean Manaea, Miles Mikolas, and Nick Pivetta are all clear starts with their great matchups. Yes, I know how weird it is that we feel confident in Pivetta, but hey, it’s the world we live in right now.
• It looks as though Joe Ryan will be toeing the slab for the Twins on Tuesday as he returns from his COVID-IL stint. There’s a feeling it could be a Still ILL outing, but I generally believe in Ryan’s ability and think his floor isn’t too low here.

 

• Should Logan Gilbert be in the third tier? I think his heater is still excellent and while the secondaries haven’t taken the leap we hoped to see this season, he’s still a strong play each outing. The Twins are a mighty team, though, and I don’t blame you if you want to be a little conservative here.
• The streaming pick of the day is Zach Eflin as he’s rostered in just 19% of leagues. Shocking, I know. He’s utilized his curveball plenty more over the last two weeks and it could be a major factor in this start against the Marlins…or it could fail to do enough and the floor shows itself once again. It’s not a lock, but I’d go after it if I could.

 

• In the third tier, I feel incredibly weird placing Shane Bieber at the top of the Questionable options, but he heads to Coors in what may be his worst possible scenario. Bieber’s fastball is his biggest liability at sub 91 mph levels, leaning heavily on his slider to carve lineups. However, Coors’ biggest impact is reducing movement on breakers, which may mean Shane can’t get by like he normally does. I’m worried.
• It’s really hard to place Noah Syndergaard these days as he’s shown the ability to cruise through 6+ frames, but has a propensity for disaster outings. Now it’s the Dodgers and it induces far more anxiety than I’d like.

 

• The rest of the third tier isn’t pretty, either. José Urquidy isn’t carrying the repertoire depth we envisioned in the off-season, Yusei Kikuchi doesn’t appear to be the breakout arm we hoped he was, and we’re not in a place with Matthew Liberatore where we’re confident he can take advantage of a date with the Pirates.
• Our backup streamer would be Zach Davies against the Cincinnati Reds as his vintage changeup has appeared across his last few outings. Hosting the Reds does make for a possible celebration in Arizona.

 

• I wish Trevor Rogers didn’t have to face the Phillies on Tuesday as he featured an excellent heater and changeup in his last outing. All that’s missing is his slider at this point and he could survive this outing as he takes more steps forward toward redemption. It may be a bit too risky, though, so you do you.
• In the bottom tier, Corey Kluber has a date with the mighty Yankees and despite some success against them, that’s far too dangerous for me.

 

• Despite Kyle Hendricks facing the right-handed weak Padres, the floor is simply too low to chase at this point. I wouldn’t be rostering Hendricks at all right now.
• The rest of the bottom tier is mostly poor matchups for middling arms. I wouldn’t take chances on JT Brubaker or Dane Dunning, nor would I expect Stephen Strasburg to suddenly throw 93 mph after sitting sub 91 in his first start back. There are better streams to chase later in the week.

 

Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher Rankings

 

• It’s a stacked top tier with many favorites at the top followed by Pablo López as he goes against the Phils. There is slight concern that the comebacker to his wrist will affect Wednesday’s outing, but it’s too small of a variable to make any changes to your lineup.
• At the bottom of the tier, Nestor Cortes will hopefully bounce back against the Rays and Luis Castillo should be able to take advantage of the Sneks. Easy choices here.

 

• In the second tier, Zac Gallen will go opposite Castillo and gets the Reds on the road. Even with his recent bumps on the road, that’s too good of an opportunity to pass up.
• I love what I saw from Luis Garcia in his last start – 95 mph, 50%+ CSW on his slider, a solid cutter – and I’m crossing my fingers we see the trifecta a second time against the Rangers.

 

• Also in this tier are Tyler Anderson and Roansy Contreras. The party came to a halt for Anderson as he faced the White Sox last time out and while the Angels aren’t pushovers, Anderson’s 2022 season demands you give you him a second chance before losing all your faith.
• As for Roansy Contreras, he stumbled against Atlanta, but the Cardinals have been an average offense over the last two weeks and with Contreras’s solid four-seamer and slider command as of late, I’d feel good starting him here.

 

• The third tier begins with a tried-and-true Toby in Kyle Gibson against the Marlins. He’s rostered for starts like these and while I don’t expect the world, he’s a play most will be making.
• Our streaming pick of the day follows in Andre Pallante, a pitcher I’m sure some of you aren’t aware of. He tosses a cut-fastball in the mid-to-upper 90s with a solid breaker and will be starting instead of Steven Matz in a cushy matchup against the Pirates. This has legit sneaky stream potential that I’m cool taking a chance on.

 

• It’s a fun day for young streamers with Caleb Kilian and Alex Faedo also facing teams that struggle against right-handers. If Faedo has his slider working, he’ll come out on top, while the major question for Kilian is how long the Cubs will let him go. All three young arms could impress on Wednesday and I’m excited to watch them.
• Closing out the tier is Sonny Gray who will be returning from his stint on the IL as he suffered a pectoral injury. It’s a Still ILL in my book as we don’t know how long the Twins will let him go in this game + the Mariners can put up a crooked number.

 

• The bottom tier is a large one and I wouldn’t go diving into this one. From Marco Gonzales facing an elite Twins offense to Reid Detmers getting the Dodgers and James Kaprielian squared up against Boston, there is so much risk that you don’t want to touch.
• I guess David Peterson and Vince Velasquez could make something happen, but their floors are awfully low and are not worth the gamble. Don’t do it.

 

Featured Image by Drew Wheeler (@drewisokay on Twitter)