Starting Pitcher Streamer Rankings – 6/8 & 6/9

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: 37-22

 

Today’s Starting Pitcher Rankings

 

• Pretty clear auto-starts per usual here, with our boy Sandy Alcantara nestling into the nook that is the first spot on the ranks. Expect 100+ pitches and possibly yet another seven-inning outing.
• Shohei Ohtani is stuck with another tough matchup after his disaster against the Yankees. I wouldn’t overthink this – he has a poor history against New York – and I’d still start Ohtani against the Sawx. Update: Looks like Ohtani got pushed back a day and Reid Detmers goes today. Don’t start Reid.

 

• In the second tier, I did consider a moment if Sean Manaea was worthy of jumping into the top tier. The Mets are a tough squad, though, and I brought him down a notch for it. Still very worth your start.
• Despite his nightmare against the Cardinals, you should still be starting Marcus Stroman against the Orioles next week. Brush off the previous outing and anticipate a Quality Start ahead.

 

• I know Alex Wood hasn’t blossomed with his extra velocity quite yet this year, though a start against Rockie Road could be the outing where he begins to get his love this year.
• I placed Logan Gilbert at the bottom of the tier as I’m a bit intimidated by the Astros, but ultimately if you have him on your squad, you’re letting him fly.

 

• In the third tier, we have a whole lot of Toby arms getting great matchups, including Merrill Kelly and Dane Dunning. I think you’re safe starting both, but there’s still a mediocre floor that brings them down here.
• With Monday’s rainout, Konnor Pilkington gets pushed to Wednesday, killing his two-start week. Still, this start against the Rangers is the bottom half of the top tier of starters among the “Questionable Starts”, a crew likely better than most other Third Tier options this week. Update: It’s actually Shane Bieber today, Pilkington tomorrow. Start Bieber, of course.

 

• That top half includes our streaming pick of the day in Alex Faedo. He gets the lowly Pirates (even if they messed up the Dodgers) and is armed with a wicked slider. I’d go after this.
• I’ve made my concerns about the legitimacy of Yusei Kikuchi pretty clear over the last two weeks, but he does get the poor Kansas City offense and he should be relatively safe there.

 

• In the bottom half of the tier, I’m not quite sure what to do with José Urquidy. He hasn’t been as effective across his four-pitch mix as we’ve seen in the past and the Mariners are a dangerous crew. Weigh your options here.
• Josiah Gray is fresh off a high strikeout game against the Reds and could repeat it against the Marlins. Be wary, though – Josiah could destroy your ratios in a heartbeat.

 

• There are two final options here I elected to keep in the third tier. Mike Minor just returned from the IL and gets the Sneks, making a decent opportunity for his secondaries to steal a productive outing. It feels like a coin flip.
• The same goes for Jordan Lyles against the Cubs. If he has his slider and/or curveball working, he could skate through and provide dividends to bold managers.

 

• In the bottom tier, I don’t want to trust Brady Singer against the Jays. I’m worried his slider/sinker combo isn’t quite enough and he’ll get punished a bit too frequently.
• I’m far past trusting Mitch Keller, even if he’s going against one of the most struggling offenses out there. Not even Detroit will pull me back in.

 

• I recognize that Corey Kluber just pulled it off against the Yankees, but the Cardinals are as hot as any team out there at the moment. It’s not worth it.
• I’m super curious what we see from Jared Koenig making his MLB debut on Wednesday. I don’t start debuts so he’s in the bottom tier (and he’s a southpaw against Atlanta!), but keep an eye out for him.

 

Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher Rankings

 

• Look at those aces at the top of the ranks on Tuesday. Corbin Burtnes and Gerrit Cole are obviously #1 and #2, though Max Fried at #3 may be a little jarring. However, Shane McClanahan has a plenty tougher matchup and Fried’s floor against the Pirates earns him the bronze ranking.
• At the bottom of the tier are Shohei Ohtani and Dylan Cease. Ohtani is stuck with another tough matchup after his disaster against the Yankees. I wouldn’t overthink this – he has a poor history against New York – and I’d still start Ohtani against the Sawx.

 

• As for Dylan Cease, I know the Dodgers are scary, but Cease’s ceiling is far too high to consider benching him here. Take the chance, make it happen – h*ck, Michael Kopech soared on Tuesday night, after all.
• I can see some also auto-starting Nick Pivetta against the struggling Angels and I don’t blame you. I think I’m a little tepid on how long this run will last for Pivetta, placing him in the second tier. It seems a touch too fragile to me.

 

• Also in the second tier is Tyler Anderson, who is on one h*ck of a roll himself. The White Sox are better against left-handers and I’m skeptical his changeup can consistently earn double-digit whiffs, but hey, things are cool.
• The streaming pick of the day can be found in the third tier as we may finally see Konnor Pilkington pitch this week as he now gets the Athletics on Thursday. He looked great last time out against the Royals and that changeup could make it another fun day at the park.

 

• We have many starts that could go either way in the third tier. Tyler Mahle hosts the Sneks, Zach Eflin could have his curveball once again, Miles Mikolas is a Toby facing a struggling Rays crew, and who knows if this is the start Trevor Rogers finally kicks it into gear.
• We also have the return of Stephen Strasburg on Thursday as he faces the Marlins. He faced 20 batters in his final rehab start, meaning he could go 5+ strong here. I’m cautious and am labeling this a Still ILL, but there’s a decent chance he pulls through.

 

• The final two arms of the third tier are decent coin flips if you need some help. James Kaprielian is a certified Toby against the mediocre Guardians. Don’t rule it out.
• Then there’s the volatile Coffee Cakes, JT Brubaker. Atlanta is poor against right-handers, making for a start where Brubaker’s breakers (Brubreakers?) excel for a productive stream.

 

• The bottom tier doesn’t bring a whole lot of intrigue. Despite Zach Davies having his best changeup recently, I still don’t want to take the chance on his floor in HR-heavy Cincinnati.
• And lastly, Bruce Zimmermann gets a nice matchup against the Royals, but he hasn’t come through with his changeup or slider as of late. I’d wait until later in the season to be more confident for a start.

 

Featured Image by Drew Wheeler (@drewisokay on Twitter)