Here are today’s daily SP Streamer rankings.
Every day of the 2023 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 10am – 12pm ET. If you have questions about 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. This includes “if I have them rostered, I’m starting them” pitchers.
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-not-elite pitcher or a weak lineup for a volatile arm. These pitchers have a 50% or greater chance of performing well in my view.
Questionable Start – Think of this tier as “I don’t want to start these pitchers in a vacuum, but you could do worse.” Streamers found in this tier are not pitchers I’m targeting and are only if you are in dire need of one. To play it safe with streaming, just start the Probably Start streamers.
Do Not Start – The reward is not worth the risk. Don’t do it. Seriously, these pitchers have a very slim chance of success or sometimes none at all.
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 that day’s streaming pick in the second tier and I’d roll with them everywhere. Those in Yellow are in the third tier and should be okay if you’re searching for something on a given day, but I don’t recommend streaming unless you’re in need. 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 (in Alphabetical order):
I’m sure it’ll change through the year + there are differences to be made about teams vs. LHP or RHP, but it works as a general table that y’all should keep in mind.
Alright, let’s get to it.
This year, with our new daily fantasy baseball projections powered by PLV, I’ll be competing against PL Bot to pick the best streaming option each day.
To get access to PL Bot’s picks each day, sign up for PL Pro here.
Nick’s 2023 Streamer Record: 20-20
My pick yesterday: Mike Clevinger @ KCR
PL Bot’s 2023 Streamer Record: 19-21
PL Bot’s Pick yesterday: Mike Clevinger @ KCR
Want PL Bot’s pick today? Sign Up for PL Pro here.
Today’s Starting Pitcher Rankings
- It’s unfortunately a small top tier for Friday’s games. Corbin Burnes hasn’t been as dominant as Gerrit Cole or Spencer Strider this year, but the wide gap in opponent slots Burnes as our #1 play for the day.
- Sonny Gray is vying for an AGA label this year, though facing the Cubs after his first shellacking of the year isn’t ideal. Here’s to hoping that was a brief trough in his 2023 campaign.
- In the second tier, Graham Ashcraft and Martín Pérez are the Toby types with fantastic matchups that deserve a high ranking.
- Under them are a few arms who I’m going with despite rough lineups in their crosshairs. Blake Snell is still working out the kinks of his arsenal, Dustin May is giving me all kinds of fits (despite his great start last time out) and Chris Bassitt feels like a Holly who has healed himself of the maladies that plagued his April.
- The streaming pick of the day is J.P. France as he squares up against the drab White Sox. I don’t see France as a rising star, but his repertoire has enough depth to produce for trusting managers.
- Finally, there’s Logan Allen, who I hovered between Tier 2 and Tier 3. On one hand, he’s only had one truly disappointing outing, though his stuff isn’t overpowering and the Angels have ruined many days for starters this season.
- In the third tier, I am so excited to watch Eury Pérez as he makes his debut for the Marlins, but I have to stick to my rule of not putting MLB debuts in the second tier or higher. Still, pick him up now and if you want to start him because”what is fantasy baseball without a little fun?” then you’ll be joining me in the party.
- Marco Gonzales has been far from what you want, but his pitch execution has been great as of late. An evening against Detroit may be the one start we circle and get production out of him.
- The rest of the tier is a minefield. Ryne Nelson gets a good matchup but hasn’t executed his secondaries, MacKenzie Gore has shifty command and faces the Mets, Tylor Megill is far from trustworthy, Matthew Boyd doesn’t get slider whiffs, Drew Smyly didn’t have his curve last time out, but could recover against the Twins, and Tyler Anderson’s changeup is back and faces a weak Guardians crew.
- Johan Oviedo is a Cherry Bomb who may have his best command against the Orioles, while Kyle Bradish on the other side may have his two breakers and earn a Win.
- In the bottom tier, James Paxton makes his return to the bigs after, checks notes, 1.1 innings in 2021. Wild. Apparently he’s sitting mid-90s and it would make me so thrilled to see him have his renaissance. Keep your health expectations very low here.
- Alex Wood is returning from the IL and while there could be some value during the year, it’s a very clear Still ILL situation.
- Updates: The Royals looks to be doing a bullpen game instead of calling up Daniel Lynch. No bother, of course.
Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher Rankings
- At the top are the easy calls, but you may be surprised by Bryce Miller sneaking in at #5 against the Tigers. I trust his heater plenty and Detroit isn’t a team I expect to jump on his heater a whole lot.
- On top of that, Joe Ryan is a similar arm at his core (great heater, meh secondaries) and gets a tougher matchup, placing him below Miller.
- I want Joe Musgrove to have his AGA label back, but he has to endure the Dodgers and I want to see him obliterate once first.
- At the start of the second it may be a shock that it’s Jon Gray against Oakland over Dylan Cease against Houston. Gray showed up with his best slider and fastball last time out and now faces one of the weakest lineups around, while Cease has been all kinds of volatile and has to face the Astros again. Rough times for those with Cease on their rosters.
- Continuing with the second tier, Chris Sale jumped up to 96 mph in his last start (he hit 99!) and now faces the struggling Cardinals. Like Jon Gray, I hope Sale’s outing wasn’t a one-time affair.
- Nick Lodolo has effectively removed hair off the heads of trusting managers, though the Marlins should be a lovely palate cleanser as regression to the mean is sure to come.
- I’m still a believer in Reid Detmers‘ repertoire and a start against the Guardians is the type of floor you want with a chance to produce massively in the box score.
- Anthony DeSclafani closes out the tier with a start against Arizona. It didn’t go well last time out, but I imagine he won’t chuck everything down the middle this time around.
- In the third tier, Hayden Wesneski is a decent option against the Twins, but I’m not sure if he’s getting enough whiffs with his breaker.
- The rest of the tier are all Toby types in questionable matchups. If you’re chasing six frames or a Win, they are decent enough plays but I’d avoid them in any scenario where ratios need to be protected.
- The bottom tier has a boatload of arms. José Berríos still can’t be trusted as he faces Atlanta, Roansy Contreras only has one good pitch, Zack Greinke has a good matchup (but does it matter?), Steven Matz did fine against the Tigers and now gets the Red Sox, Adrian Houser isn’t worth your time against a heating-up Royals crew, and you don’t want to Still ILL Ranger Suárez in Coors. That’s just silly.
- Our streaming pick of the day for the second time in three days goes to a member of the bottom tier – JP Sears. I need to pick someone and I do like Sears’ fastball and slider…just not against Texas. At all.
Featured Image by Kurt Wasemiller (@KUWasemiller on Twitter / @kurt_player02 on Instagram)