The List 4/2: Ranking The Top 100 Starting Pitchers Every Monday

[pitcher_list list_id=”16289″ season=”2018″ include_stats=”1″]

Welcome to The List – The weekly top 100 rankings of starting pitchers in fantasy baseball for the rest of the season. Use this list to help make choices on the waiver wire and as a tool to gauge trade value in your fantasy leagues. These rankings are made with 5×5 H2H standard 12-team leagues in mind.

Let’s talk about how the SP landscape has changed since last week:

• To the surprise of few, little changed in the Top 30 with one start (or in some cases none!) not acting as enough to make sweeping changes for sturdy arms.
• Gerrit Cole and Shohei Ohtani each impressed plenty on Sunday, with Cole’s increase of sliders and disappearance of his sinker leading to 20+ whiffs forcing me to give him a little love. Ohtani looked ready in his outing, and with Chase Anderson featuring a small velocity drop (it’s early) and Trevor Bauer not cruising, Cole and Ohtani saw minor jumps.
• Luke Weaver struggled to miss bats and took a minor dive behind the “Hertz Tier” all of whom (save for Richards whose stuff was looking great despite the end line) excelled in their outings.
• It was the ideal Dylan Bundy outing as he showcased 92mph velocity, plenty of sliders, and good stamina through the later innings. It could fall apart next time out, but he deserves a little love over Lucas Giolito who labored mightily and Danny Duffy’s declining velocity. It’s still early and these could flip back, but I felt the need to express the current trend.
• With Patrick Corbin, Kenta Maeda, and Sean Manaea all surpassing expectations in their 2018 debut, I had no choice but to slot Jacob Faria behind them as his command was a bit off against the Red Sox.
• I’m loving the heavier curveball usage of Jake Odorrizi in his start against the Orioles, while Mike Minor looked solid in his first start since 2014, granting each a sizeable boost. J.A. Happ looks ready to be a stable Toby for another year, making me feel like I was a bit low on him prior.
• We wanted Kevin Gausman to pick up where he left off at the end of last year, but he was all over the place against the twins and takes a considerable hit this week. He may just need some time to get his rhythm, but for now you should be chasing other options.
• Felix Hernandez, Kyle Gibson, and Marco Estrada also saw considerable jumps this week. Felix made his lacking stuff work against the Indians and it’s possible he can turn into a crafty starter through the year. Gibson impressed by using plenty of breaking balls to embarrass Orioles batters, while Estrada is exhibiting stuff akin to his 2015 and 2016 self. Keep an eye on these three.
• Joining The List this week are Tyler Skaggs, Ian Kennedy, Rick Porcello, and Caleb Smith. Skaggs looked as good as ever in his first start of 2018 and while I don’t trust it through the year, I can see him being of some help in deep leagues. Same goes for Kennedy, who could be a decent source of strikeouts. I’m no fan of Porcello, though I’ll acknowledge it’s possible he can go sub 4.00 ERA across 25-30 starts this season. Lastly, Smith induced a whopping 15 whiffs in his Friday night outing, forcing me to raise an eyebrow as a deep league add.