[pitcher_list_new list_id=”30611″]
Fringe Starters
| Pitcher | Why They Missed The Cut |
| Jimmy Nelson | Nelson will be around the 50s when he’s back from the IL |
| Dereck Rodriguez | A Toby who hasn’t helped enough to justify his ranking |
| Lance Lynn | Too much of a Cherry Bomb with plenty of bombs |
| Zach Davies | I don’t trust his recent stretch to last |
| Nick Margevicius | Looks more like a Cup of Schmo than a rosterable arm |
| Luis Severino | The recent injury news sets him back to July 1st, hopefully. He’ll be Top 15 then. |
| Mike Clevinger | His injury has Clev out until middle July. He’ll be Top 20 then. |
| Nathan Eovaldi | Hit the IL with an elbow injury. When starting again, he’ll be 40/50s |
| Touki Toussaint | Touki has been demoted to Triple-A |
| Nick Pivetta | Pivetta has been demoted to Triple-A |
| Ross Stripling | No longer in the Dodgers rotation |
| Julio Urias | He’s now #7 on the block in L.A. Despite my love for him, he’s not worth the stash. |
| Alex Wood | I’m just going to wait until he’s back to properly rank him. Most likely in the 50s. |
| Jhoulys Chacin | Just hasn’t been able to capture the magic of 2018 yet. |
| Corbin Burnes | Demoted to Triple-A |
| Justus Sheffield | Good stash option, but I want to focus on guys in the majors now this week. |
| Martin Perez | Not enough so far to suggest rolling with Perez |
| Dallas Keuchel | He won’t be starting until May at the earliest and he’s not worth the stash on your roster. |
| Julio Teheran | Couldn’t handle Cleveland = not worth it. |
| Andrew Heaney | Shut down again with elbow trouble. That’s scary and makes his expected return even later. |
| Jake Odorizzi | Not worth the investment as he’s a Cherry Bomb with more bad than good. |
| Trevor Cahill | He may improve as April continues, for now, I’d wait and see. |
| Ivan Nova | Just not enough upside and while he’s a decent streamer, it’s never for a high ceiling. |
| Sandy Alcantara | He’s incredibly raw and the ceiling is not worth the destruction along the way. |
| Lucas Giolito | Questionable with a hamstring injury, probably return soon. |
What is happening!
It’s a new season and the weekly updates to The List have returned. I’ll be ranking the Top 100 Starting Pitchers every Monday from now until the end of the season.
Before I dive into the player notes, here are the new List features from last year’s editions:
- Previous/Best/Worst columns removed
- These took a heavy chunk of loading time and ultimately provided very little value. The change arrows themselves are all that’s needed
- Tiers added
- As much as I hate making tiers (When do they start and end? How big are the cliffs?), ya’ll have been asking for them and I’m here for all of you. Please understand how hard it is to accurately place them and don’t get too worked up about it.
- Labels added
- There’s often confusion as to why a pitcher is a spot or two above or below another. These labels should help understand what each pitcher brings to the table, showing that some pitchers may be better or worse for what you need.
- Hover over them (or tap on mobile) to see each label’s name next to the pitcher.
- Ratio Focused = Their value lies in you chasing their ERA/WHIP more than strikeouts and Wins.
- Toby = Boring arm that doesn’t excite you, but you stare at the waiver wire and accept that he just okay enough. You don’t like that he’s around the office, but he gets his work done.
- Cherry Bomb = Volatile pitchers who are either “super sweet” or “blow up in your face.” Heed warning.
- Ace Potential = I define an ace as: 3.40 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 24% K rate, 6.0 IPS. It’s why you see some surprising names as having the upside of an ace.
- Fringe Starters added
- There are always a handful of starters I badly want to add to The List but I don’t have enough room. I’ll always have this table at the end for a collection of starters – in no order – that I also heavily considered, as well as why they could be relevant
- This will be where IL Players will land. I’ll mention where they would slot when healthy.
Please let me know how you feel about these changes and I’m looking forward to another fun year assessing the wonderful entity that is the SP Landscape.
On to the notes! Remember, these ranks are for 12-teamers in H2H leagues.
Player Notes
- With his elbow problems and overall disappointment, I not only opened up the top tier, but also made Jacob deGrom the #4 starter this week. I feel his health concerns + worse slider makes him slightly less desirable than Trevor Bauer or Justin Verlander
- His teammate Noah Syndergaard also takes a hit as Thor has allowed 4+ ER in five of his six starts.
- Some of the biggest leaps this week came from Marcus Stroman, Reynaldo Lopez, Mike Minor, and Jose Quintana. Stroman has changed his approach a bit with more sliders, increasing his strikeout potential. Lopez, Minor, and Quintana are all on hot stretches and in the sea of disappointment in the 60s and beyond, they deserve the nod.
- Marco Gonzales also got some love as he’s yet to allow more than 3 ER across his seven starts this season.
- Among those disappointments are Trevor Richards, Joey Lucchesi, Derek Holland, and Kevin Gausman. Richards is getting exposed for his sole good pitch, Lucchesi doesn’t have a strong enough repertoire, Gausman will see-saw through the year, and despite my belief that Holland will recover, I have to suggest looking elsewhere at this moment before he takes his steps forward.
- With Griffon Canning making his MLB debut Tuesday, he makes an entrance on The List. Don’t think too much about this, simply grab him and see how it goes tomorrow, giving him a short leash if we don’t like what we see.
- Tyler Skaggs has returned from the IL and deserves love as a possibly strong ratio arm with good strikeout upside. He’s not as sexy as other arms behind him, but he could bring a rare sense of stability.
- A host of other names made The List this week. Yonny Chirinos is performing well enough as a False Starter to deserve consideration. Chris Bassitt’s two high strikeout starts could be the start of a trend, Trent Thornton is a decent desperate strikeout option, and John Means may turn into something with his changeup if he gets more chances in the rotation.
(Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)
