The List 4/24: Ranking The Top 100 Starting Pitchers Every Monday

Every Monday during the season, I will be releasing “The List” where I rank the current value of the Top 100 pitchers in fantasy baseball for the rest of the season. Use these rankings to help understand what to expect from pitchers for 2017 and as a tool to gauge trade value in your fantasy leagues. Note: These rankings have been made with H2H 5×5 12-teamers in mind.

Let’s see how the SP landscape has changed:

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Notes

• Madison Bumgarner is expected out for 6-8 weeks, which means he’ll be out until the end of June. That’s a huge blow for owners and it’s incredibly difficult to place him appropriately on The List. He’ll be creeping up slowly week-to-week and he’s obviously a great target if you think you can afford the stash for a playoff push.
• While I understand Kyle Hendricks is known for slow starts, it looks more like his elite command wasn’t sustainable as he’s already allowing over 40% hard contact thus far. He’s obviously still rosterable, but it’s hard to take him over other players who are performing well.
• Ivan Nova is showing no signs of slowing down and his future schedule is absurdly good. I don’t think he screams Top 35, but he’s putting up a great floor that makes him a solid arm for any staff while avoiding tough matchups.
• The first month for Gio Gonzalez has been excellent and he deserved a major jump above other options that have been in tumultuous waters.
• It’s getting hard to put faith in Kevin Gausman and Daniel Norris given their struggles in the early going. Norris isn’t showing the same velocity he had in September that hinted at an explosive 2017, which Gausman’s Fastball command – the backbone of his approach – isn’t where it should, preventing him from attack with his Splitter. Both pitchers could jump back soon, but they need to show it on the field a few starts first.
• Luis Severino and Zack Wheeler both expressed their upside, especially the former who has been everything we dreamed he would be. There’s still caution for both, but the reward is worth the risk over the options in the 60s and beyond.
• The Dodgers don’t know what to do with Kenta Maeda, who has been all kinds of disappointing this season. I still think the skills are there for success, but it may take a week or two to get there, especially if they plan to skip him once to give him side work.
• Aaron Sanchez, Sonny Gray and Jake Odorizzi are getting closer to returning and earn relative bumps as well.
• Joining this week are a number of pitchers. Jason Vargas’ hot start, while not sustainable, shouldn’t be ignored and be taken as a flier as he pitches well. Brandon McCarthy has displayed his upside fully in his first four starts and can be a good play in 12-teamers, though I wouldn’t expect him to stay healthy and perform well through the season. Chase Anderson is in the same boat, bringing a little more volatility but more strikeouts as well. Chris Tillman is expected to return in the next two weeks and while far from the most exciting fantasy option, he can be a decent floor pitcher to earn some Wins without destroying your ratios. Antonio Senzatela’s excellent debut season should be taken with a grain of salt, but I’m okay starting him given the right circumstances. Finally, I can’t ignore Dan Straily putting up 14 strikeouts, though don’t expect anything close to that in his next outings.
• Leaving The List this week were a number of players, some who just missed the cut, like Jordan Montgomery and Brett Anderson, while Garrett Richards’ injury knocks him out for what could be the whole season, and Matt Andriese, Hisashi Iwakuma, and Wily Peralta aren’t consistent enough to warrant a roster spot.