[pitcher_list list_id=”21606″ 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:
- There were a lot of injuries this week, from Shohei Ohtani to Stephen Strasburg and Mashiro Tanaka, paired with bad news to Yu Darvish and a big shrug to Walker Buehler’s situation. Please note this when looking at the plenty of positive changes this week as nearly everyone got some bump due to this.
- Regarding Buehler specifically, you may be surprised to see little change to his rank. Simply put, he was going to be capped innings wise anyway, which means that the overall season outlook doesn’t change a whole lot – in fact, in some ways it could be better for those that are in H2H leagues, as Buehler could now theoretically be around for your playoffs depending on how much time he misses.
- There was a bit of shuffling in the 20-45 range, primarily with ratio-types like Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks, and Dallas Keuchel seeing movement down as upside arms like Dylan Bundy, Eduardo Rodriguez, Andrew Heaney, and Jameson Taillon all showing many signs of being legit #2/3 arms through the year.
- Ross Stripling continues his hot season and even with a questionable outing yesterday, it was time to slot him at #40.
- I’m surprised how much I like Mike Foltynewicz’s slider, but his jump to Top 50 was more influenced by my distrust in Sean Manaea and Kenta Maeda, while the injured stars of Darvish/Buehler/Tanaka/Ohtani also fell behind.
- Joining The List this week are Clay Buchholz (new cutter could be legit), Domingo German (high risk/reward arm), Seth Lugo (may get time in the rotation), Dylan Covey (groundball fiend), and Marco Estrada (plenty better with changeup last two starts).
- Making room for these pitchers and leaving The List are Shelby Miller (not worth the stash), Julio Teheran (five straight games with 3 walks, always a headache, even against the Padres!), Jordan Lyles (rare upside expression with a terrible floor), Anthony DeSclafani (could turn into a Toby, just wasn’t enough room for him and haven’t seen the stability yet), and Nick Kingham (demoted to the minors, will rejoin the list the moment he returns, but we don’t know when that will be).
- I sat and stared at this List trying to find room for Ivan Nova, but ultimately he’ll get slotted as #101 for those that have a gripe. Mike Fiers (shocking, I know), Zach Eflin, and Steven Wright were also heavily considered but there simply isn’t enough room to feature everyone.
General question on application of your rankings. What’s the cut off for SP1, SP2, etc?
More specific question: if you owned 5 SPs in your top 20-30, and a total of 7 on your top 40, would you still be trying to swing a trade to add a name in the top 10-12, or just stand pat with solid, if not elite plays at SP?
For reference, I own McCullers, CMart, Mikolas, Pivetta, G Richards, Taillon, Godley, Castillo, J Gray, and Tanaka on DL.
I generally believe that quality depth is more important the a few top end guys and fodder at the end.
I think you should be fine with that staff.
Is Keuchel droppable at this point in a 12-teams league? I see Bundy is still available (he was dropped after his rough patch) and so is Hector Rondon if I choose the save route.
Great site! Read it every day. So…Should I pick up Tailon for fulmer, archer or newcomb, if any?
you could explain your rationale for bumping Pivetta up a few spots after the rough game?
Because there were a ton of moves down the list.
Also, if you watched that game, Pivetta actually pitched pretty well against the Cubs. That fifth inning was as frustrating as they get.
10 team, 10 keeper points h2h league would you move Castillo & Seranthony for Taillon?
Rest of my staff is solid, so I can take a few bumps as Castillo keeps figuring this out if that makes a difference.
Hey Nick, need a little roster help if you’d be so kind. I have Britton coming off the DL and 4 closers are needed in my league as the top teams utilize 4. My roster is constructed as follows 5×5 OBP/QS HTH 10 team league:
C Gary Sanchez
1B Rizzo
2B/SS Javier Baez,
3B Manny Machado
SS Jean Segura
OF OF Eaton
OF Soto
OF Haniger
UTIL Travis Shaw 3B
UTIL Ozzie Albies 2B
UTIL 1B/2B/3B Carpenter
Bench OF DeSheilds
Bench OF Kemp
These are my SP’s
SP Carlos Martinez
SP Mike Clevinger
RP Brad Boxberger
SP Carlos Carrasco
SP E-Rod
RP Kenley Jansen
RP Craig Kimbrel
SP SP Flaherty
Bench SP L.Castillo
Bench SP Sean Manaea
Bench SP Milokas
DL RP Britton
DL SP YU Darvish
So I have two questions, 1st would you drop Kemp(whos hot now but who knows for how long) or another bat to activate Britton? DeShields also seems somewhat obvious but I dont have a ton of speed without him.
2nd Pivetta was just dropped, I see you still have him as a top 25 SP, assuming he clears waivers(i have the 10th slot) which arm would you drop to add Pivetta? Thanks in advance, look forward to your column every week.
16 team league – weekly H2H – Points via 1b,2b, 3b, HR, SB, Runs and Pitchers: Inn. pitched, K’s, QS, Wins, gidp, and you lose points via a K’s as a hitter and ER and a loss as a pitcher….
We currently have Barnhart as our catcher, and are being offered Gary Sanchez for our Trevor Bauer….our other pitchers are Max Scherzer, Aaron Nola, Andrew Heaney, Luis Castillo, Nick Pivetta and Trevor Cahill.
Appreciate any feedback.
Hey nick,
Noticed that Soroka is back this week. Would love to pick him up. Who is the drop out of Cahill, Castillo, Bundy?
Cahill would be the one, pretty even move there.
Hey Nick,
Can you explain your rationale for dropping Caleb Smith down? He blew up against the Diamondbacks but I think that was a bad start anyways as the Dbacks lineup is not as bad as we thought now. I don’t think getting pulled a bit early against the Padres was that much of a red flag either
Yeah, I totally understand that. I did a deep dive on Smith for both the roundup Sunday and on the Fireside chat podcast with Sporer Sunday night, and I left feeling a bit concerned about Smith’s future, especially with three tough starts ahead (Giants twice + Coors). Had me drop him a bit.
Ross Stripling is now so good that an outing where he goes 6.2 innings, gives up 2 runs on 4 hits, and strikes out 6 with no walks is considered “questionable.” Wish all my fantasy starters were that questionable!
I suggest taking a look at this morning’s roundup for a more thorough explanation, but in short, Stripling didn’t dominate like he normally does. The result was good, but how he got there was a bit shaky.
I am always intrigued by how much people’s valuation of players can differ. For instance, Bundy is #27 here, yet Eno has him at 80. I am assuming this is because the list here doesn’t take projection system(s) into account as much?
This ain’t a projection system. That’s why it has value!
What did you consider questionable about Stripplings performance?
I suggest taking a look at this morning’s roundup for a more thorough explanation, but in short, Stripling didn’t dominate like he normally does. The result was good, but how he got there was a bit shaky.
Interesting to see Skaggs at #56. There’s several injured pitchers in Darvish, Maeda, Tanaka and Ray, two who haven’t pitched since Hector was a pup along with the well chronicled efforts of Godley, Castillo who are ahead of Skaggs.+7 is a substantial jump no doubt. For an amateur like me, I have Skaggs inside my top 50
In a season-long roto using QS, K, ERA and WHIP who do I want IN ORDER that can provide decent counting stats without blowing up ratios – Heaney, ERod, Mikolas, Happ?
Add Quintana to the list too
Nick, what happens to Anibal Sanchez with Soroka starting on Wednesday and Teheran possibly starting on Friday?
He should be heading back to the pen from my understanding.
Agree with lowering Smith. Sure he was getting decent results, but mostly because he played the Mets and Padres 3 of the last 4 games.
Looks like Heaney will need to get an adjustment well. He’s struggled against lineups that hit lefties well (Detroit and Seattle).