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The List 6/24 – Ranking The Top 100 Starting Pitchers Every Week

Nick Pollack released his weekly update, ranking the Top 100 Starting Pitcher rankings for fantasy baseball.

[pitcher_list_new list_id=”32912″]

 

Fringe Starters

 

Pitcher Why They Missed The Cut
Jesus Luzardo I’ve moved stashes to Fringe Pitchers. Luzardo would be Top 50 if up now.
Danny Duffy Not the worst option and one of the last off The List
Daniel Norris There isn’t enough upside to chase this
Gio Gonzalez On the IL with “dead arm” – He’s a Toby
Noah Syndergaard On the IL with a hamstring injury – Top 30 arm
Kyle Hendricks On the IL with a shoulder injury – Top 30 arm
Caleb Smith On the IL with hip injury – Top 20/30 arm
Domingo German On the IL with hip flexor injury – Top 30 arm
Jordan Lyles On the IL with a hamstring injury – Top 60/70 arm
Carlos Carrasco On the IL with a blood issue – Top 15/25 arm
Corey Kluber On the IL with a forearm injury – Top 10 arm
Jameson Taillon On the IL with an elbow injury – Top 25 SP
Tyler Glasnow On the IL with forearm strain – “4-6 weeks”
Luke Weaver On the IL with a forearm strain – would be around the low 30s
Mike Clevinger On the IL with an ankle injury – Top 20 arm
Rich Hill On the IL with flexor strain – Top 40 arm
Pablo Lopez On the IL with back injury – Top 60 arm
Frankie Montas Suspended 80 games
Mike Foltynewicz Demoted to Triple-A – Top 70 arm
Mitch Keller Demoted to Triple-A – Top 70 arm
Jimmy Nelson Demoted to bullpen
Clay Buchholz Isn’t cutting it as a Toby
Drew Pomeranz K upside is interesting, but low IPS and too low of a ceiling.
Jake Junis Too volatile to trust despite a tinge of strikeout upside
Dereck Rodriguez A Toby who hasn’t helped enough to justify his ranking
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.
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
Alex Wood I’m just going to wait until he’s back to properly rank him. Most likely in the 50s.
Jhoulys Chacin Even his recent stretch isn’t worth the floor
Justus Sheffield Good stash option, but not as good as the others
Ivan Nova Just not enough upside and while he’s a decent streamer, it’s never for a high ceiling.

 

What is happening!

It’s another week and another edition of the Top 100 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball.

Before I dive into the player notes, here’s an outline of how I’m handling The List this season:

  • 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 categories leagues.

 

Player Notes

 

  • Another week, another mention of the putrid SP Landscape. It’s why Zac Gallen is instantly Top 50. It’s crazy, it’s not right for the number itself, but I don’t have a choice given how questionable the end of the Top 50 is. Remember, it’s all relative.
  • It’s been super fun to watch Walker Buehler over the last month, allowing me to raise him to #8 behind his teammate Hyun-Jin Ryu. Meanwhile, Luis Castillo has to take a small dip as you have to wonder if his walk rate is going to stick around through the season.
  • I’m not sure if y’all realize, but Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke are surprisingly similar pitchers this year and it’s about time I treated them as such.
  • I thought I would be lowering Andrew Heaney more, but when all the guys around #30 have their warts, I’ll favor the one who has had only one truly bad outing that could easily be fixed moving forward.
  • Chris Paddack returns and he’s clearly Top 30 again. Sweet.
  • The rise of Lance Lynn continues as there’s little arguing that he deserves a Top 35 spot. I could see some pushing for Top 30 and I don’t blame you at all, there’s still a bit of wonder if this magic is going to disappear in heartbeat. He could continue climbing to Top 20 when all is said and done. We’ll see.
  • With Rich Hill hitting the IL, it’s hard to figure out what the Dodgers will really do with the SP #5 spot. Will Ross Stripling or Julio Urias definitively take the spot? Will they both get roughly three/four frames each in these games? You never know, but one could easily get the chunk of the volume and will easily make an impact for your team.
  • It’s about time I gave more love to Marcus Stromanthough I really don’t want to. Yes, that’s a weird thing to say. I think his production will fade over the summer, but you have to favor him over other options until that happens (it may never!).
  • There are a lot of young arms rising to the majors now and I’m all for giving them a shot as guys like Steven Matz, Jose Quintanaand Julio Teheran are far from precious on 12-teamer rosters. I’m favoring Adbert Alzolay and Austin Voth over Elieser Hernandez and Jordan Yamamoto as each carries a strong fastball and could make an impact. No, I don’t buy the current level of production from the young Marlins duo. They just don’t bring enough stuff to the table.
  • Dallas Keuchel finally returns to the majors and I’m not incredibly thrilled, but he should be steadily okay for your team. I placed him above the aforementioned rookie tier as his stability will be welcome during the tumultuous season, but his ceiling is lower than that of the youngins’.
  • Dakota Hudson isn’t an arm that I anticipate being a Toby through the full year, but it’s about time I overlooked him as he’s been a solid play for a good while now.
  • There were plenty of names that are very borderline droppable in leagues that are around simply because there aren’t any other options. Adrian Sampson, Martin Perez, Michael Pinedaand Trent Thornton all took understandable hits, while introductions of Vince Velasquez, CC Sabathia, Marco Gonzales, Anthony DeSclafani, and Michael Wacha could be short-lived.

(Photo by Justin Paradis – @FreshmeatComm)

Nick Pollack

Founder of Pitcher List. Creator of CSW, The List, and SP Roundup. Worked with MSG, FanGraphs, CBS Sports, and Washington Post. Former college pitcher, travel coach, pitching coach, and Brandeis alum. Wants every pitcher to be dope.

14 responses to “The List 6/24 – Ranking The Top 100 Starting Pitchers Every Week”

  1. Yants says:

    Charlie Morton 10th gives me all the feels.

  2. Jack says:

    For IL stash list, plz rank the following: Wood, Manaea, Lamet.

    Great work as always!

  3. AJ says:

    Whoa Voth? Please do explain

  4. Scott says:

    Stripling named the starter tomorrow. Does this move him up?

  5. Donald Schuldt jr says:

    Glasnow with a set back, him and tailon aren’t looking too promising. Would you rather stash guys like McKay or Cease in redraft leagues? Seems they could have more if an impact this year

  6. Ed says:

    #69 (nice) is AARON not Adam Civale.

  7. theKraken says:

    I had a fun thought about LAD – they yank their SP early notoriously and yet they are all injured all the time. They clearly are not keeping them healthy with this strategy. On top of that, there is also the reality that their bullpen outside of Kenley is almost always terrible. Their lack of healthy arms is largely why they have come up short in the playoffs the past three years. At some point you would think that they might actually take a critical look at the results of their strategy but I won’t hold my breath. I would think that if you don’t want to rely on SP then you would sink some resources into your bullpen…

  8. Dave says:

    I noticed you have Berrios and Nola as both AGA and ace potential. Is that a mistake (shouldn’t they be one or the other)? Thanks.

  9. Ryan says:

    Caleb Smith (when he returns next week) or Mike Minor?

    • Nick Pollack says:

      That’s a bit of a toss up, it’s hard to say no to Minor, but I’ll say that post-ASB should be Smith over Minor.

  10. J.C. Mosier says:

    You moved stashes to the fringe list, but only Luzardo (from the 17 June List) received a mention. Paddack and Gallen were recalled, but what about Cease and Reyes?

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