Updated Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Rankings (Part 2) - 5x5 Mixed Roto Leagues

Earlier, we broke down the first few tiers of starting pitcher rankings for 2022 fantasy baseball drafts. It's time to look at the rest of the starting pitchers that may be fantasy-relevant and worthy of a draft pick.

RotoBaller's rankers, JB Branson, Pierre Camus, Ariel Cohen, Nicklaus Gaut, and Nick Mariano, have updated our 2022 Mixed League rankings to help you prepare for draft day.

You can also find our other draft rankings for all sorts of league formats, continually updated throughout the preseason, right here in our main fantasy baseball Rankings Wizard tool. Also, make use of all our premium resources with our MLB Draft Kit.

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2022 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Rankings

In case you missed it, our very own "Big Pick Nick" Mariano was named the #1 overall most accurate industry expert ranker for the 2018 season, and Ariel Cohen was the top ranker in 2019. In addition, ATC Projections by Ariel Cohen were the #1 most accurate projections system in 2019. Be sure to follow their updated rankings and projections all season long!

Tiers 7, 8, and 9

I'll be comparing our RotoBaller team rankings to the FantasyPros ADP consensus rankings that pool the current ADP for each player across CBS, Yahoo, RT Sports, NFBC, and FanTrax leagues.

Being a Tyler Mahle fan isn't for the faint of heart, but it's been two years of rollercoaster rides and I can't seem to quit him. We know he has awesome stuff and just has not yet developed the type of command yet that would push him up into the next echelon of pitchers.

When you look at his Statcast sliders, it's glaringly obvious where he needs to improve. He needs to walk fewer batters and throw strikes more consistently with each of his pitches. His splitter and slider are really good out pitches, but guys simply aren't chasing. He will never be able to pitch deeper into games and give us more innings until he gets the control...under control. I still like drafting him a full round ahead of where he's currently going. Despite trade rumors, it has been reported that the Reds will not move him or ace Luis Castillo despite having recently traded Sonny Gray.

Nathan Eovaldi is coming off a 2021 campaign where he pitched the second-most innings of his career (182.1), which was the most since he tossed 199 innings for the Marlins back in 2014. His stats in Boston the last two seasons have stabilized and you know pretty much exactly what you're getting with him at this point. His K-BB% ratio of 20.9% is super impressive and there simply aren't all that many guys with that kind of control and strikeout prowess. His xERA, FIP, and xFIP all suggest he pitched even better than his 3.75 ERA and he was a 5+ WAR player for the first time in his career. Guys that throw 95+ MPH fastballs and have four other pitches (he throws a slider, cutter, curve, and splitter) simply don't grow on trees. I'm drafting him in the middle rounds with confidence.

Two other guys in this group who I think are noteworthy are Sonny Gray and Mike Clevinger, both of whom are going right around pick 160. Clevinger is a guy who has always had filthy stuff and was someone who looked like a potential top-10 pitcher at one point in Cleveland. There was a lot of buzz generated by a video he posted of himself throwing a month ago with a new little hitch in his windup.

𝗜 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀….. 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁. pic.twitter.com/3FZFaCojR0

— ❂ Mike 𝕊𝕌ℕ𝕊ℍ𝕀ℕ𝔼 Clevinger ❂ (@MikeClevinger) February 11, 2022

While he looks good here, let's keep in mind he didn't pitch at all last season and he will most certainly face some pitch counts and inning restrictions when he finally does make it all the way back from the injury.

I'd much rather have Sonny Gray, who was traded from Cincinnati to the Twins just last week. It's a nice ballpark upgrade for Gray here and we know the Twins' pitching staff has a reputation for getting the most of their guys. Gray's GB% dipped below 50% for the first time in his career and walks are still a little bit of an issue, but he continued to strike hitters out last year at a solid 27% rate. A change of scenery will likely do him well, and I'm in on him at this ADP.

Tiers 10, 11, and 12

Tanner Houck and Patrick Sandoval jump out to me from this group as young guys with a ton of upside. I talked about Sandoval with my buddy Jon Anderson on his podcast the other day and we both agreed that he displayed some of the best swing-and-miss stuff last season of anyone with an elite 15% swinging-strike rate and the single-best outing of the season of any pitcher in terms of swinging strikes with a 29% rate.

Most swinging-strikes in single start, 2021 pic.twitter.com/s3DWgQrKdh

— Jon Anderson (@JonPgh) February 23, 2022

We haven't seen him do it for a full season, but his ability to rack up strikeouts and limit loud contact has me intrigued and our rankings are considerably higher on him than his ADP.

Houck was a strikeout king last year with a massive 30.5% K rate. He didn't pitch deep into games and was limited to only 69 innings, pitching in relief at times too. He throws hard but also has a fantastic slider that sported a 42% whiff rate last year. I want to be out in front of his breakout if he can repeat those types of numbers over a full season in 2022 and his FIP was only 2.58, suggesting that it was no fluke.

One guy you won't find many RotoBaller analysts on is Jordan Montgomery. He was durable last year, starting 30 games for the Yankees, but fairly mediocre across the board. The strikeouts were decent, but he managed only 157 innings and rarely pitched into the sixth inning. Unless he makes some kind of major change to his pitch arsenal, it seems like we know who he is at this point of his career and that's basically a fifth starter, nothing more nothing less and there are simply a lot of arms with more upside in this range.

Tiers 13 and below

Just going to rattle off some guys from Tier 13 on down in a quick hitter format. Here we go.

Yusei Kikuchi - I am intrigued now that he's in Toronto and the addition of Chapman at third is going to help those left-handed starters. Don't reach for him, but he could end up being a reliable late-round target if Toronto can fix him as they did with Robbie Ray.

Joe Ryan - I am definitely in on Ryan based on what he has shown in limited MLB experience. I also heard Ariel Cohen on him as a late-round value on Jon Anderson's podcast which makes me feel better because Ariel is as sharp as they come.

Cal Quantrill - He could be "just a guy" or his solid stretch as a starter could be for real. His numbers were pretty darn good, though, and he's worth a look. I'll be digging into him a bit more in another piece here soon.

Jon Gray - Anytime you get to leave Coors, that should help, right? I've always thought he was a pretty good pitcher and we've seen him dominate at times. For me, he certainly has more appeal than a lot of the other arms being drafted ahead of him.

Mitch Keller - You have to scroll way down the list to get to Keller, but in deep leagues, why not take a shot here? He has the pedigree of an ace and a great minor league track record, we just have only seen a few glimpses of him doing it in the majors. I'm a long-suffering Pirates fan so I'd love to see him figure it out, he's basically free where he's being drafted so I'd grab him late or at least be ready to scoop him up off the wire if he goes out and pitches well out of the gate.

That's all I have for you but make sure you keep reading all of our MLB content to prepare for your drafts and follow me for DFS and betting content all season long, too! Good luck, RotoBallers!

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