Top 101 Starting Pitchers: Rest-Of-Season Rankings for Fantasy Baseball Week 11 (2024)

Hello, and welcome back to our rest-of-season series for a weekly look at my pitching thoughts via my top 101 SP Baller Ranks breakdown. Most teams have played at least 60 games as we navigate the midseason. Join me for the Week 11 edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks!

We're into June, and the summer months will look to rejuvenate bats across the league after a pitcher-friendly first two months. Let's see what we've got moving forward with tiered ranks, complemented by a rest-of-season auction value ($), their Previous Week's Value (PV), the trend between the two, and a (+/-) column denoting the rank shift compared to last week.

These ranks are geared toward traditional 5x5 roto leagues, and I typically exclude most injured SPs, lest a return is imminent. This week includes a look at potential workload concerns down the road. Please note most stats here are gathered before Tuesday's games. Let's jump into my top 101 SPs and have some fun.

• Fantasy baseball draft kit
• Fantasy baseball rankings
• Team Sync platform and Draft Assistant
• Fantasy baseball mock draft simulator
• Fantasy baseball draft cheat sheets
• Fantasy baseball closer depth charts
• Fantasy baseball prospects

Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis

-Tarik Skubal continues to dominate MLB. He’s roughly one start away from matching his inning total from last season. Detroit is unlikely to push for the playoffs and shouldn’t force him past 150 IP, but that is my speculation. Regardless, 140-150 IP with this form was still worth the squeeze at preseason ADP. Fantasy teams in rotisserie leagues who are pushing above their seasonal IP limit should consider selling high before reports start flying. It’s a risk, but it isn’t as though you are “selling low.” If you need offense, then he’s a great flip.

-Chris Sale is roughly 35 innings under his 2023 tally, while Cole Ragans is about 25 frames below his. But remember that Ragans pitched another ~30 IP at Triple-A between Kansas City and Texas before catching fire.

-Max Fried is another arm approaching 2023’s total, now just 11 innings away. (Now four, but a 13-strikeout gem was worth it!) Atlanta and Kansas City hold respective records of 33-25 and 36-25 with playoff hopes. You may run into limits on these guys at some point. Tyler Glasnow on the Dodgers is another. Though he’s only at 74 IP to last year’s 120, his durability concerns are known, and LAD is notorious for IL stints to rest their arms. Again, we don’t want folks getting caught off-guard here.

Over his last 10 starts, Max Fried has posted a 1.83 ERA (14 ER/68.2 IP) with 18 walks, 61 strikeouts and just four home runs allowed. #Braves

— Kevin McAlpin (@KevinMcAlpin) June 5, 2024

-Garrett Crochet’s success is all house money at this point, but his 69 ⅔ IP put him well over the 25 IP thrown between the minors and majors last year. He missed all of 2022 and threw 54 ⅓ IP in 2021, making it difficult to see him go beyond 100-125 IP in ‘24. Again, the White Sox are not contending and shouldn’t risk their ace.

For now, Crochet is still humming along with three consecutive six-inning starts. He’s thrown 85 or more pitches in five straight. That three-start trouble period in mid-to-late April saw his average fastball velocity drop below 96 mph, with the cutter dipping below 90.

Luckily, we’ve all enjoyed the results of a VELO revival. One must note that Statcast had his latest start’s fastball velocity at 96.5 mph after six straight outings of 97 or higher. The White Sox are (hopefully) monitoring these things and may either curtail the length of his starts or skip a turn.

-Luis Gil is crushing MLB in a bid for AL Cy Young and Rookie of the Year honors, but he only threw four innings last season and 25 in '22. Some wondered if he would be the odd man out when Gerrit Cole was ready. The Clarke Schmidt injury changes that equation, though we had some coachspeak say Gil was safe regardless. The Yankees will want Gil available come October, so we'll keep our eyes open for any chatter. Anything approaching 150 would be a dream for fantasy teams.

Please note that Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw 171 IP in Japan last season, with 193 IP in both 2021 and ‘22. Shota Imanaga sat around 160 IP in each of the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

Some other key pitchers with potential IP potholes: Reynaldo Lopez (66 IP as RP last year, 57 IP so far), Carlos Rodon (~75 IP in ‘23, 67 IP in ‘24), Nestor Cortes (70, now 75), Ryan Pepiot (65, now 46), and Nick Lodolo (40, now 54).

To be clear, this is not meant to be a one-factor override for your decision-making process. Very little is set in stone until teams announce a firm plan, and even those are subject to change! But workload limits and potential management should be a piece of the puzzle.

-Tyler Anderson is making magic happen on the mound, posting a 2.37 ERA/1.13 WHIP despite a 4.66 FIP and 5.14 SIERA through 76 innings. His 32 walks lead all 71 qualified starters, and the 5.9% K-BB rate only bests Patrick Corbin’s 5%. Those are the only two arms below 7.5% on the leaderboard. Anderson’s wOBA and xwOBA have finished within five points of each other in the previous three seasons. This year? His .286 wOBA is nearly 50 points lower than the xwOBA. Strongly consider any flip if you can get someone else to buy in.

-Jake Irvin continues to improve, with his latest effort marking a third straight quality start. His four-seamer rate was 40% in April but dropped to 32% in May and was below 30% in his first June outing. More confidence in the secondaries helped him boost his strikeout rate well above 20%, highlighted by a 10-strikeout gem against the Braves.

We’ll hope for a K per frame moving forward, with the crux of his success leaning on the 4.4% walk rate. Irvin, Spencer Arrighetti, and Ryan Weathers have strikeout rates above 32% in the last two weeks. Anyone reasonably capable of such windows should be on your streaming radar.

**The Orioles lost John Means and Dean Kremer for the season to elbow procedures. While this gives Cole Irvin more job security and Albert Suarez another shot in the rotation, the O’s are a serious contender and may call up top pitching prospect Cade Povich at any time.

If it's not Kyle Bradish, would #Orioles bring somebody else who's not here in to start?

Brandon Hyde: "We'll see. I'm not really sure yet."

Hasn't been an off-day, so couldn't be any of other 4 starters.

O's have an open spot on the 40-man roster. https://t.co/UhjKLFTXyG

— Jake Rill (@JakeDRill) June 4, 2024

**Spencer Turnbull reminded everyone of his potential with three perfect innings (six strikeouts) in relief of the injured Ranger Suarez. It appears Suarez escaped without major injury and is lined up to make his next scheduled start in London. We know Philly is trying to manage Turnbull’s innings, but Taijuan Walker has been awful (5.73 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, 5.66 FIP). Keep an eye out if the opportunity arises.

This whole Taijuan Walker scenario is tough to solve -- primarily because Spencer Turnbull hasn't tossed more than 56.2 innings in a season in 5 years, and I would wager the Phillies have a hard innings limit on him.

It's definitely not a simple fix.

— Alex Carr (@AlexCarrMLB) June 3, 2024

Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball - Week 11

More Fantasy Baseball Analysis