RADIO
The summer air is getting thicker as we hit the middle of June, making this the perfect time for another edition of my weekly Top 101 Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks breakdown. The temperature is rising and the ball is going to start flying a bit more readily. How are the arms around the league shaping up? Let's check in with the weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks!
As usual, the tiers are the most important piece of the puzzle, though the position within them is still informative! We've added the previous week's position and the change (Delta) since then. Do note that I'm writing this before most of Tuesday night's games.
These ranks are geared toward traditional 5x5 leagues and I try to present key injured pitchers where I have them for the rest of the season. Let's hop in with over two months of the season behind us!
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Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis
-Triston McKenzie made a triumphant return to action with 10 strikeouts over five shutout frames in Minnesota. Only two batters reached base (one hit, one walk) as the ace made up for lost time on the bump. The 25-year-old’s slider was in midseason form and he’ll look to stay hot against the Astros in his 2023 home debut next.
-Blake Snell has gone at least six innings in five of his last seven outings, posting a quality start in each of those five. In fact, the southpaw has only surrendered more than three earned runs in a start twice in his 12 trips to the hill this year. His problem has been inefficiency, with deep counts and walks knocking him out of games too quickly for us.
Some of that early noise was having to face both the Braves and Dodgers twice, but now he’s held the Nationals, Marlins, and Cubs to one combined run over his last three starts. He’d averaged one homer against across his first nine starts but has kept the ball inside the yard since.
We can’t rely on that to hold and he’s still walking about three per start, but it’s a good reminder of his range’s higher points. Trusting him at Coors next time out is another story, though.
-Andrew Abbott danced around four walks with six scoreless innings in his MLB debut. He flashed exceptional swing-and-miss potential with six strikeouts but those who followed his minor-league starts know there’s another gear.
Between Double- and Triple-A this season, Abbott’s 54 innings yielded a whopping 90 strikeouts. Anything near two strikeouts per inning is ludicrous and that upside is rarely seen. If he can limit the walks and avoid too many loud fly balls at Great American Ball Park (~42% FB rate in the minors this year), then that K upside could be a champion for us.
-Tyler Wells has struck out 7+ in each of his last five starts while maintaining his stellar control. Out of 122 starters with 20+ IP in the last 30 days, Wells’ 26.3% K-BB% ranks fifth between Luis Castillo and Clayton Kershaw. While his 1.84 HR/9 can leave him vulnerable to bad outings, Camden does its best to suppress that problem.
Batters have those 14 homers (nine on the road), but only seven extra-base hits otherwise. The fly-ball ways do supply a low BABIP at least. The lowest among qualified SPs, in fact! It sits at .183 thus far, which sounds terrifyingly low, but he does have a career .224 mark. Statcast has his xBA at .212 and a 3.44 xERA behind the 3.29 ERA. He needs Camden’s dimensions, but he does have them.
-Braxton Garrett got rocked for 15 runs between May 3-8 losses to Atlanta and Arizona but has buckled way down since then. The southpaw only has one win in his last five starts, but a 2.70 ERA (2.56 xFIP) and 32/6 K/BB in those 26 ⅔ IP look awfully pretty on paper. Miami rarely lets him work a full six innings but I doubt a lack of quality starts is why he’s only rostered in 30% of Yahoo! leagues. Hop on it.
-AJ Smith-Shawver will step into Atlanta’s rotation on Friday or Saturday following Michael Soroka’s demotion to Triple-A earlier this week. It’s easy to forget just how much time Soroka has missed and so a speed bump or two is understandable. But now our focus turned to Smith-Shawver.
The right-hander is only 20 years old and coming off of 68 ⅔ IP in 2022, so temper your year-long expectations for the kid. But his rapid advance through their system was earned, as 33 innings came with a 45/12 K/BB ratio while just four earned runs crossed the plate.
**Carlos Rodon is scheduled to face hitters on Wednesday. If he clears this hurdle, then perhaps a timeline for returning materializes shortly.
**Jacob deGrom will sadly undergo Tommy John surgery shortly. We hope his immense potential comes back in full for some portion of 2024. Unfortunately, he'll likely be one of this generation's biggest "what-if" arms.
Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball - Week 11
| Tier | Name | Rank | $Value | Last Rank | Delta |
| 1 | Shohei Ohtani | 1 | $42.0 | 4 | 3 |
| 1 | Spencer Strider | 2 | $41.0 | 1 | -1 |
| 1 | Shane McClanahan | 3 | $41.0 | 2 | -1 |
| 1 | Gerrit Cole | 4 | $43.0 | 3 | -1 |
| 2 | Zac Gallen | 5 | $41.0 | 6 | 1 |
| 2 | Luis Castillo | 6 | $39.0 | 7 | 1 |
| 2 | Kevin Gausman | 7 | $38.0 | 9 | 2 |
| 2 | Corbin Burnes | 8 | $37.0 | 5 | -3 |
| 2 | Zack Wheeler | 9 | $36.5 | 8 | -1 |
| 2 | Clayton Kershaw | 10 | $36.0 | 10 | 0 |
| 2 | Cristian Javier | 11 | $34.0 | 12 | 1 |
| 2 | Framber Valdez | 12 | $34.0 | 13 | 1 |
| 2 | Max Scherzer | 13 | $31.5 | 14 | 1 |
| 2 | Justin Verlander | 14 | $31.0 | 11 | -3 |
| 2 | Nathan Eovaldi | 15 | $31.0 | 19 | 4 |
| 2 | Joe Ryan | 16 | $29.5 | 16 | 0 |
| 3 | Yu Darvish | 17 | $28.5 | 17 | 0 |
| 3 | Aaron Nola | 18 | $28.5 | 18 | 0 |
| 3 | Logan Webb | 19 | $27.0 | 24 | 5 |
| 3 | Julio Urias | 20 | $26.0 | 21 | 1 |
| 3 | Sandy Alcantara | 21 | $25.0 | 20 | -1 |
| 3 | Sonny Gray | 22 | $24.0 | 22 | 0 |
| 3 | Joe Musgrove | 23 | $23.5 | 26 | 3 |
| 3 | Logan Gilbert | 24 | $24.0 | 25 | 1 |
| 3 | George Kirby | 25 | $23.0 | 27 | 2 |
| 4 | Tyler Glasnow | 26 | $21.0 | 32 | 6 |
| 4 | Shane Bieber | 27 | $21.0 | 28 | 1 |
| 4 | Chris Bassitt | 28 | $20.5 | 30 | 2 |
| 4 | Luis Severino | 29 | $19.5 | 31 | 2 |
| 4 | Pablo Lopez | 30 | $19.0 | 29 | -1 |
| 4 | Dylan Cease | 31 | $19.0 | 33 | 2 |
| 4 | Hunter Brown | 32 | $18.0 | 34 | 2 |
| 4 | Mitch Keller | 33 | $17.0 | 35 | 2 |
| 4 | Hunter Greene | 34 | $17.0 | 39 | 5 |
| 4 | Triston McKenzie | 35 | $17.0 | 42 | 7 |
| 4 | Jesus Luzardo | 36 | $17.0 | 43 | 7 |
| 5 | Jon Gray | 37 | $16.5 | 45 | 8 |
| 5 | Zach Eflin | 38 | $16.0 | 47 | 9 |
| 5 | Andrew Heaney | 39 | $15.5 | 37 | -2 |
| 5 | Marcus Stroman | 40 | $15.0 | 49 | 9 |
| 5 | Chris Sale | 41 | $15.0 | 23 | -18 |
| 5 | Nestor Cortes | 42 | $14.5 | 36 | -6 |
| 5 | Freddy Peralta | 43 | $14.5 | 38 | -5 |
| 5 | Tanner Bibee | 44 | $14.0 | 48 | 4 |
| 5 | Jordan Montgomery | 45 | $13.5 | 41 | -4 |
| 5 | Bryce Miller | 46 | $13.5 | 40 | -6 |
| 5 | Justin Steele | 47 | $13.5 | 44 | -3 |
| 5 | Charlie Morton | 48 | $13.0 | 46 | -2 |
| 5 | Carlos Rodon | 49 | $12.0 | 50 | 1 |
| 6 | Brandon Woodruff | 50 | $11.0 | 51 | 1 |
| 6 | Eury Perez | 51 | $10.5 | 54 | 3 |
| 6 | Logan Allen | 52 | $10.5 | 55 | 3 |
| 6 | Merrill Kelly | 53 | $10.0 | 59 | 6 |
| 6 | Lance Lynn | 54 | $10.0 | 53 | -1 |
| 6 | Alex Cobb | 55 | $10.0 | 56 | 1 |
| 6 | Kodai Senga | 56 | $10.0 | 57 | 1 |
| 6 | Bryce Elder | 57 | $9.5 | 60 | 3 |
| 6 | Michael Wacha | 58 | $9.0 | 61 | 3 |
| 6 | Bobby Miller | 59 | $8.5 | 65 | 6 |
| 6 | Michael Kopech | 60 | $8.0 | 68 | 8 |
| 6 | Tyler Wells | 61 | $8.0 | 67 | 6 |
| 6 | Tony Gonsolin | 62 | $8.0 | 63 | 1 |
| 6 | Lucas Giolito | 63 | $8.0 | 52 | -11 |
| 6 | Blake Snell | 64 | $7.0 | 64 | 0 |
| 6 | Andrew Abbott | 65 | $6.0 | -- | -- |
| 7 | Bailey Ober | 66 | $6.0 | 62 | -4 |
| 7 | Jose Berrios | 67 | $6.0 | 66 | -1 |
| 7 | Edward Cabrera | 68 | $5.5 | 75 | 7 |
| 7 | MacKenzie Gore | 69 | $5.0 | 79 | 10 |
| 7 | James Paxton | 70 | $5.0 | 80 | 10 |
| 7 | Louie Varland | 71 | $4.5 | 69 | -2 |
| 7 | Taj Bradley | 72 | $4.5 | 81 | 9 |
| 7 | Drew Smyly | 73 | $4.5 | 72 | -1 |
| 7 | Jack Flaherty | 74 | $4.5 | 74 | 0 |
| 7 | J.P. France | 75 | $4.0 | 76 | 1 |
| 7 | Kyle Bradish | 76 | $4.0 | 82 | 6 |
| 7 | Domingo German | 77 | $4.0 | 84 | 7 |
| 8 | Reid Detmers | 78 | $4.0 | 58 | -20 |
| 8 | Josiah Gray | 79 | $3.5 | 73 | -6 |
| 8 | Anthony DeSclafani | 80 | $3.5 | 77 | -3 |
| 8 | Jameson Taillon | 81 | $3.0 | 78 | -3 |
| 8 | Garrett Whitlock | 82 | $3.0 | 83 | 1 |
| 8 | Tanner Houck | 83 | $2.5 | 85 | 2 |
| 8 | Braxton Garrett | 84 | $2.5 | 86 | 2 |
| 8 | Eduardo Rodriguez | 85 | $2.0 | 71 | -14 |
| 8 | Miles Mikolas | 86 | $2.0 | 95 | 9 |
| 9 | Patrick Sandoval | 87 | $2.0 | 70 | -17 |
| 9 | Max Fried | 88 | $2.0 | 87 | -1 |
| 9 | Nick Lodolo | 89 | $2.0 | 89 | 0 |
| 9 | Johan Oviedo | 90 | $1.5 | 90 | 0 |
| 9 | Ben Lively | 91 | $1.5 | -- | -- |
| 9 | Dane Dunning | 92 | $1.5 | 91 | -1 |
| 9 | Michael Lorenzen | 93 | $1.5 | 100 | 7 |
| 9 | Matthew Liberatore | 94 | $1.0 | 93 | -1 |
| 9 | Martin Perez | 95 | $1.0 | 94 | -1 |
| 9 | JP Sears | 96 | $1.0 | 96 | 0 |
| 9 | Griffin Canning | 97 | $1.0 | -- | -- |
| 9 | AJ Smith-Shawver | 98 | $1.0 | -- | -- |
| 9 | Brayan Bello | 99 | $1.0 | 98 | -1 |
| 9 | Brady Singer | 100 | $1.0 | 97 | -3 |
| 9 | Taijuan Walker | 101 | $1.0 | 99 | -2 |
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