Updated MLB Starting Pitcher Rankings for Fantasy Baseball: The Top 101 Baller Ranks

The All-Star break is bearing down on us and that presents an excellent opportunity to take stock of your team and what is between you and the championship title. Mind your innings limits if applicable and determine how many streaming slots you might need to make up a gap or how many SP slots to transition to powerhouse middle relievers to tamp down your IP pace. I'm here for you with ranks, tiers, trends, and notes with the top-101 in a table with other fun things like earned value via Fangraphs. It's time for another edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks!

This google sheet accompanies the table below and adds relevant 5x5 stats, K%, BB%, BABIP, FIP, xFIP, SIERA, ERA-FIP, and CSW% from the last 30 days. I highly encourage you to click the sheet. And be sure to check out my position-by-position midseason rankings update that dropped earlier this week!

As is tradition, these fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings are geared toward traditional 5x5 leagues. Injured players are left off of this iteration. Let's move along with my top-101 SP for the rest of 2022!

Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis

*The studs are acting like true alphas here, with most of the top-20 SP on the ranks giving up incredible ratios and strikeouts over the past couple of weeks. You don’t need me to reinforce that Shohei Ohtani is cruising towards another MVP award or that Max Scherzer and Brandon Woodruff are back in tip-top shape following their injuries. Studs gonna stud.

-Kevin Gausman is expected to return to the rotation with a July 14 (Thursday) start against Kansas City at home. The bone bruise in his right ankle had given him trouble in pushing off of the pitching rubber but he threw a bullpen session on Tuesday. Let’s hope that elite form that struck out 10 over seven scoreless frames on June 27 is still locked and loaded.

-Max Fried had been on a tear but had control woes on Monday, walking five Mets for a bloated 2.00 WHIP over five innings. The good news is that he can battle without a great feel for location and only surrendered two runs, extending his streak of 2 ER or fewer in a start to five. Even with slightly under a strikeout per inning on the season, Fried’s stellar ratios and healthy dose of wins on a strong Atlanta squad are a fantasy boon.

-Chris Sale threw 53 of his 78 pitches for strikes in a triumphant return to the MLB bump. The southpaw blanked Tampa Bay over five frames but saw Ryan Brasier and Matt Strahm cough up the lead. While Sale teams will hope Boston trades for some bullpen help soon, we must all celebrate a healthy Sale who held his velocity steady throughout the start.

-Robbie Ray has firmly re-entered the circle of trust as a top option. Blessed be that sinking two-seamer that he’s worked into the mix. The 30-year-old has a sparkling 0.91 ERA in over his last six starts, sporting a 46/11 K/BB in those 39 ⅔ IP. He’s enjoyed two Oakland starts within that stretch, as well as a .188 BABIP and 95.9% strand rate, but the revamped arsenal gives him the ability to generate good luck. 

-Frankie Montas threw a 25-pitch bullpen session on July 12 and could step back into Oakland’s rotation this weekend. While we all want him back, it’d be nice if he could avoid a road series at Houston! Tread carefully as Oakland looks to build up his perceived value ahead of the August 2 trade deadline. Considering his fantastic 3.26 ERA has only yielded three wins thus far, we’d take a trade!

-Jose Berrios continues to audition for Disneyland’s newest roller coaster ride! He drew most of us in with a strong three starts to open June (22 IP, 6 ER, 26 K) only to get destroyed in his following two outings (6 ⅔ IP, 14 ER!). He stabilized with a gritty win over Tampa Bay that saw 10 baserunners over five innings on July 1 before two straight quality starts. I did not have 13 strikeouts against Philadelphia on my bingo card for Tuesday night, but we’ll take it! He gets a decent matchup at home against KC next as we hope for second-half stability in 2022.

-Lance Lynn and Michael Kopech are both flashing trouble, with Lynn failing to avoid the middle of the zone and Kopech starting to walk too many hitters. Lynn does have a FIP/xFIP/SIERA all near 4.00 compared to the disastrous 6.97 ERA so exhale a bit when staring down his stats. Kopech’s season stats still look good (3.35 ERA/1.14 WHIP) but a 6.00 ERA and 7.07 FIP in the last 30 days is scary. He was always a regression candidate following a hot start, though the 21/14 K/BB and 2.73 HR/9 in five starts may be rooted in his early June knee injury. He’s in the “prove it” group as of now. Same with MacKenzie Gore.

-Patrick Sandoval is doing his best to mitigate a BABIP near .400 in the last month with his strikeouts and should see better fortune shortly.

-Taijuan Walker just needs to keep that arm strength up down the stretch and we’ll all be happy. Just monitor the velocity and arm slot readings.

-Alex Cobb has all sorts of poor defensive moments behind him to blame but that 4.71 ERA/1.40 WHIP must eventually come towards the 3.14 FIP/2.96 xFIP/3.24 SIERA for us to celebrate. His 66.9% first-strike rate and 62.5% groundball rate are both career-high marks, so maybe we need some more nibbling rather than letting that ball into play. I’m still holding but I know most can’t be patient deep into July.

Top-101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball

These are rest-of-season fantasy baseball rankings for starting pitchers.

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