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The 2024 season is off and running so it's time to rev up my weekly top 101 SP Baller Ranks breakdown. We've survived a long offseason and built a squad on draft day. Now, we must see where initial results have landed with the first 2024 edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks!
This is a lighter version of the usual since it's the first edition of 2024. We are trying not to overreact but there are some encouraging/discouraging signs rooted in velocity and pitch mixes. We'll wait until we emerge from small-sample territory to throw stats into the table.
These ranks are geared toward traditional 5x5 leagues and I typically exclude most injured SPs, lest a return is imminent. However, this is the first run, so I'll throw a table of injured arms AND minor-league stashes beyond the board. For now, let's dive into my top 101 SPs and be sure we're starting strong.
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Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis
-Zac Gallen had a good outing (6 IP, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K) against the Yankees on Monday but his velocity remains concerning. His four-seamer averaged 93.6 mph last season and it maxed out at 94 against the Yanks, averaging 92.2 mph. He only induced four whiffs on 96 pitches against a Yankee team that isn’t known for its discipline. After throwing over 240 IP last season (including postseason), Gallen may simply not have rebounded to 100% in the offseason. Tread carefully.
-Shane Bieber crushed the Athletics in his first start, striking out 11 over six scoreless. But that’s Oakland, so how much did it mean? Bieber then tossed another six shutout frames with nine strikeouts and zero walks against Seattle. The Mariners are better than the A’s but few others right now. But how far can you punish Bieber for the competition when he’s posted a 20:1 K:BB in 12 IP? He’s done all he can do and we have to respect it. And guess what, he faces the White Sox next. Is vintage Biebs back?
MLB Pitchers to do the following in their first 2 games of a season since 1901:
• 20+ strikeouts
• One-or-zero walk(s) allowed
• No runs allowed1.) SHANE BIEBER, 2024 (12.0IP, 0R, 1BB, 20 SO)
2.) SHANE BIEBER, 2020 (14.0IP, 0R, 1BB, 27 SO)#ForTheLand | @CleGuardians pic.twitter.com/EBj0G7fXW5— Luke Potosky (@LukePotosky) April 3, 2024
-Shota Imanaga had a similar dilemma in dominating the road Rockies, but his matchup luck evaporates with the Dodgers on deck. The cold weather helped mute the Colorado bats but Imanaga’s fly-ball tendencies could supply a lower floor. Regardless, it’s encouraging to see his splitter and sweeper work well behind the four-seamer. Let’s see if the Cubs try to ease him off of the straight heat as the season wears on.
-Max Fried, Aaron Nola, Bailey Ober, Joe Musgrove, and Michael King all shook fantasy owners with their opening starts of 2024. Fried was done exceptionally dirty by bad umpiring, but Philly is no walk in the park. Ditto for Nola against Atlanta. In the end, you certainly aren’t dropping or panic selling on any of these guys given the draft-day investment and body of work.
-Jared Jones dazzled in his debut, inducing 22 swing-and-misses with 10 strikeouts. The fastball sniffed 100 mph and Miami was lucky to cobble together three runs with just three hits and two walks. The Marlins haven’t put up much fight in 2024 and we’ll get a good test in his second start when he toes the rubber against Baltimore in Pittsburgh’s home opener. Jones threw 122 ⅔ IP in ‘22 and 122 ⅓ IP last year, so reaching 160 in the bigs is within reason.
-Garrett Crochet proved that his Opening Day trouncing of the Tigers (6 IP, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K) was no fluke by steamrolling Atlanta on Monday. The Braves’ bats may not have loved the cold weather but Crochet still gets props for limiting them to three hits over seven innings. Now that we have few questions left about Crochet’s talent level then we can shift all focus to wondering how long the runway is. He only pitched 25 IP last year after missing 2022. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Garrett Crochet’s 16 strikeouts so far this season are the most in a pitcher’s 1st 2 career starts in White Sox franchise history
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 3, 2024
-Boston’s entire staff gets a shoutout here. The emphasis on throwing offspeed/breaking pitches and laying off of fastballs led to beautiful results, but they’ve faced Seattle, Oakland, and have the Angels on tap. How will teams adjust to this approach over time? How will good teams adjust? Even if it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, and it won’t be with Fenway as a backdrop, there is reason for optimism with all five of them.
-A.J. Puk will have to make a statement in his next start after struggling with command in his return to the rotation. He had an amazing spring with 23 strikeouts and a 1.32 ERA in 13 ⅔ IP but that doesn’t count for much. We know he’s better than one bad day, but if Miami’s bullpen crumbles and their starters are all healthy at once, then Puk could return to the ‘pen for stabilization’s sake. Stay tuned.
Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball
| Tier | Player | Rank | $ |
| 1 | Spencer Strider | 1 | $44.00 |
| 1 | Corbin Burnes | 2 | $43.00 |
| 1 | Zack Wheeler | 3 | $42.00 |
| 2 | George Kirby | 4 | $41.00 |
| 2 | Pablo Lopez | 5 | $41.00 |
| 2 | Kevin Gausman | 6 | $39.00 |
| 2 | Tyler Glasnow | 8 | $37.00 |
| 2 | Tarik Skubal | 9 | $36.50 |
| 3 | Luis Castillo | 7 | $25.00 |
| 3 | Logan Webb | 10 | $35.00 |
| 3 | Freddy Peralta | 11 | $34.00 |
| 3 | Bobby Miller | 12 | $34.00 |
| 3 | Cole Ragans | 13 | $33.00 |
| 3 | Zach Eflin | 14 | $31.00 |
| 3 | Max Fried | 15 | $31.00 |
| 3 | Aaron Nola | 16 | $29.00 |
| 3 | Shane Bieber | 17 | $29.00 |
| 3 | Zac Gallen | 18 | $28.50 |
| 3 | Grayson Rodriguez | 19 | $28.50 |
| 4 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | 20 | $26.00 |
| 4 | Joe Ryan | 21 | $25.00 |
| 4 | Framber Valdez | 22 | $24.00 |
| 4 | Logan Gilbert | 23 | $23.50 |
| 4 | Jesus Luzardo | 24 | $24.00 |
| 4 | Dylan Cease | 25 | $23.00 |
| 4 | Chris Sale | 26 | $21.00 |
| 4 | Blake Snell | 27 | $21.00 |
| 4 | Tanner Bibee | 28 | $20.50 |
| 5 | Shota Imanaga | 29 | $19.50 |
| 5 | Bailey Ober | 30 | $19.00 |
| 5 | Joe Musgrove | 31 | $19.00 |
| 5 | Yu Darvish | 32 | $18.00 |
| 5 | Hunter Brown | 33 | $17.00 |
| 5 | Michael King | 34 | $17.00 |
| 5 | Chris Bassitt | 35 | $17.00 |
| 5 | Merrill Kelly | 36 | $17.00 |
| 5 | Nick Pivetta | 37 | $16.50 |
| 5 | Cristian Javier | 38 | $16.00 |
| 5 | Cristopher Sanchez | 39 | $15.50 |
| 6 | Nathan Eovaldi | 40 | $15.00 |
| 6 | Jared Jones | 41 | $15.00 |
| 6 | Ryan Pepiot | 42 | $14.50 |
| 6 | Carlos Rodon | 43 | $14.50 |
| 6 | Bryce Miller | 44 | $14.00 |
| 6 | Kutter Crawford | 45 | $13.50 |
| 6 | Jordan Montgomery | 46 | $13.50 |
| 6 | Garrett Crochet | 47 | $13.50 |
| 6 | Jose Berrios | 48 | $13.00 |
| 6 | Aaron Civale | 49 | $12.00 |
| 6 | Jack Flaherty | 50 | $11.00 |
| 7 | Triston McKenzie | 51 | $10.50 |
| 7 | Hunter Greene | 52 | $10.50 |
| 7 | Brayan Bello | 53 | $10.00 |
| 7 | Mitch Keller | 54 | $10.00 |
| 7 | Brandon Pfaadt | 55 | $10.00 |
| 7 | Luis Gil | 56 | $10.00 |
| 7 | Charlie Morton | 57 | $9.50 |
| 7 | Reid Detmers | 58 | $9.00 |
| 7 | Louie Varland | 59 | $8.50 |
| 7 | Kyle Harrison | 60 | $8.00 |
| 7 | Reynaldo Lopez | 65 | $8.00 |
| 7 | Jordan Hicks | 66 | $8.00 |
| 7 | Garrett Whitlock | 67 | $8.00 |
| 8 | Luis Severino | 61 | $7.00 |
| 8 | MacKenzie Gore | 62 | $6.00 |
| 8 | Yusei Kikuchi | 63 | $6.00 |
| 8 | Gavin Stone | 64 | $6.00 |
| 8 | A.J. Puk | 68 | $5.50 |
| 8 | Nestor Cortes | 69 | $5.00 |
| 8 | Casey Mize | 70 | $5.00 |
| 8 | Marcus Stroman | 71 | $4.50 |
| 8 | Reese Olson | 72 | $4.50 |
| 8 | Tanner Houck | 73 | $4.50 |
| 8 | Zack Littell | 74 | $4.50 |
| 8 | Sean Manaea | 75 | $4.00 |
| 8 | Erick Fedde | 76 | $4.00 |
| 8 | Seth Lugo | 77 | $4.00 |
| 9 | DL Hall | 78 | $3.50 |
| 9 | Michael Wacha | 79 | $3.50 |
| 9 | James Paxton | 80 | $3.50 |
| 9 | Max Meyer | 81 | $3.00 |
| 9 | Tyler Wells | 82 | $3.00 |
| 9 | Brady Singer | 83 | $2.50 |
| 9 | Dean Kremer | 84 | $2.50 |
| 9 | Lance Lynn | 85 | $2.00 |
| 9 | Frankie Montas | 86 | $2.00 |
| 9 | Clarke Schmidt | 87 | $2.00 |
| 10 | Kenta Maeda | 88 | $1.50 |
| 10 | Logan Allen | 89 | $1.50 |
| 10 | Ranger Suarez | 90 | $1.50 |
| 10 | Ronel Blanco | 91 | $1.50 |
| 10 | Dane Dunning | 92 | $1.50 |
| 10 | Trevor Rogers | 93 | $1.50 |
| 10 | J.P. France | 94 | $1.00 |
| 10 | Griffin Canning | 95 | $1.00 |
| 10 | Ryan Weathers | 96 | $1.00 |
| 10 | Chris Paddack | 97 | $1.00 |
| 10 | JP Sears | 98 | $1.00 |
| 10 | Jordan Wicks | 99 | $1.00 |
| 10 | Keaton Winn | 100 | $1.00 |
| 10 | Javier Assad | 101 | $1.00 |
Top 20 Injured Starting Pitchers to Stash for 2024
| Stash Rank |
Tier | Player | Healthy Rank |
| 1 | INJ | Kodai Senga | 25 |
| 2 | INJ | Gerrit Cole | 3 |
| 3 | INJ | Eury Perez | 20 |
| 4 | INJ | Sonny Gray | 25 |
| 5 | INJ | Justin Steele | 20 |
| 6 | INJ | Gavin Williams | 45 |
| 7 | INJ | Max Scherzer | 20 |
| 8 | INJ | Justin Verlander | 20 |
| 9 | INJ | Walker Buehler | 20 |
| 10 | INJ | Eduardo Rodriguez | 45 |
| 11 | INJ | Kyle Bradish | 40 |
| 12 | INJ | Bryan Woo | 45 |
| 13 | INJ | Nick Lodolo | 50 |
| 14 | INJ | Taj Bradley | 65 |
| 15 | INJ | Braxton Garrett | 70 |
| 16 | INJ | Alex Cobb | 75 |
| 17 | INJ | Clayton Kershaw | 15 |
| 18 | INJ | Robbie Ray | 30 |
| 19 | INJ | Jacob deGrom | 1 |
| 20 | INJ | Shane Baz | 20 |
Top 10 Minor-League Starting Pitchers to Stash for 2024
| Stash Rank |
Tier | Player |
| 1 | MiLB | Paul Skenes |
| 2 | MiLB | Jackson Jobe |
| 3 | MiLB | Ricky Tiedemann |
| 4 | MiLB | Cade Horton |
| 5 | MiLB | Christian Scott |
| 6 | MiLB | Sawyer Gipson-Long |
| 7 | MiLB | AJ Smith-Shawver |
| 8 | MiLB | Matt Manning |
| 9 | MiLB | Yariel Rodriguez |
| 10 | MiLB | Mick Abel |
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