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Top 101 Starting Pitchers: Rest-Of-Season Rankings for Fantasy Baseball (Week 3)

Drew Rasmussen fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings waiver wire pickups draft sleepers

Nick Mariano's updated fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings for Week 3 (2023). Baller Ranks is a weekly rankings list for the top-101 starting pitchers.

What is up, pitcher people? It is that grand time of the week when I get to check in with my weekly Top 101 Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks breakdown as we're all scurrying about pretending like we can play it cool and not overreact. Let's dive into the second 2023 edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks!

I'm still not going to frame this with a heaping of small-sample data for 2023. Obviously, that is a big driver for me as an input but I want it to feel robust before I just slap a bunch of numbers next to the names for you to digest. We'll start with some analysis and then hit the table.

These ranks are geared towards traditional 5x5 leagues and I typically exclude most injured SPs, lest a return is imminent. However, it's still early so I'll try to loosely peg where I value injured arms amidst the fray. For now, let's dive into my top 101 SPs and be sure we're starting strong.

Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball lineup tools and resources:

 

Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis

Another week into the season means slightly more stabilization, but there are still plenty of new velocities, repertoires, and batted-ball data nuisances to chew on.

Quick hits before some longer thoughts:

*Corbin Burnes looked good on Tuesday, providing a much-needed confidence booster. Aaron Nola did not and he’ll take three sketchy outings into Great American Ball Park on April 16. Julio Urias cares not for sabermetrics and continues to post exceptional stats. Give Kyle Wright (and almost anyone coming off the IL) at least one start to shake off the rust.

-Going into Tuesday, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs led all starters in xwOBA at .267 and .195, respectively. We all know it’s only been two starts against meager competition but also…wow. Do a dance if you leaned into Tampa Bay’s optimization of their arsenals and consider selling high if you’re in a league with overreactions.

-Nick Lodolo comes next at .209 on that xwOBA leaderboard with a .165 xBA behind the .217 batting average allowed across 51 plate appearances. He followed up a strong first start (5.0 IP, 2.0 ER, 9/2 K/BB) with seven innings of shutout ball against Philadelphia. He struck out 12 (!) with only two walks against the defending NL champs. Two starts in hitter-friendly parks, two solid showings. He looks more consistent out of the gate than Hunter Greene.

-Pablo Lopez logged a season-high 10 strikeouts after ringing up eight in each of his first two trips to the bump in ‘23. The 27-year-old looks comfortable in a Minnesota uniform, allowing one earned run over 20 innings of work thus far. No, the .184 BABIP won’t last but also his sweeper is a guillotine pitch out there. Some guys take a while to find reliable command with it but he’s shown nothing but control so far. We all love to see it.

-Chris Bassitt is flashing warning signs early. He got hit hard by St. Louis in his first start, yielding nine earned on four home runs with no strikeouts over 3 ⅓ IP. Then he survived five walks over six frames against the Angels, escaping with two earned runs (three total) and the win. Having identical 11% rates for HR%, K%, and BB% is not ideal!

His velocity started lower last year as well before climbing to the 93-94 mph range by May. Except he posted a 26/7 K/BB with a 2.25 ERA in 24 innings last April. The command simply isn’t there. I think he’ll find his mechanics again but if he can’t handle Detroit’s lineup on Thursday, then I’m panicking.

-Lance Lynn put some fears to rest with 10 strikeouts and zero walks against the Twins on Tuesday. He did allow two home runs and seven hits so all is not stellar, but the whiffs and lack of walks are a big deal after 6/4 and 5/3 K/BB ratios in his first two outings. A step in the right direction here.

-Garrett Whitlock got tagged for five runs (three homers) over five innings of work in his first start of 2023. He had five strikeouts to zero walks but lived too comfortably in the zone, setting up big swings from Tampa. All in all, we saw more good than bad for Whitlock against a surging Rays team and he’s only 45% rostered on Yahoo! You’ll recall his 3.45 ERA/1.02 WHIP and 9.42 K/9 from last year’s 78 ⅓ IP.  If he can ever improve on effectiveness beyond the first time through the order, then he can achieve greatness.

-Lucas Giolito might be scaring you, but that’s nothing compared to Jack Flaherty’s 13 walks in 10 innings! It’s a miracle that Flaherty has only allowed two runs to score with so much traffic ushered onto the basepaths. The Houdini Act can only last so long before it drags his ERA down in the muck that his WHIP currently resides in.

-Bryce Elder looks in far better form than Jared Shuster or Dylan Dodd and should remain in the rotation as Atlanta’s No. 5 after Michael Soroka returns. The 23-year-old has kept St. Louis and Cincinnati offenses off the scoreboard with a 50% groundball rate and 13/4 K/BB ratio through two turns. Having the Braves’ offense and bullpen supporting you is worth a flier to many.

-Kris Bubic has Twitter ablaze after blanking the Giants across six innings of two-hit ball with nine strikeouts and no free passes. He’d limited Toronto to two runs in his first outing but this most recent day has some wondering if he can jump a few tiers. Increased velocity, movement, a slider, more life on his fastball, more drop on the changeup, all of this is observable. It’s very possible we get a Brady Singer-like leap from Bubic in ‘23. Make the add and see!

 

Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball - Week 3

Tier Player Rank $
1 Gerrit Cole 1 45
1 Jacob deGrom 2 43
1 Corbin Burnes 3 42
1 Shohei Ohtani 4 41
2 Sandy Alcantara 5 41
2 Spencer Strider 6 41
2 Shane McClanahan 7 39
2 Max Scherzer 8 37
2 Zack Wheeler 9 36.5
2 Julio Urias 10 36
3 Aaron Nola 11 35
3 Shane Bieber 12 33
3 Luis Castillo 13 32
3 Kevin Gausman 14 31
3 Cristian Javier 15 31
3 Dylan Cease 16 30
3 Yu Darvish 17 28
3 Zac Gallen 18 27
4 Justin Verlander 19 26
4 Brandon Woodruff 20 24
4 Framber Valdez 21 23
4 Nestor Cortes Jr. 22 23
4 Joe Musgrove 23 22
4 Alek Manoah 24 22
4 Max Fried 25 21
4 Clayton Kershaw 26 20
4 George Kirby 27 20
4 Carlos Rodon 28 20
4 Hunter Greene 29 20
4 Logan Webb 30 19
4 Jeffrey Springs 31 19
5 Jesus Luzardo 32 19
5 Freddy Peralta 33 18
5 Drew Rasmussen 34 17
5 Chris Sale 35 17
5 Logan Gilbert 36 17
5 Joe Ryan 37 16.5
5 Pablo Lopez 38 16
5 Kodai Senga 39 15.5
5 Nick Lodolo 40 15
5 Luis Severino 41 14.5
5 Blake Snell 42 14.5
6 Chris Bassitt 43 14
6 Lance Lynn 44 14
6 Robbie Ray 45 14
6 Dustin May 46 13.5
6 Jordan Montgomery 47 13
6 Reid Detmers 48 13
6 Andrew Heaney 49 11
6 Sonny Gray 50 11
6 Charlie Morton 51 10.5
6 Kyle Wright 52 10.5
7 Brady Singer 53 10
7 Patrick Sandoval 54 10
7 Nathan Eovaldi 55 10
7 Garrett Whitlock 56 9.5
7 Grayson Rodriguez 57 9
7 Alex Cobb 58 8.5
7 Marcus Stroman 59 8
7 Luis Garcia 60 8
7 Jon Gray 61 8
7 Tyler Glasnow 62 8
7 Tony Gonsolin 63 7
7 Tyler Mahle 64 6
7 Triston McKenzie 65 6
8 Sean Manaea 66 6
8 Lucas Giolito 67 5.5
8 Merrill Kelly 68 5
8 Graham Ashcraft 69 5
8 Hunter Brown 70 5
8 Kenta Maeda 71 4.5
8 Jose Urquidy 72 4.5
8 Drey Jameson 73 4.5
8 Seth Lugo 74 4.5
8 Kris Bubic 75 4.5
8 Justin Steele 76 4
8 Tyler Anderson 77 4
8 Miles Mikolas 78 3.5
8 Eric Lauer 79 3.5
8 Jameson Taillon 80 3.5
8 Zach Eflin 81 3
8 Anthony DeSclafani 82 3
8 Bryce Elder 83 3
9 Trevor Rogers 84 2.5
9 Michael Kopech 85 2.5
9 David Peterson 86 2.5
9 Brayan Bello 87 2.5
9 Michael Wacha 88 2
9 Hayden Wesneski 89 2
9 Jack Flaherty 90 1.5
9 Martin Perez 91 1.5
9 Jhony Brito 92 1.5
9 Eduardo Rodriguez 93 1.5
9 MacKenzie Gore 94 1.5
9 Kyle Gibson 95 1.5
9 Carlos Carrasco 96 1
9 Josiah Gray 97 1
9 Roansy Contreras 98 1
9 Steven Matz 99 1
9 Noah Syndergaard 100 1
9 Tylor Megill 101 1

As I said last week: Don't forget to breathe. We've seen most of these arms 2-3 times max and most prior convictions were rooted in a sound thought process. A few folks definitely stunk enough to warrant some panic, but even then, you're likely benching rather than dropping.



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