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Top 101 Starting Pitchers: Rest-Of-Season Rankings for Fantasy Baseball (Week 5)

zac gallen fantasy baseball rankings draft sleepers MLB injury news

April is wrapping up soon so let's end the first month of baseball right with my weekly Top 101 Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks breakdown. It's still early but we've got some actionable intel to go off of! Let's jump into another edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks!

There's still less than a month of data to play with so be gentle. We're not going to go crazy framing things with small-sample stats just yet. Now, let's 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 weekly lineup resources:

 

Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis

-Zac Gallen gave up nine earned in his first two starts of 2023 and then decided to start playing hardball. The 27-year-old ace has since ripped off three consecutive scoreless outings, allowing just eight baserunners over his last 20 ⅔ IP. Couple that with 29 strikeouts in that span and you’ve got a legitimate SP1 to build around.

-Sonny Gray is off to a roaring start, yielding just two runs over his first 29 frames of ‘23. He won’t go without a home run throughout the year but hasn’t been burned by any of the five barrels surrendered so far. Fewer four-seamers and sinkers mixed with more (and zippier) cutters and changeups are optimizing Gray’s arm.

His current BABIP of .282 is right there with career norms (.280) but a 13.1% swinging strike rate would be a career-best mark. That’s especially encouraging after a lowly 9.2% mark in ‘22. No one will maintain a 93.5% strand rate but this version of Gray is out here crafting master plans:

-Alex Cobb just tossed a complete-game shutout on Monday to lower his early ERA to 1.91 through five outings. The 35-year-old is an annual example of “sabermetrics are prettier than the surface stats” but maybe we’ll get more luck in ‘23.

His 3.76 ERA in ‘21 had a 2.92 FIP behind it. In 2022, the 3.73 ERA had a 2.80 FIP, and now the 1.91 ERA is coupled to a 2.83 FIP. That’s a tight FIP band over the last three years, but his groundball-happy ways don’t play nice with San Francisco’s lackluster defense.

He’s likely in for a year similar to ‘21 and ‘22 here but this is a nice reminder that he’s a good strikeout-per-inning arm that has solid ratios. But some bad luck days will almost surely come.

-Justin Steele is only one of seven starters who have 50 or more batted balls to their name with two or fewer barrels allowed (entering Tuesday). Steele’s 88.8 mph average exit velocity on flies and liners ranks fifth out of 133 pitchers (min. 50 BBE) with teammate Drew Smyly close by at 88.5 mph. Summer Wrigley can be tough but this kind of contact suppression is worth a healthy look.

-Eduardo Rodriguez is eighth on the aforementioned AEV leaderboard for FB/LD at 89.3 mph. The southpaw’s early 2.67 xERA on Statcast behind the 2.32 ERA is fueled by his last three starts in particular.

Allowing one run in his last three outings with a 19/1 K/BB ratio in those 21 innings has fueled it. The swing-and-miss rate on his cutter has soared from 14.2% in 2022 to 31.3% (per Baseball Savant) and we are here for it.

-Logan Allen dazzled in his MLB debut, striking out eight Marlins over six innings with a solo homer being the only blemish. The 24-year-old only walked one and posted a 50% groundball rate on the day, which continued his Triple-A successes.

It wasn’t much, but Allen’s trio of starts on the farm had a 1.26 ERA/1.05 WHIP with a whopping 20 strikeouts in just 14 ⅓ IP. His groundball rate there was 57.6% after hovering around 40% in 2022. If we get a portion of that growth to stick, then the whiff upside is even juicier.

Honorable Mention: Joey Lucchesi is not a sudden superhero despite a zesty welcome-back start in 2023 (7.0 IP, 0.0 ER, 9 K) against San Francisco. But the southpaw does get a friendly matchup against the Nationals on Thursday and looks to drop that hammer curve on them to our benefit. Streamers take note and let’s see if his audition for additional time down the road in this fragile rotation goes well.

And pick up Brandon Pfaadt because Drey Jameson needs a reboot in the minors and Tommy Henry is not a long-term answer for Arizona.

 

Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball - Week 5

Tier Player Rank $
1 Gerrit Cole 1 45.0
1 Shohei Ohtani 2 43.0
1 Jacob deGrom 3 42.0
1 Corbin Burnes 4 41.0
2 Spencer Strider 5 41.0
2 Shane McClanahan 6 41.0
2 Sandy Alcantara 7 38.0
2 Zack Wheeler 8 37.0
2 Max Scherzer 9 36.5
2 Luis Castillo 10 36.0
3 Julio Urias 11 34.0
3 Zac Gallen 12 34.0
3 Cristian Javier 13 31.5
3 Kevin Gausman 14 31.5
3 Justin Verlander 15 31.0
3 Aaron Nola 16 30.0
3 Yu Darvish 17 28.0
3 Dylan Cease 18 27.0
4 Framber Valdez 19 26.0
4 Nestor Cortes
20 24.0
4 Joe Musgrove 21 23.0
4 Max Fried 22 23.0
4 Clayton Kershaw 23 23.0
4 Carlos Rodon 24 21.5
4 Shane Bieber 25 20.5
4 George Kirby 26 20.0
4 Alek Manoah 27 20.0
4 Hunter Greene 28 20.0
4 Logan Webb 29 20.0
4 Joe Ryan 30 20.0
4 Drew Rasmussen 31 19.0
4 Pablo Lopez 32 19.0
4 Logan Gilbert 33 18.0
4 Chris Sale 34 17.0
5 Jesus Luzardo 35 17.0
5 Luis Severino 36 17.0
5 Brandon Woodruff 37 16.5
5 Freddy Peralta 38 16.0
5 Kodai Senga 39 15.5
5 Chris Bassitt 40 15.0
5 Nick Lodolo 41 15.0
5 Sonny Gray 42 14.5
5 Andrew Heaney 43 14.5
6 Robbie Ray 44 14.0
6 Blake Snell 45 13.5
6 Dustin May 46 13.5
6 Reid Detmers 47 13.0
6 Jordan Montgomery 48 13.0
6 Charlie Morton 49 12.0
6 Kyle Wright 50 11.0
6 Marcus Stroman 51 10.5
6 Lance Lynn 52 10.5
6 Patrick Sandoval 53 10.0
7 Garrett Whitlock 54 10.0
7 Grayson Rodriguez 55 10.0
7 Jon Gray 56 10.0
7 Luis Garcia 57 9.5
7 Alex Cobb 58 9.0
7 Justin Steele 59 8.5
7 Tyler Mahle 60 8.0
7 Nathan Eovaldi 61 8.0
7 Tony Gonsolin 62 8.0
7 Brady Singer 63 8.0
7 Tyler Glasnow 64 7.0
7 Lucas Giolito 65 6.0
7 Eduardo Rodriguez 66 6.0
8 Triston McKenzie 67 6.0
8 Sean Manaea 68 5.5
8 Graham Ashcraft 69 5.0
8 Merrill Kelly 70 5.0
8 Hunter Brown 71 4.5
8 Jose Urquidy 72 4.5
8 Logan Allen 73 4.5
8 Tyler Anderson 74 4.5
8 Mason Miller 75 4.0
8 Matthew Boyd 76 4.0
8 Zach Eflin 77 4.0
8 Anthony DeSclafani 78 4.0
8 Jack Flaherty 79 3.5
8 Taj Bradley 80 3.5
8 Kenta Maeda 81 3.0
8 Johan Oviedo 82 3.0
8 Lance McCullers Jr. 83 2.5
8 Drew Smyly 84 2.5
9 Martin Perez 85 2.0
9 Bryce Elder 86 2.0
9 Jose Berrios 87 2.0
9 Miles Mikolas 88 2.0
9 Eric Lauer 89 2.0
9 Michael Wacha 90 1.5
9 Roansy Contreras 91 1.5
9 David Peterson 92 1.5
9 MacKenzie Gore 93 1.5
9 Kyle Gibson 94 1.0
9 Josiah Gray 95 1.0
9 Edward Cabrera 96 1.0
9 Taijuan Walker 97 1.0
9 Tylor Megill 98 1.0
9 Mitch Keller 99 1.0
9 Michael Soroka 100 1.0
9 Domingo German 101 1.0


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