Top 120 Starting Pitchers

February 4, 2019

For me, the end of the Super Bowl is the official start of the fantasy baseball season. Obviously, I never really take my attention away from baseball even after the World Series, but I’m definitely an outlier. There are plenty of big time baseball and football fans who close the book on the diamond for the pigskin come October (or even September if their fantasy team falls out and their favorite team doesn’t make the playoffs) only to return once football is done.

Well, it’s done!

With that, it’s time for a new SP ranking update. I’d be hinting at an update coming sooner than later, so I appreciate your patience. I’ve got a list running 120 deep with colored bars denoting some talent breaks. There is still a substantial Glob™ where the distinctions between pitchers become thinner. I don’t have an ironclad case for #80 over #106 the way I do #16 over #42. These are my preferences, though. I’m not leaning on The Glob™ to shirk accountability for my rankings, but it’d be foolish not to acknowledge how wide-open SP ranks become around 70 or so. In fact, there’s an upper tier Glob™ from around 35 to 79 and then the standard Glob™ from 80 until maybe even 150 or so, but I decided to cut it at 120.

I’ll have plenty more on pitcher rankings in the coming months, including lists with commentary on most (if not all) pitchers, lists for attacking The Glob™, my biggest buys, my biggest fades, and more! Justin and I will have a two-part positional preview pod on starting pitchers, each likely approaching two hours if I had to guess. But for now, enjoy this list and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Top 120 – February

	Pitcher	Team
1	Max Scherzer	WAS
2	Jacob deGrom	NYM
3	Chris Sale	BOS
4	Justin Verlander	HOU
5	Gerrit Cole	HOU
6	Corey Kluber	CLE
7	Aaron Nola	PHI
8	Noah Syndergaard	NYM
9	Blake Snell	TB
10	Clayton Kershaw	LAD
11	Carlos Carrasco	CLE
12	Luis Severino	NYY
13	Trevor Bauer	CLE
14	Walker Buehler	LAD
15	Jameson Taillon	PIT
16	Mike Clevinger	CLE
17	David Price	BOS
18	Stephen Strasburg	WAS
19	James Paxton	NYY
20	Zack Greinke	ARI
21	Zack Wheeler	NYM
22	Madison Bumgarner	SF
23	Patrick Corbin	WAS
24	Miles Mikolas	STL
25	Jose Berrios	MIN
26	Carlos Martinez	STL
27	Jack Flaherty	STL
28	Yu Darvish	CHC
29	Kyle Hendricks	CHC
30	Mike Foltynewicz	ATL
31	Charlie Morton	TB
32	J.A. Happ	NYY
33	Masahiro Tanaka	NYY
34	German Marquez	COL
35	Luis Castillo	CIN
36	Ross Stripling	LAD
37	Nathan Eovaldi	BOS
38	Nick Pivetta	PHI
39	Eduardo Rodriguez	BOS
40	Chris Archer	PIT
41	Cole Hamels	CHC
42	Kyle Freeland	COL
43	Robbie Ray	ARI
44	Andrew Heaney	LAA
45	Rich Hill	LAD
46	Kenta Maeda	LAD
47	Joe Musgrove	PIT
48	Jimmy Nelson	MIL
49	Jon Gray	COL
50	Alex Wood	CIN
51	Dallas Keuchel	FA
52	Shane Bieber	CLE
53	Hyun-Jin Ryu	LAD
54	Anibal Sanchez	WAS
55	Tyler Skaggs	LAA
56	Jose Quintana	CHC
57	Jon Lester	CHC
58	Yusei Kikuchi	SEA
59	Joshua James	HOU
60	Michael Fulmer	DET
61	Reynaldo Lopez	CWS
62	Zack Godley	ARI
63	Rick Porcello	BOS
64	Matthew Boyd	DET
65	Jake Arrieta	PHI
66	Alex Reyes	STL
67	Michael Wacha	STL
68	Tyler Glasnow	TB
69	Kevin Gausman	ATL
70	Kyle Gibson	MIN
71	Joey Lucchesi	SD
72	Steven Matz	NYM
73	Dereck Rodriguez	SF
74	CC Sabathia	NYY
75	Brandon Woodruff	MIL
76	Sonny Gray	CIN
77	Luke Weaver	ARI
78	Collin McHugh	HOU
79	Michael Soroka	ATL
80	Anthony DeSclafani	CIN
81	Jhoulys Chacin	MIL
82	Marco Gonzales	SEA
83	Mike Minor	TEX
84	Dylan Bundy	BAL
85	Trevor Cahill	OAK
86	Carlos Rodon	CWS
87	Julio Urias	LAD
88	Corbin Burnes	MIL
89	Jose Urena	MIA
90	Sean Newcomb	ATL
91	Julio Teheran	ATL
92	Jakob Junis	KC
93	Jesus Luzardo	OAK
94	Jeff Samardzija	SF
95	Jake Odorizzi	MIN
96	Vince Velasquez	PHI
97	Danny Duffy	KC
98	Marcus Stroman	TOR
99	Derek Holland	SF
100	Seth Lugo	NYM
101	Aaron Sanchez	TOR
102	Trevor Richards	MIA
103	Jake Faria	TB
104	Freddy Peralta	MIL
105	Merrill Kelly	ARI
106	Trevor Williams	PIT
107	Tanner Roark	CIN
108	Alex Cobb	BAL
109	Nick Kingham	PIT
110	Forrest Whitley	HOU
111	Marco Estrada	OAK
112	Ryan Yarbrough	TB
113	Matt Harvey	LAA
114	Michael Pineda	MIN
115	Wade Miley	HOU
116	Zach Eflin	PHI
117	Brad Keller	KC
118	Drew Pomeranz	SF
119	Ryan Borucki	TOR
120	Jerad Eickhoff	PHI

113 Comments

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scottmember

5 years ago

I get Coors and all but damn, Marquez was basically degrom for 16 starts, with the peripherals to back it up. This ranking feels harsh IMO

Paul Sporermember

Reply to scott

That’s 16 starts, not exactly a massive sample. Remember, just bc he had the skills to support that run doesn’t mean that’s who he is going forward. He was deGrom for half a season and still only had a 3.77 ERA. His margin for error is severely curbed by Coors. My deeper thoughts on Marquez: http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/are-we-repeating-a-2018-mistake/ — I’m not trying to be harsh Marquez, but rather realistic. I think he’s being rather overrated by the market at large as everyone gets drunk on that 2H.

Reply to Paul Sporer

Oh it’s totally not massive, but his stats over it weren’t just great they were otherworldly. I think it does point to some incredible skills. I’m sure there’s some reasons for first and half discrepancies, that people smarter than myself can uncover.

I don’t necessarily disagree on market being too high. I have him as a low cost keeper so won’t need to pay the price. But a bit more confident on his outlook

The discrepancy is that his fastball was trash and he didn’t maintain otherworldly secondaries to overcome it in the 1H. That’d be worrisome enough without Coors hanging overhead. The thing with Coors is that you can be good and still get burnt. I don’t doubt Marquez is talented, evidenced by his 34th ranking, but those pushing him top 20-25 are incurring a lot of risk, IMO

That’s fair. My hope as an owner is that the Ks limit some downside. Mid-high 3 era with big Ks can be a top 25 arm. Glad I can own him without paying the market price though, there certainly is risk.

dodgerbleu

I like him. Just adding my $0.02 as to why I am cautious. One thing I don’t ever see get mentioned about Marquez is that he hasn’t really figured out how to retire lefties. He’s death on righties – but even during his streak lefties hit him well – he supressed runs against lefties in Sept, but they still hit him to a .297/.333/.459 tune, which is similar to his 2018 full season line of .286/.343/.453 line and his career .284/.344/.444 line.

HatchetBaseballmember

I was in on Marquez at the start of last season and was disappointed by his early season performance (so basically I joined you in Collette’s valley of disappointment). I was elated when he turned in that awesome second half, but I have to agree he seems to be getting overvalued by a large segment. I think your other article nails the logical concerns about Marquez: right now, there are comparable pitchers with similar ADPs (or later). The tier offers serious value, but the longer you can wait in that tier, the more likely you can get that value. Also, Charlie Morton deserves his due, which you’ve rightfully given him. Nice work.