We’ve been doing rookie check-ins for hitters and pitchers lately. The most recent rookie hitter check-ins are found here, with an examination of a few other starting pitchers. Rookies have been making an impact on our fantasy squads, and many are deserving of more attention. In this week’s rookie check-in, we’re shifting back to starting pitchers. One starting pitcher has some name value to jump on. Meanwhile, a few others might be undervalued in deeper leagues. We’ll examine these four rookie starting pitchers to figure out whether to buy, sell, or hold them in keeper and dynasty formats.

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Last week, we examined a few starting pitchers who gained stuff and command in May and June. This time, we’re looking at starting pitchers who lost stuff and command since May 1. Pitchers can go through stretches of gaining and losing stuff and command, with these metrics fluctuating over time. The visual below shows the pitchers who lost two points in their Stuff+ and Location+ since May 1.

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It’s been a few weeks since we covered several rookie hitters. Rookies have been making a significant impact on the fantasy baseball landscape from a pitching and hitting standpoint. Several rookie hitters and pitchers have been starting in fantasy lineups instead of simply being stash candidates. These rookie hitters have name value, so they could be possible candidates to buy, sell, or hold based on their underlying metrics, skills, playing time, and peak projections. Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous article, we looked at starting pitchers who improved or lost their stuff and command over the past two seasons. This time, we’re examining starting pitchers that gained stuff and command in May and June compared to April to identify small sample changes. Sometimes a pitcher’s stuff and command improve closer toward the career averages. However, there can notable changes in a pitcher’s location and movement profiles that impact their stuff and command grades. This may be small sample noise, but it can also represent a change. Fantasy leagues can be won by being an early mover on a player who is breaking out. We’ll examine a few starting pitchers who made improvements in their stuff and command since May 1.

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We’re following up on last week’s article covering a few rookie starting pitchers. This feels like an outlier season with so many rookies making positive impacts on our fantasy baseball lineups. We’ll examine four more rookie-eligible starting pitchers, including a pair of teammates.  We’ll continue examining rookies throughout the season, including advice on whether to buy, sell, or hold in keeper and dynasty formats.

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Last week, we covered starting pitchers who lost stuff and command. This week we will examine three starting pitchers who have gained stuff and command. We’ll look at what contributed to the gains to determine if we should buy, sell or hold.

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We have covered several hitters for our rookie check-ins. Though we will cover more in the future, we wanted to shift our attention to three starting pitchers worth highlighting that were rookie-eligible heading into the 2026 fantasy baseball season. Several rookies have been performing well, with some struggles. We’ll continue examining rookies throughout the season, including some advice on whether to buy, sell, or hold in keeper and dynasty formats.

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I’ll often wonder and speculate on what’s happening and why, without researching the idea. Somehow, most of my interesting ideas tend to happen when I’m driving or doing something where I can’t stop and research the data. One of those ideas was to examine which starting pitchers have lost stuff and command in 2026. compared to 2025. That said, here’s a look at the starting pitchers who threw 20 innings with a three-point decline (we rounded, so you’ll see a difference of 2.5 or more) in their Stuff+ and Location+ in 2026.

Though these pitchers have lower Stuff+ and Location+ grades, they might not remain that way for the rest of the season. Several of these pitchers make sense since they often relied upon command. We can toss out Cole Ragans and Garrett Crochet (injuries). Meanwhile, Freddy Peralta, Parker Messick, and Ranger Suarez have been showing above-average command numbers in both seasons.

Whenever a starting pitcher is struggling or succeeding, we want to understand the why and try to determine whether the results have been sustainable. This is a beefy one, with a deep look into three starting pitchers who lost significant stuff and command in 2026. 

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Last week, we looked at five of the top rookie hitters to examine their major league path, performance, skills, and how to value them moving forward. There have been many rookie hitters who have been providing value in redraft, keeper, and dynasty leagues of various sizes, so we wanted to cover five more. It’s helpful to digest their prospect grades and reports to see how they align with the underlying metrics. Should we buy, sell, or hold these five rookie hitters? We plan to cover pitchers in a future article if you’re wondering what’s next. 

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It’s hard to project how a reliever will turn into a starting pitcher, especially within a season. We expect velocity to decline as a starter, and we imagine arsenals will evolve as they pitch deeper into games. Today, we’ll dive into three pitchers who made this transition in 2026. Two of these pitchers were on fantasy rosters this year and in the past, both entering the season in different roles than they have now. The third’s path to fantasy relevance was through deeper formats.

Like most of my pitching articles, we’re looking at the underlying skills and metrics, diving into the arsenal, movement profiles, locations, and command.

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