Paul Sporer’s Updated Starting Pitcher Rankings – June 2022
This is long overdue, but thank you for the patience.
I’ll aim for 3-4 wk intervals going forward and it will usually fill in for a Monday version of Boxscore Bits as it is today (and into Tuesday… this one took awhile!). They should be viewed in a 3-4 wk context, too. Trying to think for the entire rest of the season is unnecessary because we know things will change and we are allowed to change our roster so a narrower focus will help you sort things out as you run through the many globs of pitchers where the talent isn’t that far off so you look toward more secondary factors to make the decisions (recent performance, schedule, supporting offense/defense, venue, etc…) on a week-to-week basis.
I do have larger groupings when it comes to in-season rankings with 6 tiers of ranked arms and then injury and prospect guys. Aces, Must Start, Usually Start, Team Streamer, Standard Streamer, and Deeeep Leagues. There isn’t a big split between Usually Start and Team Streamer (guys who you purposefully curate their starts, but don’t cut them when not starting them because of their upside) as the US group has guys you consider sitting at COL or against a high-powered offense you’re afraid of (NYY, NYM, BOS, HOU, LAD off the top of my head) where as the TS group is must-sit in those situations among others such as a home/road split (like Mahle, for example).
While my focus is primarily on 15-team mixers, these should work pretty well across the 12s and even 10s with slight adjustments based on your league. I’m quite confident starting the top 2 tiers (45 starters) across all formats and then there are some adjustments to be made in the streaming tiers for 10s and 12s which you can apply based on how your league facilitates streaming (daily/weekly pickups, pickup limits, scoring system).
ACES: The best of the best right now.
I’m writing up all of the Aces, but not everyone will get a note in the tiers after this one
| Rk | STARTING PITCHER | TM | Spring Rk | Diff. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gerrit Cole | NYY | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | Shane McClanahan | TBR | 24 | 22 |
| 3 | Corbin Burnes | MIL | 4 | 1 |
| 4 | Zack Wheeler | PHI | 13 | 9 |
| 5 | Sandy Alcantara | MIA | 6 | 1 |
| 6 | Justin Verlander | HOU | 18 | 12 |
| 7 | Joe Musgrove | SDP | 8 | 1 |
| 8 | Kevin Gausman | TOR | 27 | 19 |
| 9 | Max Fried | ATL | 10 | 1 |
| 10 | Pablo López | MIA | 53 | 43 |
