Who has the highest Pitch Info, Pitch Type Value (pVal) on a slider this season among all pitchers? Andrés Muñoz. Ok, same question but a changeup instead of a slider and third place instead of first? Nabil Crismatt. Unfortunately, neither Andrés Muñoz’s slider nor Nabil Crismatt’s changeup was drafted in the 2022 FanGraphs pVal competition. In this draft, each participant selects a number of specific pitches trying to maximize the sum of their pVals. There’s a little more to it than that, in our version of the pVal Competition that a few of us FanGraphs/RotoGraphs writers inherited from the Pitcher List staff, participants must choose pitches from this list:
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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).
I’m writing up all of the Aces, but not everyone will get a note in the tiers after this one
It might be a little late but the dark days are almost over, as the love of our sporting life will soon be here again. And with it, the song in my heart can no longer be contained. Read the rest of this entry »
With the season upon us, it is time to drop my final edition of my positional ranks. I will continue to update them live on the Sleeper and the Bust Patreon until the season gets underway and in-season as well.
You can review my ranks for other positions here: https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/category/rankings/
You can review my ranks for other positions here: https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/category/rankings/ Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s my first run from New Year’s Eve and those of you subscribed to the podcast’s Patreon have had access to mine & Justin’s ever-evolving rankings as the winter wore on (and thank you all so much for the support!). Now it’s time to dive deeper into the SP pool. I won’t have a comment on every single pitcher listed, but please feel free to ask questions in the comments about anyone – even if they have a comment!
The best of the best.
I understand the narrative of Cole and the sticky stuff ban because he had a 4.12 ERA from that point forward, but it came with a 3.39 FIP and 32% K rate. Even with a couple September duds mixed in, his FIP was 2.95 in the second half. The skills remain truly elite.