2021 is over and we turn the page to 2022. Here are my current ranks for the first base position for 2021. I will post updates as things change with signings, injuries, or news in Major League Baseball.
See my other ranks here: C 1B 2B SS 3B OF SP RP
Read the rest of this entry »
What’s the first thing you do when you get a new spreadsheet? My answer; sort ascending, sort descending. That’s what I did on the 2021 pitching leaderboards. I looked at the plate discipline metrics for qualified pitchers and sorted the sheet by descending swinging-strike rate (SwStr%). The names I saw were not surprising. Corbin Burnes leads the group at 16.6%. He’s followed by Max Scherzer (15.9%) and Robbie Ray (15.5%). José Berríos is not in the top 30. In fact, when you sort the same list by ascending swinging-strike rate, he’s in the top 10, meaning he had one of the lowest swinging strike rates in the league (9.9% to be specific). The lowest swinging strike getters in the league this year were Adam Wainwright (8.1%), Chris Flexen 플렉센 (8.6%), and Dallas Keuchel (8.7%).
The blue bar represents the START of a new tier.
I generally don’t include IL’d guys. It’s especially precarious this late when guys could just be shutdown if they are on bad teams.
I view these as 2-3 week rankings given the volatility of pitching so I will include at least 1 and probably 2 more updates on the site before season’s end, but I am updating them regularly on our Patreon.
FYI: instead of updating the rankings in September, I started the Daily SP Chart.
It’s been too long since I’ve released an updated SP ranking here on the site. While I am updating them with regularity on our Patreon, I will make sure to have another couple of updates over the final 2+ months of the season here as well.
The blue bar represents the START of a new tier.
I generally don’t include IL’d guys, but I made an exception for Manoah because he should be back after essentially a minimum stay for a back contusion. He slipped in the dugout and hurt himself, but it looks like he could pitch this weekend or be in line for a 2-start next week.
I view these as 3-4 week rankings given the volatility of pitching and I think this second half will be among the most volatility with pitchers getting skipped and shut down for innings limits. I’m confident that Luis Garcia will be swapped with Cristian Javier in the Astros rotation, but it hasn’t happened yet and so we need to enjoy his excellence while we have it. Garcia’s true talent is probably Top 30, but the rug could be pulled out at any moment so I hedged a bit with his ranking.
The same goes for the Brewers studs, though at a higher level. If we didn’t have any inning concerns, they’d all slot a bit higher.
I’ll answer as many questions as I can in the comments so let me know what you think!
5/25/21
The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!
Follow us on Twitter
NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
The Returnee Episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.
Guest: Jeff Erickson
Strategy Section
Cincinnati Reds
Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
The Bold Predictions Episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.
Guest: Scott Pianowski
Strategy Section
Podcast (beat-the-shift): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
This weekend is the last big push of drafts so it’s time for one final update of my SP ranks. Lots of movement as it’s time to lock in and put together our rotations.
The blue bar represents the START of a new tier. Yes, deGrom is his own tier.
You can also get up to the minute rankings of every position on our Patreon.
UPDATE(S):
Since I began Ottoneu positional rankings in February, Spring Training started and we have learned a lot more. Well, a little more. But between new data and feedback from others, my thinking has changed on certain players and I wanted to bring up a few names where my rankings need to change.
I’ll look at a couple of players from each position and three SP, focusing on players where my ranking changed due to performance or feedback from others, not injury. Yes, I would be lower on Carlos Carrasco today than I was on March 2, but you already know that and repeating injury information here won’t be super informative or useful. Some of these guys have had great (or awful) Spring Trainings, some had defenders (or detractors) hit me up in the comments, on Twitter or elsewhere.
Pardon the delay on these as they should’ve been up over a week ago, but I’ve updated the commentary and rankings since then so here’s the latest backstop ranks fresh off the press!
Other positions:
Here’s my list.