October 2018 Starting Pitcher Rankings

October 10, 2017

Well, this is the earliest I’ve ever done SP rankings so let’s see how this goes! With the regular season wrapped, I figured it was worth putting my initial list together if only to see how it changes over the fall and winter leading into next March’s draft season. Heck, I’ve already done a mock draft hosted by the InThisLeague guys, which you can check out here and I’ll be on the clock for my annual NFBC draft at the BaseballHQ First Pitch Forum in a few short weeks so having an idea of the pitching pool will be very useful.

As usual, I went with tiers, but since we’re not in-season I simply numbered them instead of naming them. I think it really gets tough to differentiate sharply on guys in the middle of the pitcher pool. Trevor Bauer finished 36th on the Player Rater this year while Dinelson Lamet was 83rd, but are they really that far apart in talent? Maybe the point to make is that once you get to about 40 in the rankings, the separation with each ranking is a lot smaller than if you were comparing say #5 to #55.

Anyway, let’s get to the list. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Was there anyone not in the top 111 that you really think has to be in there?

October 2018 SP Rankings

	NAME	TEAM	TIER
1	Clayton Kershaw	LAD	1
2	Chris Sale	BOS	1
3	Max Scherzer	WAS	1
4	Corey Kluber	CLE	1
5	Stephen Strasburg	WAS	1
6	Noah Syndergaard	NYM	2
7	Justin Verlander	HOU	2
8	Madison Bumgarner	SFG	2
9	Jacob deGrom	NYM	2
10	Carlos Carrasco	CLE	2
11	Yu Darvish	LAD	2
12	Zack Greinke	ARI	2
13	Carlos Martinez	STL	2
14	Luis Severino	NYY	2
15	Chris Archer	TBR	3
16	Aaron Nola	PHI	3
17	Robbie Ray	ARI	3
18	James Paxton	SEA	3
19	Gerrit Cole	PIT	3
20	Marcus Stroman	TOR	3
21	Jake Arrieta	CHC	3
22	Jose Quintana	CHC	3
23	Dallas Keuchel	HOU	3
24	Johnny Cueto	SFG	3
25	Masahiro Tanaka	NYY	3
26	David Price	BOS	3
27	Sonny Gray	NYY	3
28	Rich Hill	LAD	3
29	Alex Wood	LAD	3
30	Jon Lester	CHC	3
31	Kyle Hendricks	CHC	3
32	Danny Duffy	KCR	4
33	Garrett Richards	LAA	4
34	Lance McCullers	HOU	4
35	Jose Berrios	MIN	4
36	Chase Anderson	MIL	4
37	Dylan Bundy	BAL	4
38	Gio Gonzalez	WAS	4
39	Michael Fulmer	DET	4
40	Luis Castillo	CIN	4
41	Jon Gray	COL	4
42	Drew Pomeranz	BOS	4
43	Jeff Samardzija	SFG	4
44	Taijuan Walker	ARI	4
45	Zack Godley	ARI	4
46	Trevor Bauer	CLE	4
47	Danny Salazar	CLE	4
48	Sean Manaea	OAK	4
49	Lance Lynn	STL	4
50	Kevin Gausman	BAL	4
51	Rick Porcello	BOS	4
52	Eduardo Rodriguez	BOS	4
53	Michael Wacha	STL	5
54	Tanner Roark	WAS	5
55	Jameson Taillon	PIT	5
56	Jordan Montgomery	NYY	5
57	Luke Weaver	STL	5
58	Dinelson Lamet	SDP	5
59	Charlie Morton	HOU	5
60	Cole Hamels	TEX	5
61	Alex Cobb	TBR	5
62	Ervin Santana	MIN	5
63	Alex Reyes	STL	5
64	J.A. Happ	TOR	5
65	Aaron Sanchez	TOR	5
66	Carlos Rodon	CWS	5
67	Kenta Maeda	LAD	5
68	Brad Peacock	HOU	5
69	Blake Snell	TBR	5
70	Jimmy Nelson	MIL	5
71	German Marquez	COL	5
72	Julio Teheran	ATL	5
73	Jake Odorizzi	TBR	5
74	Jacob Faria	TBR	5
75	Patrick Corbin	ARI	5
76	Matt Shoemaker	LAA	5
77	Marco Estrada	TOR	5
78	Mike Clevinger	CLE	5
79	Lucas Giolito	CWS	6
80	Jeff Hoffman	COL	6
81	Tyler Skaggs	LAA	6
82	Vince Velasquez	PHI	6
83	Dan Straily	MIA	6
84	Mike Leake	SEA	6
85	Zach Davies	MIL	6
86	Jason Vargas	KCR	6
87	Hyun-Jin Ryu	LAD	6
88	Chad Kuhl	PIT	6
89	Jerad Eickhoff	PHI	6
90	Steven Matz	NYM	6
91	Sean Newcomb	ATL	7
92	Shelby Miller	ARI	7
93	Felix Hernandez	SEA	7
94	Jharel Cotton	OAK	7
95	Tyler Glasnow	PIT	7
96	Jakob Junis	KCR	7
97	Mike Foltynewicz	ATL	7
98	Ivan Nova	PIT	7
99	John Lackey	CHC	7
100	Daniel Norris	DET	7
101	Jose Urena	MIA	7
102	Tyler Anderson	COL	7
103	Luis Perdomo	SDP	7
104	Andrew Heaney	LAA	8
105	Reynaldo Lopez	CWS	8
106	Luiz Gohara	ATL	8
107	Jack Flaherty	STL	8
108	A.J. Cole	WAS	8
109	Joe Musgrove	HOU	8
110	Alex Meyer	LAA	8
111	CC Sabathia	NYY	8