Starting Pitcher Chart – April 8th, 2026

by Paul Sporer

April 8, 2026

Welcome to the Daily SP Chart.

The chart includes their performance for 2025 until we get some actual data for this year (I changed over in late-April last year), their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness from last year (not a perfect solution as teams change in the offseason, but better than using just a few days of data from this year), my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues, and then a note about some, most, or all depending on the day. Obviously, there are league sizes beyond those three so it’s essentially a shallow, medium, deep. If a pitcher only has an “x” in 15-team, it doesn’t mean there’s no potential use in 10s and 12s, but it’s a much riskier stream for those spots.

These are general recommendations, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. This is for standard 5×5 roto leagues. The thresholds for H2H starts are generally lower, especially in points leagues so I thought there would be more value focusing on roto.

I usually won’t have much to write about aces who are locked into our rotations, you don’t really need a shiny stat to be convinced on starting guys like that. If you want to discuss someone further, please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get you an answer when I can. I try to do a few sweeps of the comments before game time in case there are time-sensitive questions.

SP Chart for April 8th, 2026

Rk	PITCHER	Tm	Opp	10	12	15+	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	opp wOBA RK	Commentary
1	Shohei Ohtani	LAD	at TOR	x	x	x	47	2.87	1.04	28%	6	I wonder how many Ohtani mgrs. have enough offense to consider starting him consistently, espec. if he doesn’t run much as a health-saving measure
2	Bryan Woo	SEA	at TEX	x	x	x	186.2	2.94	0.93	22%	24
3	Framber Valdez	DET	at MIN	x	x	x	192	3.66	1.24	15%	13
4	Cole Ragans	KCR	at CLE	x	x	x	61.2	4.67	1.18	30%	27
5	Michael King	SDP	at PIT	x	x	x	73.1	3.44	1.20	16%	30
6	MacKenzie Gore	TEX	v. SEA	x	x	x	159.2	4.17	1.35	18%	12	7% BB and .250 BABIP are great so far and both metrics will be instrumental to his success.
7	Eury Pérez	MIA	v. CIN	x	x	x	95.1	4.25	1.05	19%	14	4 BB 2nd inn. at NYY sunk the outing, but it doesn’t deter me from leaving him in my lineup everywhere
8	Kyle Bradish	BAL	at CHW	x	x	x	32	2.53	1.03	29%	29	Definitely wanted a better start w/MIN & at PIT to open, but 6 BB limited him to 9.7 IP; CHW is 16th in BB% (MIN/PIT both top 6)
9	Dylan Cease	TOR	v. LAD	x	x	x	168	4.55	1.33	20%	4	I’m a set-it-and-forget-it guy with Cease bc matchup doesn’t matter, he can smoke anyone when he’s on & get cooked by the worst of teams when he’s walking the yard
10	Sonny Gray	BOS	v. MIL	x	x	x	180.2	4.28	1.23	22%	8
11	Joe Boyle	TBR	v. CHC	x	x	x	52	4.67	1.37	13%	10	Cubs are no walkover, but Boyle’s looked great so far and gets ’em in the Trop
12	Aaron Nola	PHI	at SFG	x	x	x	94.1	6.01	1.35	17%	15	The guy w/a 1.5 HR9 over the L4 yrs dropped 6.3 IP of 1-run ball at Coors bc of course he did… he’ll somehow give up 4 HRs here, but I’m gonna run him in a venue like this
13	Brady Singer	CIN	at MIA	x	x	x	169.2	4.03	1.24	14%	13
14	Reid Detmers	LAA	v. ATL	x	x	x	63.2	3.96	1.30	21%	14	Too early to say Mike Maddux has “fixed” him but lookin’ good through two starts!
15	Grant Holmes	ATL	at LAA	x	x	x	115	3.99	1.34	14%	26	Valid concerns that his partially torn UCL won’t hold all yr so let’s get the IP while we can, espec. in solid matchups
16	Chad Patrick	MIL	at BOS		x	x	119.2	3.53	1.28	17%	11	Great pair of starts to get his season going, but I’m hoping for some more Ks soon
17	Joey Cantillo	CLE	v. KCR		x	x	95.1	3.21	1.26	16%	26	Dig the upside despite control issues tjat make him a candidate for sub-5 IP virtually every time out
18	Ryne Nelson	ARI	at NYM		x	x	154	3.39	1.07	15%	2	Brutal trio to open his season: at LAD, v. ATL, at NYM… and a trip to BAL next wk isn’t all that great, either; might bench, but wouldn’t cut
19	Tyler Mahle	SFG	v. PHI		x	x	86.2	2.18	1.13	11%	3	He’s at worst a home-only guy for me right now so I’ll take this one and see where it goes
20	Colin Rea	CHC	at TBR		x	x	159.1	3.95	1.25	13%	12	Boyd fill-in can at least be a medium & deep league streamer with some W upside as part of a good tm (I don’t care that they’re 5-6 so far
21	Will Warren	NYY	v. ATH		x	x	162.1	4.44	1.37	15%	7	I don’t run for the road A’s, espec. w/the Win potential helping him in case the ratios aren’t great
22	Mitch Keller	PIT	v. SDP			x	176.1	4.19	1.26	13%	16	Couple nice 6 IP outings so far, but his 6% SwStr & K-BB suggest it’s not all that legit
23	Sean Burke	CHW	v. BAL			x	134.1	4.22	1.44	12%	20	A good start here will likely earn him a lot of attention for next wk’s 2-step, but it includes at ATH which is always scary
24	Michael McGreevy	STL	at WSN			x	95.2	4.42	1.25	10%	21	His 5% SwStr suggests his 22% K (which itself isn’t that great) is smoke and mirrors
25	David Peterson	NYM	v. ARI				168.2	4.22	1.37	12%	11
26	Cristian Javier	HOU	at COL				37	4.62	1.27	12%	27
27	Bailey Ober	MIN	v. DET				146.1	5.10	1.30	14%	19	I just can’t see him getting back into my good graces as a fantasy viable option w/out regaining 2+ mph somehow
28	Miles Mikolas	WSN	v. STL				156.1	4.84	1.32	9%	25
29	Luis Severino	ATH	at NYY				162.2	4.54	1.30	10%	1
30	Michael Lorenzen	COL	v. HOU				141.2	4.64	1.33	15%	23

Recommendations for Roto 5×5 Leagues

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member

It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.

We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.

1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.

2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.

3. Dark mode and Classic mode!

4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.

5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.

6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)

7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.

8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.

9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.

10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!

We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

Click Here To Become a Member

1 Comment

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

HewittMember since 2026

4 hours ago

I have Ohtani in a league with daily moves where you can play him one or the other on any given day but not both. And he’s my best pitcher (best hitter too but I have others). Should I try to pick out his easiest starts and play him at DH when the opposing lineup or park is tough? Or just run him out there for starts? Blue Jays have been middle of the pack vs RHP thusfar, but it will hurt the first time he hits 2 HR when I have him at P.