Starting Pitcher Chart – August 31st, 2026

• Daily SP Chart archive
• 2-Start podcast episode
• SP Rankings (last update: 7/24 | next: September)

Welcome to the Daily SP Chart, click here if you’re new to get an idea of what I’m doing with these rankings.

• Tolle has allowed more than 3 ER just once over his L9 outings, posting a beautiful 2.65 ERA/1.04 WHIP/28% K-BB in 51 IP. Today, he gets the 30th ranked offense versus lefties.
• Any concerns for Harrison after the shellacking at SDP have been tamped down by 2 strong starts since, allowing just 1 ER in 10 IP with 13 Ks. CHC is scary, especially with how dialed in PCA is right now, but Harrison doesn’t leave the rotation for me.
• A gem last time out from Kirby (7.7 IP/1 ER/9 Ks) inspires some confidence, but man oh man it’s been a grind this year. I mentioned ahead of his last start that SEA’s defense is a big reason behind his struggles and obviously one good start doesn’t fix that. I can’t see benching him despite the bumpy year, though.
• deGrom’s been on a 1 up/1 down pattern over his last 8 starts but it’s so hard to take those sort of runs seriously. If anything, it just underscores a pitcher’s start-to-start inconsistency and there are no guarantees the pattern will continue meaning we can’t expect a good outing just because the last one was bad. And yet, I still have him at 3-x as he’s facing the battered A’s lineup at home. I might have more caution if it was in Sacramento, but this is the right setup for him to continue to this weird pattern.
• A 9 ER Dud v. LAA two starts ago has saddled Lambert with a 6.12 ERA over the month but that’s literally his only bad start during the run. In fact, it’s the only start where he’s allowed more than 2 ER in his L10 and he did rebound from the LAA outing with a solid 5.7 IP/2 ER/5 Ks at NYY.
• I’ve got some nerves about this Nola rebirth as the 2.63 ERA comes with a 1.26 WHIP over his L6 starts but the run also comes with a 29% K rate and of course his residence on a strong PHI team gives him a decent W probability (though he is just 2-2 during this run).
• COL is just 11th in wOBA at home since the break giving me more confidence to run Bradish in Coors today. I’ll never give managers a hard time for skipping Coors with non-aces especially if you’re protecting ratios against the meltdown start (which Bradish had last time out with 7 ER at STL).
• Ureña, not Mitch Farris, going for LAA. While NYY got Belly back and Luis Garcia Jr. has been excellent with them, they remain a pretty non-threatening offense without Judge. Ureña’s ERA is due for some regression given how many base runners he allows but even if he’s more high 3.00s than high-2.00s, I’m still comfortable using him v. NYY today. 

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Intro

The chart includes their performance for 2026, their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness, and recently added opponent’s K% (also v. SP handedness), my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues – essentially a shallow, medium, deep league setup – and then a note about some, most, or all depending on the day. 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 for standard 5×5 roto leagues, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. I usually won’t have much to write about aces who are locked into our rotations. If you want to discuss someone further, please feel free to leave a comment. I usually do a few sweeps of the comments before game time in case there are time-sensitive questions.

Color Coding:

• Green – Good Matchup (lower OPS output by SP opponent) – 21st to 30th
• Yellow – OK – 11th to 20th 
• Red – Bad – 1st to 10th