Starting Pitcher Chart – May 20th, 2025

May 19, 2025

The chart includes their performance for 2025, their opponent’s wOBA rank versus the pitcher’s handedness from this year so far, my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues, and then a note about them. 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 valuable focusing on roto.

Completely spaced on the 2-start board this week, my sincere apologies on that.

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Starter Notes May 20, 2025

RK	PITCHER	GAME	10	12	15+	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	2025 wOBA RK	NOTE
1	Tarik Skubal	DET at STL	x	x	x	54	2.67	0.93	31%	13th	At least 11 Ks in 3 of his L4
2	Jesús Luzardo	PHI at COL	x	x	x	54	2.00	1.19	19%	22nd	As w/Sánchez yesterday, Luzardo is so good that even in Coors, he’s a top option (and I say that even if Sánchez goes on to get cooked tonight… that game starts shortly after I’m writing this)
3	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD v ARI	x	x	x	51	2.12	0.98	22%	1st	I don’t love running anyone v. ARI and they dropped 5 ER on Yoshi 2 starts ago, but obv still an auto start
4	Clay Holmes	NYM at BOS	x	x	x	48	3.14	1.25	15%	11th	After not reaching 6 in any of his first 4, he’s hit the mark in 4 of 5
5	Dylan Cease	SDP at TOR	x	x	x	47	4.60	1.34	20%	23rd	Spin the wheel and see which Cease we get… upside too high to ever really sit him, though
6	Spencer Strider	ATL at WSN	x	x	x	5	3.60	1.20	19%	19th	Fresh off the IL, though I have an easier time starting him since it wasn’t an arm injury
7	Nick Martinez	CIN at PIT	x	x	x	51	3.66	1.16	14%	29th	Actually been much better at home so far this yr, but no shot we pass up this matchup
8	Jameson Taillon	CHC at MIA	x	x	x	49	4.53	1.11	16%	21st	Great opportunity here and then an appealing 2-step next wk (COL/CIN)
9	Michael Lorenzen	KCR at SFG	x	x	x	52	3.76	1.23	14%	18th	Kind of an AL version of Taillon who is a team streamer in deeper lgs and standard streamer in shallower lgs
10	Logan Henderson	MIL v BAL		x	x	11	2.45	0.82	35%	12th	Could this be the next MIL gem SP? Huge MiLB K% has shown up thru 2 MLB starts and if he can keep his BB% in check, there’s strong upside here
11	Gavin Williams	CLE at MIN	x	x	x	42	4.29	1.64	14%	17th	Litmus test week for Gav, if we don’t see those base runner totals come down, it’s likely time to go in shallower lgs
12	Chris Bassitt	TOR v SDP		x	x	51	3.16	1.27	20%	7th	Catching SDP at the right time as they’re sputtering a bit vR over the last month but still not sure I find a start for him in 10s unless I need to take SDP to get the 2-step (at TBR this wknd)
13	Hayden Birdsong	SFG v KCR		x	x	23	2.31	1.29	15%	27th	Joining the rotation for Hicks w/a decent landing spot, though worth noting that KCR has jumped to 12th in wOBA vR over the L30 days
14	Gunnar Hoglund	ATH v LAA		x	x	16	3.78	1.32	16%	24th	Solid in 3 MLB starts so far, incl. outings v. SEA & LAD, 2 of the hottest hitting teams vR on the year
15	Chris Paddack	MIN v CLE		x	x	46	4.05	1.18	8%	20th	Quietly excellent surface results since that 9 ER shellacking at CHW in his season opener: 2.49 ERA/1.04 WHIP, though a meager 10% K-BB throws some cold water on things; the matchup helps here
16	Will Warren	NYY v TEX		x	x	41	4.61	1.32	18%	26th	At least 7 Ks in all 3 May starts en route to a 3.18 ERA/1.18 WHIP in 17 IP
17	Erick Fedde 페디	STL v DET			x	52	3.44	1.30	3%	5th	Riding a streak of 14.7 scoreless at WAS/at PHI so I don’t mind running the hot hand here even against a solid DET squad
18	Ryan Weathers	MIA v CHC				5	1.80	0.60	22%	3rd	Aces-only v. CHC, but I am interested in Weathers now that he’s back; at the very least hold for the 2-step next wk (at SDP/v. SFG)
19	Ryne Nelson	ARI at LAD				26	5.13	1.22	16%	2nd	Solid skills that would get him in the lineup against plenty of teams… just not LAD!
20	Walker Buehler	BOS v NYM				33	4.28	1.22	14%	8th
21	Bailey Falter	PIT v CIN				47	4.02	1.21	8%	17th
22	Mitchell Parker	WSN v ATL				50	4.32	1.30	4%	23rd	I find him intriguing on some level, but he hasn’t missed enough bats to really trust start-to-start
23	Zack Littell	TBR v HOU				54	4.31	1.12	10%	22nd
24	Chayce McDermott	BAL at MIL				3	12.00	2.33	13%	25th
25	Kyle Hendricks	LAA at ATH				41	5.18	1.22	5%	15th
26	Jhonathan Díaz	SEA at CHW				1		0.75	20%	26th
27	Patrick Corbin	TEX at NYY				37	3.35	1.30	10%	1st
28	Brandon Walter	HOU at TBR				#N/A	#N/A	#N/A	#N/A	28th
29	Bryse Wilson	CHW v SEA				33	6.00	1.79	3%	9th
30	Antonio Senzatela	COL v PHI				43	6.39	1.99	4%	10th

Recommendations for Roto 5×5 Leagues