Starting Pitcher Chart – May 23rd, 2025

May 23, 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.

Pardon the mostly note-less board tonight. I wasn’t able to get things started before catching a movie tonight (Friendship… really liked it, definitely delivered if you’re already a Tim Robinson fan!!) and I’m just beat at this late hour so after the first couple I just hit a wall for the night. As always, I’ll respond to comments if you have questions on specific guys and if I can get some time after the podcast in the morning, I’ll add some comments. I’ll also run a board-only ranking for the weekend again this week. The site at large is dark for Memorial Day so a Monday board is TBD but I really hate to miss a Monday w/the 2-start board (except this week 🙈) and I don’t have any grand plans for Monday so it shooould be business as usual for the chart even if I call it a half-holiday and go board only that day, too.

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Starter Notes May 23, 2025

RK	PITCHER	GAME	10	12	15+	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	2025 wOBA RK	NOTE
1	Paul Skenes	PIT v MIL	x	x	x	62	2.44	0.94	19%	25th
2	Zack Wheeler	PHI at ATH	x	x	x	64	2.67	0.89	28%	14th
3	Hunter Greene	CIN v CHC	x	x	x	45	2.36	0.81	30%	4th
4	Pablo López	MIN v KCR	x	x	x	45	2.40	0.93	23%	26th
5	MacKenzie Gore	WSN v SFG	x	x	x	56	3.67	1.30	28%	19th
6	Freddy Peralta	MIL at PIT	x	x	x	55	2.59	1.06	16%	29th
7	Tyler Mahle	TEX at CHW	x	x	x	55	1.47	0.98	10%	30th
8	Chris Sale	ATL v SDP	x	x	x	54	3.62	1.35	24%	12th
9	Nick Pivetta	SDP at ATL	x	x	x	50	2.86	0.99	21%	11th
10	Matthew Boyd	CHC at CIN	x	x	x	51	2.98	1.23	19%	22nd
11	Drew Rasmussen	TBR v TOR	x	x	x	46	2.93	1.00	17%	24th
12	Griffin Canning	NYM v LAD		x	x	47	2.47	1.29	15%	2nd	Yes, it’s aces-only v. LAD and yes, I have some long-term concerns as that 91% LOB rate regresses, but has Canning also artfully handled a seemingly-endless barrage of quality opponents with aplomb? Also, yes! Since ATH put up 4 ER: 1.67 ERA/1.18 WHIP/18% K-BB v. STL, PHI, at WAS, at ARI, v. CHC, and at NYY. I’m going in eyes wide open here and won’t be shocked by 6 ER but I’m running him in 12s+!!
13	Yusei Kikuchi	LAA v MIA		x	x	54	3.50	1.44	10%	15th
14	Clarke Schmidt	NYY at COL		x	x	32	4.41	1.29	10%	28th	Always nervous about Coors because it can go south on any given night so it’s still dicey, but not nearly as scary as when the Rockies are running a competent lineup
15	Zac Gallen	ARI at STL		x	x	56	5.14	1.38	14%	5th
16	Eric Lauer	TOR at TBR			x	12	2.25	0.83	25%	29th
17	Landen Roupp	SFG at WSN			x	46	4.11	1.43	15%	16th
18	Ryan Gusto	HOU v SEA			x	31	4.65	1.52	13%	13th	1st start since the 7 ER dud v. KCR to open what was supposed to be a 2-step wk; SEA has regressed (19th wOBA vR L30) so while I could see a decent outing, it could be pretty short after just 4 total IP over his L3 outings spanning nearly 3 wks of time
19	Slade Cecconi	CLE at DET			x	5	5.40	1.00	40%	6th
20	Noah Cameron	KCR at MIN			x	12	0.71	0.63	2%	17th
21	Jackson Jobe	DET v CLE			x	39	4.12	1.45	6%	22nd
22	Sandy Alcantara	MIA at LAA				41	7.99	1.61	6%	23rd	Even with a good matchup, what are you really chasing here? I need to see a few before coming back around. Just seems like it’s gonna be a TJ recovery inconsistent kind of year
23	Miles Mikolas	STL v ARI				45	3.77	1.21	6%	1st
24	Sean Burke	CHW v TEX				48	4.69	1.52	3%	27th
25	Brayan Bello	BOS v BAL				31	4.02	1.69	1%	10th
26	Clayton Kershaw	LAD at NYM				4	11.25	2.00	-5%	8th
27	Jeffrey Springs	ATH v PHI				53	3.91	1.25	9%	4th
28	Tanner Gordon	COL v NYY				6	5.68	1.58	11%	3rd
29	Emerson Hancock	SEA at HOU				33	6.21	1.68	9%	21st
30	Charlie Morton	BAL at BOS				41	7.68	1.76	8%	12th

Recommendations for Roto 5×5 Leagues

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AnonMember since 2025

13 hours ago

Alcantara’s velo seems to be stabilizing, Stuff+ is still good, his Location+ has been positive in 2 of his last 3 and the upcoming schedule is good – @LAA, @SDP, COL, @PIT (Padres are OK but more mid-tier than actually good so far this year. The rest are ++ matchups) The M’s seem to be letting him go 100+ pitches again (2 straight over 100) and his 3 worst starts have been @PHI, LAD, @LAD so no shame in getting beat up there.

I think I’m back in, especially since he is going to be a great trade target for contenders. He was sitting on my league’s waiver so I scooped him.

Paul SporerFanGraphs Staff

12 hours ago

Reply to Anon

Nice write up! The schedule tilting back toward him is nice and great pt about him pushing 100+ pitches of late

10 hours ago

Reply to Paul Sporer

I think right now you can kind of see what you want to see with Alcantara. I pointed out some of the good but it’s still Ks down, BB essentially double and quite a bit more hard contact, none of which is good.

Part of why I’m taking the plunge is he’s throwing 100+ pitches. I noted the last 2 but it’s actually 3 of the last 5 and the 2 games he didn’t throw 100 were the 2 wipeouts by the Dodgers. I’m in a QS league and getting REALLY tired of guys getting yanked after only 85 or 90 pitches through 5. . . .

1 hour ago

BTW, think how remarkable it is that Kikuchi is the double-x guy in a Kikuchi vs Alcantara matchup while Alcantara is a no-x. . . .

Well I was sold by your Alcantara write-up, so more 2x v. 1x at least