Starting Pitcher Chart – May 28th, 2025

May 28, 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 usually a note about them (some days are board-only). Obviously, there are league sizes beyond those three so it’s essentially a shorthand for 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.

Just writing up the 1 and 2-x guys tonight! Will answer questions on anyone else if you have them, though.

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Starter Notes May 28, 2025

RK	PITCHER	GAME	10	12	15+	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	2025 wOBA RK	NOTE
1	Zack Wheeler	PHI v ATL	x	x	x	70	2.42	0.88	28%	8th
2	Hunter Greene	CIN at KCR	x	x	x	49	2.54	0.85	27%	26th
3	Tyler Mahle	TEX v TOR	x	x	x	60	1.80	1.03	9%	24th
4	Paul Skenes	PIT at ARI	x	x	x	68	2.36	0.95	19%	1st
5	Pablo López	MIN at TBR	x	x	x	50	2.31	0.97	22%	21st
6	Drew Rasmussen	TBR v MIN	x	x	x	52	2.60	1.00	15%	19th
7	Matthew Boyd	CHC v COL	x	x	x	55	3.42	1.32	17%	29th
8	Freddy Peralta	MIL v BOS	x	x	x	60	2.55	1.12	15%	5th
9	Clarke Schmidt	NYY at LAA	x	x	x	37	4.58	1.34	12%	22nd
10	Griffin Canning	NYM v CHW	x	x	x	50	2.88	1.32	12%	30th
11	Zac Gallen	ARI v PIT	x	x	x	61	5.25	1.36	13%	29th
12	AJ Smith-Shawver	ATL at PHI	x	x	x	41	3.67	1.42	12%	10th
13	Noah Cameron	KCR v CIN		x	x	19	0.93	0.67	11%	17th	I knew that 5 BB debut was anomalous; just 1 in 13 IP since
14	Landen Roupp	SFG at DET		x	x	52	3.63	1.40	14%	11th	BB caused issues in Apr, but he has just 4 in 4 May starts aiding him to a 1.64 ERA/1.09 WHIP though it comes w/15% K and of course, DET is tough so not a slamdunk start
15	Shane Smith	CHW at NYM		x	x	53	2.36	1.11	14%	13th	Moved to Wed., here’s the comment from yesterday — Deserves so much better than 1 W, alas that’s life as a White Sock right now
16	Eric Lauer	TOR at TEX		x	x	16	3.31	1.10	17%	27th	Solid in L3 outings (2 GS/1 relief app.) w/a 3.00 ERA & 1.08 WHIP; reached 85 pitches last time out, too, so he’s stretched out
17	George Kirby	SEA v WSN		x	x	3	12.27	1.91	16%	18th	Bumpy season debut at HOU can be forgiven; WSN not quite as scary so I’m slotting him in for my deep lgs
18	Miles Mikolas	STL at BAL		x	x	51	3.51	1.17	7%	12th	Since the 8 ER at BOS: 2.09 ERA/1.02 WHIP in 8 starts (43.3 IP)
19	Jackson Jobe	DET v SFG			x	44	4.06	1.42	6%	17th	Mostly a Win chase bc the 2.78 ERA over his L3 is not supported by the skills at all: 1.36 WHIP, 8% K-BB
20	Luis Severino	ATH at HOU			x	65	4.11	1.26	11%	20th	INSANE home/road split: 6.20 ERA/1.45 WHIP at home \| 0.72/0.96 on the road though I’m still being cautious here w/HOU sitting 7 in wOBA vR over the L30
21	Brayan Bello	BOS at MIL			x	35	4.08	1.70	4%	25th	Solid matchup, but hasn’t reached 5 IP in any of his L4
22	Cade Povich	BAL v STL			x	46	4.86	1.45	13%	12th	Maybe finding his footing a bit of late w/a 3.86 ERA/1.04 WHIP in his L5 and the 1 bad start was 5 ER in one inning at MIN
23	Clayton Kershaw	LAD at CLE			x	6	7.50	1.50	-4%	19th	Don’t just go off name value here… this is a YOLO throw if anything
24	Kyle Hart	SDP v MIA			x	21	6.00	1.38	11%	15th	3 of his 5 starts have been solid, but the other 2 were horrid; matchup drives interest, though we saw them jump on Kolek yesterday
25	Yusei Kikuchi	LAA v NYY				59	3.17	1.49	9%	1st
26	Slade Cecconi	CLE v LAD				11	3.27	1.09	27%	2nd
27	Sandy Alcantara	MIA at SDP				47	8.04	1.57	7%	16th
28	Trevor Williams	WSN at SEA				49	6.39	1.56	12%	9th
29	Lance McCullers Jr.	HOU v ATH				12	6.57	2.03	6%	14th
30	Tanner Gordon	COL at CHC				12	4.38	1.38	12%	4th

Recommendations for Roto 5×5 Leagues

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wobatusMember since 2024

6 months ago

Roupp’s swinging srike rate went from 12%+ in April to 6%+ in May, and his K rate is sub 6 per 9 in May. So the reduced walk rate seems to have been somewhat a tradeoff. Did batters start laying off the curve? His siera went from 3.77 to 4.22. Still, a 3.60s-ish ERA with a 3.60s-ish xFIP on the year. Not too shabby, but you’d love to see the K’s and control combined.

Reply to wobatus

So naturally he immediately goes out and gets a 13.6% swinging strike rate. His first time above 10% in 7 starts (and at that he’d only been above 8% twice). I know these things can be fairly random, but good to see him bump it up.