Starting Pitcher Chart – May 2nd, 2025

May 2, 2025

The chart includes their performance for 2025 (I changed over from 2024 #s on April 15th), their opponent’s wOBA rank versus the pitcher’s handedness from this year so far (this changed as of April 14th), 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 basically a 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.

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Starter Notes May 2, 2025

RK	PITCHER	GAME	10	12	15+	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	2025 wOBA RK	NOTE
1	Tarik Skubal	DET at LAA	x	x	x	34	2.34	1.04	25%	29th	The reigning AL Cy Young has looked every bit as good again this year, aiding his Tigers to the top of the AL Central
2	Hunter Greene	CIN v WSN	x	x	x	36	2.70	0.85	26%	13th	I took at least a 1-month L on Shane Baz yesterday only to see him get pasted for 7 ER by KCR so I hope I’m not setting Greene mgrs up for the same by acknowledging how good he looks so far despite my protestations to paying the premium on him; that said, my biggest concern was his HRs returning and they have (1.5) but halving his BB% to 4% has mitigated the damage; I truly do hope he continues to succeed even though I wasn’t in on him, he’s just so fun to watch when dominating
3	Max Fried	NYY v TBR	x	x	x	37	1.19	1.04	15%	27th
4	Framber Valdez	HOU at CHW	x	x	x	36	4.00	1.19	12%	28th
5	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD at ATL	x	x	x	34	1.06	1.00	24%	11th	Plenty hasn’t gone right w/LAD’s rotation (and yet they’re still 21-10), but YY has been a stabilizing force
6	Jesús Luzardo	PHI v ARI	x	x	x	36	1.73	1.07	21%	19th	Solid in Wrigley despite a season-high 3 BB as he allowed just 2 UER in 6 IP for his 3rd W of the yr; he’s firmly in must-start territory everywhere right now as one of the best breakouts of the first month
7	Bryan Woo	SEA at TEX	x	x	x	32	3.09	0.97	18%	25th	Has gone at least 6 IP in all 5 starts, incl. 7 IP twice
8	Joe Ryan	MIN at BOS	x	x	x	34	3.18	0.91	26%	7th	Rebounded from season-worst outing (5 IP/6 ER/3 HR) w/season-best (7 scoreless w/11 Ks); he’s a stud though HRs will remain the issue in his bad outings
9	Sonny Gray	STL v NYM	x	x	x	35	3.60	1.00	19%	17th
10	Dylan Cease	SDP at PIT	x	x	x	29	5.76	1.62	18%	26th	The 3.61 SIERA suggests both the .388 BABIP & 62% LOB should improve, though he’s only been a 69% LOB guy the last 2 yrs so maybe not a ton of wiggle room there; not benching him anywhere even at NYY next wk, but this is classic Cease inconsistency that can be frustrating to deal with
11	Chris Bassitt	TOR v CLE	x	x	x	34	2.62	1.17	22%	21st
12	Clay Holmes	NYM at STL	x	x	x	30	2.64	1.27	18%	9th	Glossy ERA isn’t fully backed by skills and I’m curious to see if his 10% SwStr can sustain the 28% K
13	Robbie Ray	SFG v COL	x	x	x	31	3.73	1.40	10%	23rd	2 solid starts in a row and a great shot for a 3rd w/this matchup
14	Michael Wacha	KCR at BAL		x	x	32	3.38	1.25	10%	6th
15	Jack Leiter	TEX v SEA		x	x	13	2.03	0.98	15%	4th	SEA has been sneaky great vR but it’s still not enough to run from streaming solid arms against ’em
16	Ryan Pepiot	TBR at NYY		x	x	34	4.24	1.38	15%	2nd	I’m a huge Pep fan, but HRs have been an issue thus far and while they’ve all come at home, Yankee Stadium is obviously quite similar to his home park so I’m not totally against a skip in shallower formats
17	Merrill Kelly 켈리	ARI at PHI		x	x	32	4.41	1.10	10%	15th	An out shy of 4 straight QS after the 9 ER mega-dud in NYY and he’s done it against a mostly tough slate: BAL, at MIA, at CHC, ATL
18	Mitchell Parker	WSN at CIN			x	37	2.65	1.13	3%	15th	Holding the line after his first dud of the yr, though the schedule doesn’t let up w/a solid CIN tm here followed by STL and then ATL 2x
19	José Soriano	LAA v DET			x	34	4.50	1.47	8%	16th	As y’all know I’m a fan of Sori, but there’s just nothing to latch onto here as his metrics are worse across the board and it’s getting harder and harder to see where the upside comes from
20	Brayan Bello	BOS v MIN			x	11	3.27	1.45	2%	20th	Solid if unspectacular thru 2 and MIN isn’t super threatening
21	Grant Holmes	ATL v LAD				28	4.50	1.25	8%	1st	Schedule makers doing Holmes absolute ZERO favors w/a 2nd LAD start on the heels of a dud in ARI; holding in medium & deep lgs for now, but need to see some BB% improvement in these next 2-3 starts for sure
22	Ben Brown	CHC at MIL				25	6.04	1.89	13%	10th
23	Logan Allen	CLE at TOR				25	4.21	1.56	4%	5th
24	Mitch Keller	PIT v SDP				34	3.97	1.29	10%	14th	I know they’re only 14th in wOBA vR, but I don’t like streaming against the Padres; studs-only against them for me
25	Gunnar Hoglund	ATH at MIA				#N/A	#N/A	#N/A	#N/A	22nd	MLB debut for the former 1st rounder after posting a sharp 20% K-BB in 6 AAA starts
26	Quinn Priester	MIL v CHC				19	3.79	1.63	1%	5th
27	Dean Kremer	BAL v KCR				30	7.04	1.57	9%	30th
28	Valente Bellozo	MIA v ATH				8	2.25	1.63	6%	18th
29	Jonathan Cannon	CHW v HOU				32	4.50	1.44	7%	24th
30	Antonio Senzatela	COL at SFG				29	5.22	1.88	6%	19th

Recommendations for Roto 5×5 Leagues