Starting Pitcher Chart – May 31st, 2025
by Paul Sporer
May 31, 2025
Daily SP Chart archive
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.
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Starter Notes May 31, 2025
| RK | PITCHER | GAME | 10 | 12 | 15+ | IP | ERA | WHIP | K-BB | 2025 wOBA RK | NOTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tarik Skubal | DET at KCR | x | x | x | 68 | 2.49 | 0.84 | 32% | 26th | I love that he’s on my favorite team! |
| 2 | Jesús Luzardo | PHI v MIL | x | x | x | 67 | 2.15 | 1.18 | 21% | 24th | |
| 3 | Dylan Cease | SDP v PIT | x | x | x | 59 | 4.58 | 1.25 | 21% | 27th | Great spot to start shaving that ERA down |
| 4 | Sonny Gray | STL at TEX | x | x | x | 62 | 4.06 | 1.16 | 21% | 29th | |
| 5 | Robbie Ray | SFG at MIA | x | x | x | 63 | 2.56 | 1.15 | 16% | 14th | |
| 6 | Bailey Ober | MIN at SEA | x | x | x | 58 | 3.41 | 1.33 | 13% | 12th | |
| 7 | Kodai Senga | NYM v COL | x | x | x | 55 | 1.46 | 1.24 | 11% | 28th | |
| 8 | Spencer Schwellenbach | ATL v BOS | x | x | x | 68 | 3.42 | 1.05 | 17% | 6th | |
| 9 | Brandon Pfaadt | ARI v WSN | x | x | x | 62 | 3.90 | 1.22 | 13% | 16th | |
| 10 | Nick Lodolo | CIN at CHC | x | x | 63 | 3.39 | 1.10 | 16% | 2nd | He’s not quite an ace, but he has been excellent outside the 1 dud v. WAS so he is startable everywhere as long as you’re comfortable w/the risk | |
| 11 | Slade Cecconi | CLE v LAA | x | x | 11 | 3.27 | 1.09 | 27% | 23rd | A pair of strong outings so far and the schedule gives him a chance to stay hot | |
| 12 | Michael Wacha | KCR v DET | x | x | 61 | 3.21 | 1.26 | 10% | 15th | High floor streamer hasn’t allowed >4 ER | |
| 13 | Chad Patrick | MIL at PHI | x | x | 57 | 2.97 | 1.25 | 14% | 11th | Classic random MIL breakout: hasn’t allowed >3 ER in any of his 12 app. en route to a sub-3.00 ERA despite the modest 14% K-BB | |
| 14 | Dean Kremer | BAL v CHW | x | 61 | 5.02 | 1.39 | 11% | 30th | After allowing 10 ER in his final 2 starts of Apr, he’s allowed just 10 in all of May (30.3 IP) so let’s see how it goes w/the great matchup | ||
| 15 | Colton Gordon | HOU v TBR | x | 14 | 5.52 | 1.43 | 18% | 20th | Decent in 3 starts, espec. w/just 2 BB (3%) but he looks like a 5-and-dive so the margin for error is small | ||
| 16 | Walker Buehler | BOS at ATL | x | 41 | 3.95 | 1.20 | 13% | 10th | I remain really nervous about starting him | ||
| 17 | Davis Martin | CHW at BAL | x | 62 | 3.45 | 1.26 | 8% | 8th | Pitching well of late and catching BAL at the right time, but don’t come looking for Ws here | ||
| 18 | Will Warren | NYY at LAD | x | 50 | 4.09 | 1.26 | 22% | 1st | I really wanna get cute here as he’s toting a 2.75 ERA/1.15 WHIP/29% K-BB in 5 May starts, but it’s extremelyyyyy risky and I know it’s a bad idea | ||
| 19 | Gunnar Hoglund | ATH at TOR | x | 26 | 5.13 | 1.41 | 12% | 25th | 5 HR & 8 BB have been instrumental in his crash back to Earth after a fast start (7.20 ERA/1.67 WHIP in L3) | ||
| 20 | Bryce Miller | SEA v MIN | x | 39 | 5.22 | 1.54 | 8% | 22nd | 1st start off the IL | ||
| 21 | Michael Soroka | WSN at ARI | 25 | 5.61 | 1.21 | 19% | 2nd | Aces-only at ARI | |||
| 22 | Edward Cabrera | MIA v SFG | 40 | 4.73 | 1.40 | 16% | 20th | ||||
| 23 | Patrick Corbin | TEX v STL | 48 | 3.75 | 1.29 | 11% | 13th | ||||
| 24 | Zack Littell | TBR at HOU | 65 | 3.97 | 1.08 | 12% | 18th | ||||
| 25 | Bailey Falter | PIT at SDP | 59 | 3.47 | 1.14 | 8% | 15th | ||||
| 26 | Braydon Fisher | TOR v ATH | 7 | 0.00 | 0.43 | 45% | 14th | Opening for Eric Lauer who might actually have some deep lg appeal if TOR can get a lead for him to steal a dub | |||
| 27 | Drew Pomeranz | CHC v CIN | 12 | 0.00 | 0.55 | 23% | 16th | ||||
| 28 | Antonio Senzatela | COL at NYM | 54 | 6.50 | 1.94 | 5% | 9th | ||||
| 29 | Kyle Hendricks | LAA at CLE | 53 | 5.23 | 1.26 | 8% | 21st | ||||
| 30 | Landon Knack | LAD v NYY | 29 | 5.22 | 1.36 | 14% | 3rd |
Recommendations for Roto 5×5 Leagues
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Starting Cabrera against the Giants, may the force be with me.
That’ll play!!! Someone asked me about him v. Cecconi and I unfortunately went Cecconi