Starting Pitcher Chart – May 8th, 2025

May 8, 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 valuable focusing on roto.

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Starter Notes May 8, 2025

RK	PITCHER	GAME	10	12	15+	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	2025 wOBA RK	NOTE
1	Jesús Luzardo	PHI at TBR	x	x	x	41	1.94	1.18	21%	28th	Mentioned w/Sánchez yesterday that while the venue is tough, TBR just isn’t hitting vL so I’m not too worried… I mean, let’s be honest they could be 1st in wOBA vL and I’d still be starting Luzardo w/how well he’s pitching right now… Sanchy went 6 scoreless, btw
2	Spencer Schwellenbach	ATL v CIN	x	x	x	41	3.92	1.11	18%	17th	Got a question in my chat asking if I was concerned about the 7.17 ERA over his L4 and it was a firm “no” as it’s 1 bad inning at TOR and a rough start v. LAD; still a 4.5 K/BB in that time, too
3	Kris Bubic	KCR v CHW	x	x	x	41	1.98	1.12	16%	26th	Just 7 Ks in his L2 after 5+ in each of his first 5 starts but CHW is obviously a great Rx to get back on track
4	Joe Ryan	MIN v BAL	x	x	x	40	2.93	0.90	27%	7th	1 R in 13 IP since ATL diced him up for 6 ER/3 HR, his only truly bad start of the season
5	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD at ARI	x	x	x	40	0.90	0.93	24%	2nd	ARI is super-tough and absolutely raking, but obviously there’s no universe where we’d sit Yoshi
6	Nick Lodolo	CIN at ATL	x	x	x	41	3.27	1.04	14%	23rd	3 3-hit innings v. WAS resulted in his worst start of the yr, but he’s still a full-go without any major concerns
7	Chris Bassitt	TOR at LAA	x	x	x	39	2.95	1.18	22%	25th	Has cooled a bit after his blazing hot start w/a 6.06 ERA & 4 HRs in his L3 after an 0.77 ERA & 0 HRs in his F4 and yet I’m confidently starting him in this matchup
8	José Soriano	LAA v TOR	x	x	x	40	3.83	1.43	9%	28th	MLB-best 64% GB rate helps him limit HRs and outpitch an otherwise bad 9% K-BB… still scary in tough matchups which TOR is not; just don’t let Vlad Jr. & Springer beat ya
9	Ryan Pepiot	TBR v PHI		x	x	38	4.23	1.41	13%	6th	Can’t pretend I’m not worried about his 8 HRs in 5 starts at home w/a strong PHI tm coming to visit so while I am a big fan of his, I can see skipping in some spots
10	Casey Mize	DET at COL		x	x	36	2.70	1.09	12%	30th	We originally had Mize slated for Wed., so I assumed Jobe would be in the doubleheader. Here’s my comment from yesterday: Coors is always scary even w/this brutal Rockies team, but I still see some viability in running Mize here even if just for the W upside
11	Brayan Bello	BOS v TEX		x	x	17	2.55	1.19	7%	26th	Not blindly starting him everywhere as that ERA isn’t backed up by his skills, but TEX is a team to pick on right now
12	Jack Leiter	TEX at BOS			x	17	4.58	1.30	11%	10th	Handled BOS in his season debut (5 IP/1 ER), can he repeat the feat in Fenway?
13	Davis Martin	CHW at KCR			x	38	3.52	1.36	9%	24th	Pure matchup play that still carries plenty of downside
14	Brandon Pfaadt	ARI v LAD				40	3.79	1.24	17%	1st	Sitting is the right move… sure, he could pop off, but the risk/reward just isn’t there in this matchup (6.20 career ERA v. LAD in 4 starts, too)
15	Kyle Freeland	COL v DET				36	5.70	1.46	14%	6th	I’d put more stock in his ERA moving toward his solid 3.64 SIERA if Coors wasn’t the toughest place for a low-K arm to fix a LOB% issue
16	Keider Montero	DET at COL				13	5.93	1.76	9%	30th
17	Dean Kremer	BAL at MIN				37	5.73	1.38	8%	22nd
18	Tanner Gordon	COL v DET				#N/A	#N/A	#N/A	#N/A	8th

Recommendations for Roto 5×5 Leagues

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ATL	CHC	ARI
MIA	CIN	COL
NYM	MIL	LAD
PHI	PIT	SDP
WSN	STL	SFG