Starting Pitcher Chart – September 5th

September 5, 2023

Aug 30, 2023; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Andre Jackson (41) pitches during the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

The chart includes their season performance, their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness over the last 30 days, 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 risky 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.

Back after a couple days missed. Friday wasn’t planned so my apologies while Monday the site was dark for Labor Day and I decided to take the day and just watch some baseball on the couch! Time for the stretch run now.

Hopefully your work isn’t already burned by Lucas Giolito! In fairness to him, it has to be tough to move teams twice in a month, especially moving across the country and then back again. I only started him because of the 2-step and I’m SOOO desperate for wins.

Today has a lot of startable guys a level beyond my recommendation (i.e. startable in 10s if I put 2xs, or 10s/12s if I put 1x) depending on your situation. Some of you need to open up your thresholds to have any chance of catching with time running out so you might be starting guys you normally wouldn’t have considered a month or three ago.

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Starter Notes September 5, 2023

RK	PITCHER	GAME	10	12	15+	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	wOBA RK L30/Season	NOTE
1	Gerrit Cole	NYY v DET	x	x	x	174	2.95	1.04	21%	8th/28th
2	Clayton Kershaw	LAD at MIA	x	x	x	112.1	2.48	1.02	20%	30th/11th
3	Brandon Woodruff	MIL at PIT	x	x	x	40	2.70	0.83	26%	17th/21st	Looking fantastic since returning: 3.45 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, 27% K-BB in 5 starts
4	Zach Eflin	TBR v BOS	x	x	x	150.2	3.40	1.02	22%	6th/5th
5	Sonny Gray	MIN at CLE	x	x	x	157	2.92	1.17	16%	26th/22nd
6	Chris Bassitt	TOR at OAK	x	x	x	165.1	3.81	1.19	14%	19th/29th	Hasn’t had B2B gems in a while, this is obviously the perfect setup to do so after 8 scoreless v. WSN
7	Tanner Bibee	CLE v MIN	x	x	x	124.2	3.03	1.21	16%	7th/8th	Hasn’t allowed >3 ER in an outing since 6/13, posting a 2.48 ERA in 13 starts
8	Framber Valdez	HOU at TEX	x	x	x	167.2	3.38	1.10	18%	11th/3rd	Couple 6 ER bombs couldn’t sink his Aug. (3.67 ERA/0.97 WHIP) thanks to his no-no & 7 no-hit IP at DET
9	Bryce Miller	SEA at CIN	x	x	x	107.2	3.93	1.05	18%	21st/14th
10	Kyle Hendricks	CHC v SFG	x	x	x	110.1	3.59	1.13	12%	30th/20th
11	Dean Kremer	BAL at LAA		x	x	150	4.20	1.28	14%	29th/11th	Has allowed >3 ER just 1x since July 1st, posting a 2.90 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, and 14% K-BB
12	Brandon Pfaadt	ARI v COL		x	x	71	6.21	1.42	14%	23rd/18th	Dud at LAD capped an otherwise strong Aug. (4.01 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 16% K-BB) in 34 IP)
13	José Quintana	NYM at WSN		x	x	47	3.26	1.34	8%	17th/12th	Can be a viable streamer in shallow lgs, too, if some of the other 2x guys are taken
14	Andre Jackson	PIT v MIL		x	x	42.1	4.46	1.16	19%	27th/25th	Capped off a strong Aug. last time out: 2.92 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 21% K-BB in 25 IP
15	Michael Lorenzen	PHI at SDP		x	x	137.2	3.73	1.14	12%	24th/19th
16	Jesús Luzardo	MIA v LAD			x	149.1	3.62	1.22	21%	9th/4th	Looks excellent his L2 after a lull, but obviously LAD is terrifying… probably only throwing in chase situations
17	Kutter Crawford	BOS at TBR			x	103.2	4.08	1.14	18%	2nd/3rd	HOU start sucked but that was coming off a gem v. LAD so he’s not an auto-sit v. good tms
18	Dylan Cease	CHW at KCR			x	148.1	4.91	1.46	16%	20th/27th	You know the matchup doesn’t matter if he’s off… this is super risky at this point in the season
19	Reid Detmers	LAA v BAL			x	124	5.01	1.40	16%	10th/10th	He’s a fave of mine but that just makes me very familiar w/his wild swings this yr… be careful
20	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX v HOU			x	123.2	2.69	1.01	16%	9th/17th	Returning after a nearly 2 month IL stint against a tough opponent… only starting if I’m desperate
21	Michael Soroka	ATL v STL			x	29.1	5.52	1.47	9%	16th/6th	Struggled in the majors, but sharp in the minors… I’ve always like Rock so I’m open to taking a shot in some spots
22	Brady Singer	KCR v CHW			x	143.1	5.15	1.40	13%	25th/30th	Has had a team quality split in terms of ERA (3.99 v. bad, 6.19 v. good), but the 1.40 WHIP v. bad says there’s still plenty of risk
23	Alex Faedo	DET at NYY				57	4.89	1.07	13%	28th/26th
24	Patrick Corbin	WSN v NYM				154.1	4.90	1.50	9%	12th/23rd
25	Miles Mikolas	STL at ATL				164.1	4.66	1.31	11%	4th/1st
26	Kyle Freeland	COL at ARI				140.2	5.18	1.47	8%	21st/21st
27	Connor Phillips	CIN v SEA				#N/A	#N/A	#N/A	#N/A	3rd/13th	Big time bat-misser with brutal command
28	Pedro Avila	SDP v PHI				30.1	2.67	1.38	18%	1st/7th
29	Sean Manaea	SFG at CHC				90.2	4.96	1.32	18%	23rd/17th
30	Ken Waldichuk	OAK v TOR				114	5.92	1.67	9%	5th/5th

Recommendations for Roto 5×5 Leagues