Starting Pitcher Chart – September 9th, 2026
- Daily SP Chart archive
- 2-Start podcast episode
- SP Rankings (last update: 7/24)
Welcome to the Daily SP Chart, click here if you’re new to get an idea of what I’m doing with these rankings.
I had planned on an SP rankings update this week but as I thought about it more, I’m not sure it’s worth pouring hours into an update that is going to be so fraught with uncertainty due to innings limits & injuries, especially when a 1-to-whatever ranking isn’t going to be terribly useful in the final three weeks when everything is context-based at this point in the season. Instead, I’ll start putting energy into a 2027 list and get the first edition of that up earlier than normal (likely sometime in October). For now, I’m going to stay focused on the SP chart and being available to y’all in the comments to help with your very specific situations.
FYI – No chat from me today. I have a doc appointment, but I’ll gladly answer questions on this post (or tomorrow’s SP chart, of course)!
- I cited CLE’s unappealing offense as a reason to run Brandon Young so of course they dropped 6 ER on him, but I’m still attacking this offense with anything close to competent starts. I trust Baz more than Young, so let’s run it back.
- Zebby’s HR rate always leaves him susceptible, but he gets a DET team that’s dead-last in wOBA v. righties in the L30 days so I like him to bounce back from his 5 IP/4 ER/3 HR outing last time out.
- Gausman gets MIL for the 2nd straight start and for years I’ve been citing an older study that said the first start had no major correlation on the second regardless of how it went and as such you can just make your decision based on the pitcher without letting that 1st start influence you too much. But I have an update thanks to my favorite team, the Tigers! They showed a graphic that shows SPs falling off substantially in the aggregate during that 2nd start this season. Obviously, it’s not 100%, but if you’re protecting ratios, I can see skipping Gausman in some spots. I’ve attached the graphic below.
- ReyLo is coming off the IL, so I downgraded him to just 1-x. Y’all know I love him, but that doesn’t mean we have to get crazy and start him in a buncha spots v. TBR.
- I know Kade Anderson is the hot new flavor of the month, but he’s been “meh” in his first three starts and TEX slams lefties, so let’s be careful here.
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| Rk | PITCHER | Team | Opponent | T | 10 | 12 | 15+ | IP | ERA | WHIP | K% | K-BB | OPP K% | opp wOBA RK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | LAD | v. CIN | R | x | x | x | 165 | 2.67 | 0.90 | 25% | 19% | 25% | 28 |
| 2 | Cristopher Sánchez | PHI | v. HOU | L | x | x | x | 181.1 | 2.58 | 1.20 | 28% | 22% | 21% | 17 |
| 3 | Logan Henderson | MIL | v. CHC | R | x | x | x | 83.1 | 2.48 | 0.79 | 30% | 25% | 21% | 4 |
| 4 | Foster Griffin | CLE | at BAL | L | x | x | x | 160.1 | 3.26 | 1.14 | 22% | 15% | 26% | 13 |
| 5 | Jake Bennett | BOS | v. LAA | L | x | x | x | 99.2 | 3.34 | 1.02 | 21% | 16% | 25% | 26 |
| 6 | Shane Baz | BAL | v. CLE | R | x | x | x | 163.1 | 3.91 | 1.33 | 21% | 13% | 21% | 26 |
| 7 | Zebby Matthews | MIN | at DET | R | x | x | x | 117 | 4.69 | 1.25 | 20% | 13% | 23% | 16 |
| 8 | Hunter Brown | HOU | at PHI | R | x | x | x | 87 | 3.31 | 1.30 | 25% | 13% | 22% | 22 |
| 9 | Will Warren | NYY | v. COL | R | x | x | x | 136.1 | 4.16 | 1.38 | 22% | 14% | 22% | 5 |
| 10 | Kevin Gausman | CHC | at MIL | R | x | x | 162.1 | 4.38 | 1.26 | 24% | 18% | 22% | 2 | |
| 11 | Keider Montero | DET | v. MIN | R | x | x | 143 | 3.52 | 1.03 | 17% | 11% | 21% | 8 | |
| 12 | TOR | at ATH | R | 22% | 12 | |||||||||
| 13 | Janson Junk | MIA | v. NYM | R | x | x | 108 | 4.00 | 1.28 | 16% | 10% | 22% | 27 | |
| 14 | Andre Pallante | STL | at SFG | R | x | x | 141 | 3.51 | 1.24 | 17% | 9% | 21% | 11 | |
| 15 | Reynaldo López | ATL | v. TBR | R | x | 71.2 | 3.64 | 1.34 | 22% | 12% | 19% | 6 | ||
| 16 | Kade Anderson | SEA | v. TEX | L | x | 15 | 5.40 | 1.47 | 17% | 6% | 24% | 4 | ||
| 17 | Cody Bradford | TEX | at SEA | L | x | 30.1 | 4.45 | 1.58 | 12% | 7% | 25% | 30 | ||
| 18 | Walker Buehler | SDP | v. WSN | R | x | 136.1 | 4.56 | 1.34 | 20% | 11% | 21% | 9 | ||
| 19 | Blade Tidwell | SFG | v. STL | R | x | 42.2 | 4.43 | 1.24 | 20% | 10% | 22% | 24 | ||
| 20 | Griffin Jax | TBR | at ATL | R | x | 94.1 | 3.82 | 1.27 | 26% | 17% | 22% | 10 | ||
| 21 | Michael Soroka | ARI | at KCR | R | 95.1 | 3.40 | 1.16 | 23% | 17% | 20% | 13 | |||
| 22 | Davis Martin | CHW | v. PIT | R | 130.2 | 4.13 | 1.32 | 21% | 13% | 24% | 3 | |||
| 23 | Jackson Kent | WSN | at SDP | L | 24.1 | 5.55 | 1.68 | 19% | 2% | 22% | 25 | |||
| 24 | Rhett Lowder | CIN | at LAD | R | 116 | 5.43 | 1.49 | 17% | 8% | 21% | 1 | |||
| 25 | Tomoyuki Sugano | COL | at NYY | R | 131.2 | 5.19 | 1.35 | 14% | 9% | 25% | 20 | |||
| 26 | Ryan Johnson | LAA | at BOS | R | 78.1 | 5.17 | 1.39 | 17% | 6% | 22% | 17 | |||
| 27 | Daniel Lynch IV | KCR | v. ARI | L | 66.2 | 3.51 | 1.10 | 17% | 9% | 18% | 3 | |||
| 28 | Robert Stock | NYM | at MIA | R | 26.1 | 5.81 | 1.75 | 20% | 9% | 21% | 7 | |||
| 29 | Khristian Curtis | PIT | at CHW | R | 11 | 1.64 | 0.82 | 18% | 3% | 24% | 14 | |||
| 30 | Joey Estes | ATH | v. TOR | R | 4.1 | 8.31 | 1.38 | 22% | 17% | 19% | 23 |
Intro
The chart includes their performance for 2026, their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness, and recently added opponent’s K% (also v. SP handedness), my general start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues – essentially a shallow, medium, deep league setup – and then a note about some, most, or all depending on the day. 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 for standard 5×5 roto leagues, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. I usually won’t have much to write about aces who are locked into our rotations. If you want to discuss someone further, please feel free to leave a comment. I usually do a few sweeps of the comments before game time in case there are time-sensitive questions.
Color Coding:
- Green – Good Matchup (lower OPS output by SP opponent) – 21st to 30th
- Yellow – OK – 11th to 20th
- Red – Bad – 1st to 10th
Wind:
DET – in from R at 11
Sacramento – across from L to R at 6, hot too (97* by game’s end)
BAL – out to L at 11
PHI – out to R center at 10
Fenway – out to L at 13
NYY – across from R to L at 13
Rain:
DET – 40-70% all day. Both teams off tomorrow and again on the 24th so there is room here for a postponement if need be
Fenway – 20-40% all day
KCR – 33-55% all day
And there you go – MIN/DET is in a delay before the game even starts.
The other 2 rain games don’t look quite as serious, but I do note that all 4 of LAA/BOS and ARI/KCR also have off days tomorrow with no significant disruption to their schedules so they could postpone those as well if need be.
as soon as i got the delayed notif for Detroit, i was smiled like “Anon nailed it again!” lol.
H2H points playoffs, kinda desperate for points already on Wednesday. Worth starting Soroka as the follower and hoping for 10-20 points without burning a start on my team?
Yes, I’d take that shot!
Benched Gausman after reading this, looks like I averted a major disaster in a tight roto race!