Updated Consensus Ranks: Starting Pitchers

by
May 20, 2013

We’re coming to an end of the series! We’ve pushed the consensus bullpen ranks over to the Bullpen Report guys, so they’ll have that to you soon. But for these four rankers, this episode is drawing to a halt. You can find all the updated ranks on your right, linked in that helpful little box.

The ranks, and the comments, have provided us with content for the coming weeks. Thank you for communicating which players are the most divisive. That allows us to know exactly which players we should be breaking down, RotoGraphs style. Add to that our timely coverage of players in the news, and we’re set.

Pitching changes on a dime though. While hitters give us their customary four or five plate appearances in a game, pitchers give us roughly five times that information every time they appear. So it’s fair that we break down every appearance for them and weight recent work heavily. And yet, every pitcher has a baseline, and we know how luck, park and weather factors can influence any one matchup. So we have to keep their careers in mind.

And that’s why some might scoff at the top-20 rankings for David Price and Matt Cain. That’s fair, especially in Price’s case, since he’s on the DL and his health outcome is yet to be written. But Matt Cain is doing virtually everything at a career level — except give up home runs. So either his pop-up skill (or home-run suppressing skill) was never real, or it was real and it just went away for a while. But if Cain’s command has completely left him, it’s not obvious in his walk rates. Or his velocity, really. Or his swinging strike or strikeout rates. So we’ll give him a little benefit of the doubt here.

Plenty of movement here, but there’s also an interesting group in the 50s that didn’t move enough to warrant a color change: Jeremy Hellickson, Marco Estrada, Trevor Cahill, C.J. Wilson, and Edwin Jackson. Their fates are all going in different directions — as well as their peripherals — and our rankers all had different opinions, but it average out to about the “meh” ranking they got before. Expect to see some of these pitchers broken down.

Who would you like to see more analysis about? Who sticks out for you?

With the color-coding we hope to highlight the biggest movers. That definition changes as you follow the ranks down the list — players had to move more to register a color change as you near the bottom of the list. These are rest-of-season rankings for 5×5 roto.

RG Name JZ ES MP ZS
1 Clayton Kershaw 1 1 1 1
2 Justin Verlander 3 2 2 2
3 Felix Hernandez 4 4 3 3
4 Yu Darvish 2 3 4 8
5 Cliff Lee 5 5 5 4
6 Stephen Strasburg 11 6 6 5
7 CC Sabathia 13 8 8 11
8 Madison Bumgarner 7 10 15 9
9 Max Scherzer 6 9 9 17
10 Chris Sale 15 11 10 7
11 Adam Wainwright 14 13 13 6
12 James Shields 10 15 7 14
13 Cole Hamels 8 18 12 10
14 Zack Greinke 12 7 14 22
15 Mat Latos 16 14 17 13
16 Matt Harvey 27 12 18 12
17 David Price 9 21 23 21
18 Matt Cain 18 29 11 18
19 Gio Gonzalez 17 20 26 19
20 Matt Moore 22 17 20 27
21 Jeff Samardzija 19 16 30 24
22 Jake Peavy 25 22 19 31
23 Jon Lester 26 23 22 28
24 Johnny Cueto 36 24 29 15
25 Jordan Zimmermann 40 19 33 20
26 Jered Weaver 29 31 40 16
27 Anibal Sanchez 24 28 36 29
28 Homer Bailey 31 27 24 36
29 Doug Fister 42 32 27 25
30 A.J. Burnett 28 30 31 37
31 Mike Minor 33 26 54 23
32 Yovani Gallardo 20 36 34 48
33 R.A. Dickey 30 42 28 45
34 Derek Holland 37 37 45 30
35 Shelby Miller 76 25 21 33
36 Ian Kennedy 23 39 51 44
37 Ryan Dempster 38 40 43 40
38 Lance Lynn 44 34 49 38
39 Hyun-Jin Ryu 41 38 47 39
40 Hiroki Kuroda 49 45 38 34
41 Tommy Milone 35 44 39 51
42 Clay Buchholz 74 35 35 32
43 Tim Lincecum 21 60 25 70
44 Hisashi Iwakuma 53 52 46 26
45 Kris Medlen 63 33 41 41
46 Alex Cobb 72 43 32 35
47 Matt Garza 45 47 37 57
48 Dan Haren 34 54 52 54
49 Josh Johnson 62 48 44 46
50 Brandon Morrow 39 41 69 56
51 Justin Masterson 46 56 53 61
52 Jeremy Hellickson 68 50 57 42
53 Marco Estrada 50 73 42 52
54 Trevor Cahill 52 46 48 71
55 C.J. Wilson 43 55 58 63
56 Edwin Jackson 32 59 63 72
57 Ervin Santana 55 67 64 62
58 Francisco Liriano 58 62 55 73
59 Josh Beckett 48 71 65 67
60 Wade Miley 65 63 81 47
61 Wandy Rodriguez 59 61 66 75
62 Jarrod Parker 70 64 75 53
63 Tim Hudson 95 70 56 43
64 A.J. Griffin 84 57 74 49
65 Ubaldo Jimenez 56 58 78 79
66 Patrick Corbin 66 51 61 94
67 Kyle Lohse 57 77 89 50
68 Jon Niese 51 72 68 86
69 Andrew Cashner 117 49 50 66
70 Alexi Ogando 83 53 93 55
71 Phil Hughes 47 85 70 106
72 Brandon McCarthy 89 76 86 58
73 Paul Maholm 75 75 82 84
74 Felix Doubront 77 93 71 78
75 Jose Fernandez 123 66 67 65
76 Ryan Vogelsong 64 84 97 82
77 Bronson Arroyo 80 86 85 77
78 Zach McAllister 94 94 76 69
79 Chris Capuano 71 95 59 115
80 Wei-Yin Chen 91 80 72 99
81 Bud Norris 60 83 108 93
82 Dan Straily 86 97 79 85
83 Shaun Marcum 69 102 94 90
84 Colby Lewis 123 68 98 68
85 Travis Wood 73 79 83 123
86 Andy Pettitte 110 101 96 59
87 Brandon Beachy 123 65 121 60
88 Jose Quintana 121 81 73 95
89 Ricky Nolasco 54 114 99 105
90 Chris Tillman 98 78 103 101
91 Daniel Hudson 123 74 123 64
92 David Phelps 113 69 122 80
93 John Lackey 120 91 77 102
94 Jaime Garcia 61 87 123 120
95 Jason Hammel 85 88 95 123
96 Mike Leake 108 99 90 96
97 Kyle Kendrick 103 98 84 109
98 Ivan Nova 87 96 88 123
99 Jason Vargas 78 123 107 87
100 Brett Anderson 123 92 92 88
101 Tommy Hanson 67 123 113 92
102 Carlos Villanueva 96 119 123 74
103 James McDonald 81 109 100 123
104 Rick Porcello 101 123 80 111
105 Zack Wheeler 123 89 123 81
106 Ross Detwiler 123 90 87 117
107 Erasmo Ramirez 111 106 123 83
108 Mark Buehrle 97 121 114 91
109 Scott Feldman 112 103 101 107
110 Roberto Hernandez 123 118 62 123
111 Scott Diamond 123 123 105 76
112 Barry Zito 123 105 112 89
113 Matt Harrison 88 104 116 123
114 Joe Blanton 82 116 120 118
115 Julio Teheran 123 100 91 123
116 Drew Smyly 93 122 123 100
117 Jhoulys Chacin 123 111 104 104
118 Edinson Volquez 100 123 110 110
119 Scott Baker 92 108 123 123
120 Hector Santiago 123 82 123 123
121 Wade Davis 102 123 115 112
122 Jeff Locke 123 113 123 97
123 Jorge de la Rosa 123 112 123 98
124 Tony Cingrani 107 123 123 103
125 Lucas Harrell 123 123 102 114
126 Brett Myers 99 123 117 123
127 Bartolo Colon 123 110 109 123
128 Juan Nicasio 115 107 123 123
129 Joe Saunders 123 123 118 108
130 Jair Jurrjens 123 117 123 113
131 Kevin Correia 123 123 119 116
132 Michael Wacha 123 120 123 119

These players appeared on one set of rankings: Trevor Bauer, Chris Archer, Corey Kluber, Mike Fiers, Dillon Gee, Vance Worley, Jeremy Guthrie, Wade LeBlanc, Jordan Lyles, Josh Collmenter, Franklin Morales, Ted Lilly, Henderson Alvarez, J.A. Happ, Scott Kazmir and Danny Hultzen.





 

With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.

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Jaker
11 years ago

I know it’s splitting hairs, but I like Darvish ahead of Hernandez and probably Verlander going forward because of the Ks and win potential.

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