The Fantasy Baseball season is almost one month old and with increased data we can hopefully decipher trends in the starting pitcher market. As someone who invests heavily pitching, I have continually preached the importance of innings pitched and the significance of knowing what benchmarks one needs to achieve in the pitching categories.
We recently learned Adam Wainwright and Brandon McCarthy are done for the season.
In other news from last week, Hisashi Iwakuma landed on the disable list but both Alex Cobb and Hyun-Jin Ryu threw off a mound as there rehab progresses.
As April becomes a statistical memory and the month of May makes its arrival, that so-called deep pitching pool is thinning out. Now is time to reassess the landscape because its ever-changing and determine who’s in your circle of trust. One can easily fall victim to the confidence game in the starting pitching market, especially with small sample size as your barometer so proceed with caution.
Are you a believer of Chris Archer ascension in the rankings? His BABIP and Strand Rate are unsustainable, but Ctm’s recommendation is that of a buy high.
Top 50 Starting Pitcher Rankings
Here’s this week’s top 50 Starting pitchers. On May 5, I will launch the “In-Season Starting Pitcher Index” with in-depth analysis over at ctmbaseball.com and with excerpts on this site.
April 27, 2015
- Clayton Kershaw
- Felix Hernandez
- Max Scherzer
- Matt Harvey
- Chris Sale
- Stephen Strasburg
- Johnny Cueto
- David Price
- Madison Bumgarner
- Zack Greinke
- Corey Kluber
- Cole Hamels
- Gerrit Cole
- Jake Arrieta
- Michael Wacha
- Jordan Zimmermann
- Julio Teheran
- Jon Lester
- Jacob deGrom
- Sonny Gray
- Chris Archer
- James Shields
- Jeff Samardzija
- Garrett Richards
- Carlos Carrasco
- Andrew Cashner
- Collin McHugh
- Tyson Ross
- Michael Pineda
- Masahiro Tanaka
- Alex Wood
- Gio Gonzalez
- Francisco Liriano
- Anibal Sanchez
- Jake Odorizzi
- Drew Smyly
- Lance Lynn
- Trevor Bauer
- Danny Salazar
- Drew Hutchison
- Scott Kazmir
- Dallas Keuchel
- Doug Fister
- Yordano Ventura
- Shane Greene
- Drew Pomeranz
- Shelby Miller
- AJ Burnett
- Ian Kennedy
- Jimmy Nelson
- Anthony DeSclafani
*Once again, these starting pitcher rankings are for active pitchers only, but the comprehensive list is coming next week in the confidence game that is starting pitching.
Chris Archer Photo Credit: Robert Rescot
- Missives From The Mound: Futures Market - August 2, 2016
- Missives From The Mound: Top 30 Starting Pitchers - July 12, 2016
- Missives From The Mound: American League Arms - June 19, 2016
