Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!

It was a tough headline to figure out this week. 

I came very close to running with a Reid Detmers breakdown, especially after his 11-strikeout manhandling of the Royals on Saturday night.

But the more I thought about it, the clearer it all became.

It was time to get Pfaadt.

And, boy oh boy, if we went back in time and told an 11-turning-12-year-old Marmos that we’d be listening to his Fat Boys cassettes (kind of) close to 40 years later? 

Well, we’ll leave the YouTube clip for the end of the page as we usually do. (But I will say, listening to this one again, I think I may have an idea of when and why the ADHD first surfaced. Those dudes are all over the place).

Let’s take a peek at what our MLB Pfaadt-Boy has done on the mound since returning to the rotation WAY BACK on June 30th.

Apologies if you prefer the Fantrax snippets, but ever since they changed their player box format, it’s been impossible to take a full shot of more than eight games. 

Brandon Pfaadt‘s 7-1 record speaks for itself, but the other full-season surface numbers aren’t as exciting as some of us were hoping to see.

A season-long K/9 that checks in at 5.92 along with a 4.34 xFIP? Yeesh. Maybe I should’ve gone with Reid Detmers after all.

But, WAIT! If we only focus on that 9-game span from June 30th to now, things look a heck of a lot more promising.

In his 9 GS since June 30th, Pfaadt has a 7-0 record, a slightly better 4.15 xFIP, and has allowed just ONE home run in 54.2 innings.

And at the risk of sounding like a cheesy infomercial actor… “But wait, there’s more!”

The walk rate. Oh, that walk rate. 

Here’s the teaser of our top BB/9 starting pitchers from this season. These are our Top 12 BB/9 guys based on the official qualification numbers (I think it’s something like these guys have thrown at least one inning per team game played).

Oh! Those are some pretty good names! Heck, even our beloved Bryan Woo and often-defended George Kirby are in there, too!

(And if you wondered why I chose to share the Top 12, well now you know).

If you’re hoping that I get on with it already, you’re in luck.

Brandon Pfaadt’s season-long 2.33 BB/9 would land him outside of this group. But, yes, that’s still nothing to be ashamed of. If we were ranking just by the season stats, he’d be nestled in at the SP22 spot right between Michael McGreevy’s 2.32 and Sandy Alcantara’s 2.43.

Not bad…

But not as good as the 1.15 BB/9 that he’s flashed over this recent streak of unbelievably solid starts.

Yes, that’s right. 1.15 BB/9. That’s some 1800s crazy talk right there.

The best comparison I could find (in my limited research time) was Cliff Lee’s 2010 mark of 1.02 BB/9.

Now I’m not saying Brandon Pfaadt is going to be anywhere close to Cliff Lee 2.0 for the rest of August and the entirety of September, but what I am saying is this guy was left for dead on the bottom of our free agent drop pool some time in the middle of June, and has seen a pretty serious resurrection.

Is this 9-game hot streak enough to launch the Pfaadt boy up our rankings today?

Oh, yes it is. 

But how high will he jump?

Well, before we get to that answer, let’s not forget about the Razzball tools. The Razzball subscriptions are well worth the price of admission. This should be your go-to reference for the entire season. That resource that the other “experts” from other sites use as often as they look at Statcast or Fangraphs data? This is it.

Oh, and one more thing before we get down to business. I covered the Friday night roundup for Dan Pants again this week, so if any of the Friday night starter notes that show up in quotation marks today look a bit odd (eg., referring to Friday as ‘last night’), that’s why!

Ok? Let’s get to it!

The Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2026

MARMO RANK	Name	Team	Notes
1	Jacob Misiorowski	MLW	6 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 12th win. This one was at Dodger Stadium, and what better way to say “Meh, no big deal” than shutting down The Avengers at home?
2	Tarik Skubal	LAD	Game 1: 5 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks. ERA at 2.93. And the first thing I thought here was, “He better have been at 110 pitches! Well, he wasn’t (95 pitches), but I still don’t think the Dodgers are going to baby him too much unless he’s already reassured them that he’s signing long term with them in December anyway. Game 2: 6 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 7th loss. He’s 0-2 in three LAD starts. What a bust. (Yes, I’m kidding).
3	Chris Sale	ATL	“6 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 9 Ks, and his 8th loss? Really? I guess the Braves offense gave the Cardinals a run for the “Wet Noodle Instead Of A Bat” Award on Friday night, too.”
4	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD	“6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks, and his 12th win. When your squad allows one RBI to Joey Ortiz and a lone SB to freakin Ji-Hwan Bae, you know it’s gonna be smooth sailing.”
5	Dylan Cease	TOR	Jumper? Or whatever we’d call a ‘hold right where you are’? Ya, whatever it is, there’s more below.
6	Cam Schlittler	NYY	5.1 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks, and the no-decision at TOR? What? I guess someone didn’t tell the Blue Jays that they’re supposed to roll over and play dead the rest of the way.
7	Cristopher Sanchez	PHI	6 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and the no-decision as he got outdueled by an ace. Wait, he was throwing against Andre Pallante? What?!
8	Chase Burns	CIN	“7 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, and his 14th win. ERA at 2.47. Cincy needs to keep this kid away from anything that Hunter Greene has touched in the clubhouse and on the field. Sanitize and bubble wrap him if you have to.” He should move up today, but it’ll be tough to figure out who he needs to climb over.
9	Logan Gilbert	SEA	6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.28. If we took one earned run away and gave him one more out, he’d have 9 QS in his last 10 GS. We can’t. But it would be cool if we could.
10	Paul Skenes	PIT	5 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.88. It’s tough to criticize a dude when he’s as good as Skenes, but when we’ve seen how good he CAN be, then see him performing at a merely above-average level, it’s tough to get too excited.
11	Gerrit Cole	NYY	“6 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks. The Cole train got be-bopped with a tough-luck loss (his 6th).”
12	Drew Rasmussen	TB	5 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.78. Don’t. Just don’t. Because EVERY TIME this guy goes on a quality start run (3 GS), he always sneaks in a 5-inning jobber that feels like a boot to the gut. He threw 84 pitches in this one, so don’t tell me he couldn’t go three more outs and give us another inning. He slides out of the Top 10 today.
13	Sonny Gray	BOS	Game 1: 6 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 2.79. No official confirmation that the Blue Jays hitters were using plastic CN Tower replicas instead of actual bats in this game, either. Game 2: 7 IP, 0 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and his 15th win. Ho-hum. Just another stellar start to report. No big deal. UP!
14	Gavin Williams	CLE	“4.1 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 5 Ks, and his 7th loss. I know I’ve been paying a lot of attention to pitchers this year when I see that Williams lost to Michael King and immediately thought, “Oh, I bet he gave up a bunch of walks”. I wouldn’t necessarily say 4 BBs is “a bunch”, but that command struggle that resurfaces every once in a while is the only thing holding Gavin Williams back from living in that upper echelon of the top-tier ace pitchers.” He’s down a bit today.
15	Zack Wheeler	PHI	5 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and his 4th loss. Um…we know what we’ve got here, so it’s tough to push him down the list too much. But with that said, he’s winless in 5 GS, and allowed 15 ER over those 22.1 innings. Down just a bit today.
16	Logan Webb	SF	6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and his 7th loss. He threw 80 pitches before being lifted from the game because of back/shoulder tightness. I get it, Logan. Now you know what it feels like to sit and write on the laptop all day. Jokes aside, he’s ‘tentatively’ lined up to pitch at Fenway this week, but monitor the news just in case it changes.
17	Jesus Luzardo	PHI	6.2 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks, and, unsurprisingly to all Christians in attendance, Jesus wins again. (It was his 11th W).
18	Jacob deGrom	TEX	2 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 3.95. And the latest news is he’ll likely miss this week’s game against WSH on Wednesday due to an injury (triceps). I’d sit him.
19	Logan Henderson	MLW	Game 1: 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks. ERA at 2.88. We’ll gladly take the back-to-back quality starts, even if this one turned out to be a tough-luck loss. Game 2: 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 7th win. Just nonchalantly strolling into Dodger Stadium and putting the squeeze on The Avengers like he’s Dr. Doom.
20	Parker Messick	CLE	5 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.59. Thank goodness for this guy. He’s single-handedly keeping two of my teams afloat in the ratio department. It felt like I did him dirty to drop him a couple of spots here, but I’d rather have Logan Henderson and deGrom above him. It’s close.
21	Max Fried	NYY	5 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 2.81. So, he’s allowed 5 TOTAL earned runs in his last 5 starts, which covers 24.2 IP. You’d think he managed at least a couple of wins, no? Well…no. His last win was in APRIL.
22	Payton Tolle	BOS	8 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 2.97. Last week’s lede in Somedoby Tolle’d Me with a solid follow-up. His most recent four starts: 25.1 IP, 5 ER, 18 H, 6 BB, 32 Ks. Up!
23	Bryan Woo	SEA	Game 1: 5 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.15. Hey, this one was a scoreless road outing, and that’s as close to a big win as we need to see here. Game 2: 6 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and I wrote this up late last night while watching Andres Munoz try not to blow another lead, so I can’t confirm that the Woo-bot notched another victory. EDIT: It was his 9th win, but he was pulled after 75 pitches with a sore shoulder. The official word was that it’s “nothing to worry about”, so monitor for now, I suppose.
24	Sandy Alcantara	MIA	“7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 2 Ks, and his 7th loss. No cheeks for Sandy here, and he didn’t really get Chased from the game, but he was, technically, a Burns victim.”
25	Cade Cavalli	WSH	8 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 2 walks, 10 Ks, ERA at 3.36. Holy hell. I could move him into the Top 15 today and people would still be mad that he wasn’t higher. This one was his 9th quality start in his last 10 games. He’s up again today.
26	Hunter Brown	HOU	Game 1: 5 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.68. I cannot wait to protect this guy next year as a $26 keeper in the AL-Only league and watch him return negative value on our investment. Game 2: 5 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 5 BB, 5 Ks, and I swear that dirty, crooked walk total doesn’t do him justice. Both he and Bryan Woo looked pretty good last night. Regardless, it wasn’t enough to get him his 4th win anyway. All that said, he’s down below a few other more worthy names today.
27	Sean Burke	CWS	4.1 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 2 Ks, and his 5th straight start without a win. That’s the bad news. The good news is he hasn’t pitched poorly at all. He has 7 QS in his most recent 10 GS.
28	Troy Melton	DET	4.1 IP, 3 ER, 9 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and the no decision after 87 pitches. The White Sox knocked him around a bit in this one, but the final line wasn’t all that damaging.
29	Nolan McLean	NYM	6 IP, 1 ER, 1 hit, 2 walks, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.42. Phew. He scares me when he gets blown apart, so this was a welcome bounce-back.
30	Reid Detmers	ANA	Game 1: 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 6 Ks. ERA at 4.00. Game 2: 8 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 11 Ks, and his 4th win. Seriously. The numbers have been great…except for that win total. If he were in Tampa, he’d have 15 dubs by now. Up.
31	Braxton Ashcraft	PIT	9 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 10 Ks in 85 pitches, ERA at 3.88. Oh, baby. The World of Ashcraft was looking a bit cloudy in the middle of July, but this one was clear skies and bright sunshine. Up.
32	Ryan Weathers	NYY	5 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.69. So let’s throw a question out there for our dear readers – Bryan Woo or Ryan Weathers rest of season? I mean, I’m pretty sure the right answer is still Woo, but that it’s even a question to consider is disturbing. Game 2: 7.1 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, no decision. He looked good yesterday, and I was surprised he didn’t have more strikeouts against the Blue Jays by the end of this outing.
33	Nick Martinez	TB	Jumper? Seriously? Yep. More below.
34	Kevin Gausman	CHC	4 2/3 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 4.53. I’d say so much for that pipe dream, but you can look at the Shota note below instead of me re-writing it all here.
35	Blake Snell	LAD	Jumper. More below.
36	Eury Perez	MIA	Jumper. More below.
37	Kyle Bradish	BAL	6 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 3 Ks, and the no decision. The walks aren’t great, but at least they all didn’t score.
38	Kyle Harrison	MLW	4 2/3 IP, 8 ER, ERA at 3.47. Like his namesake from Star Wars used to say: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”.
39	George Kirby	SEA	“4.2 IP, 5 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and the no-decision. It’s been a bit of a back-and-forth with some of the Kirby-stompers in the Top 100 Starting Pitchers list each week. I’m guessing they’ll be flooding in to send me some over-the-internet smirks and giggles after this one.” But I’ll tell you what doesn’t deserve any giggles: Sandwich Pick’s stellar write-up of Kirby and his less-than-stellar season right here: Platoon Entropy And The Chaos Theory Eating Kirby.
40	Shota Imanaga	CHC	4 2/3 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 3.74. Well, so much for that pipe dream about him and Gausman becoming two super-starters.
41	Emerson Hancock	SEA	7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, and his 7th win. Ya, ya, ya, but when are we getting Kade Anderson?
42	Peter Lambert	HOU	“5 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision. Sometimes I forget that Lambert is 29 years old and assume he’s one of these breakout rookies. I mean, he technically only started 3 games since the end of the 2023 season, so he’s not really a veteran arm either.”
43	Jared Jones	PIT	5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 5th loss. The Pirates ran into the Sonny Gray buzzsaw in this one, so it wasn’t Jones’ fault. Well, not unless you expect him to DH and hit 3 HRs, too.
44	Ranger Suarez	BOS	5 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 3.25. Well, this is a nice turnaround after last week’s Ranger Danger. Keep it up!
45	Eduardo Rodriguez	ARI	6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks, and his 12th win. And, to tell you the truth, it annoyed me when I searched for “Rodriguez” and ended up at Grayson instead of Eduardo. Talk about two extremes from our Starting Pitcher group for the 2026 season. Jeez. Up.
46	Trevor Rogers	BAL	Game 1: 4 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 4.21. NO CODY BELLINGER, WE SAID FOUR TWENTY…ONE! Game 2: 6 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 8th win. ERA at 4.15. ***Marked safe from Cody Bellinger interference.
47	Michael King	SD	“6 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and his 8th win. ERA at 3.42. WHIP at 1.19. If he could’ve dodged the two solo homers, it would’ve looked even better. *Sees someone standing up across the room and hustling over with their arms flailing in the air*. Yes, I know, Captain Obvious, you can go back to your seat now.”
48	Foster Griffin	CLE	5 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.25. That’s what we were looking for when we dumped $61 in trade deadline FAAB on him in that AL-Only league! (Not us, but someone in our league sure did!).
49	Joey Cantillo	CLE	6 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks, and his 9th win. I streamed this guy and Ian Seymour in an RCL, and to say it went well is an understatement. Just be careful this week as Cantillo starts at COL.
50	Ian Seymour	TB	6 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, and even with the no-decision, I’m calling this RCL stream a success!
51	Jose Soriano	TOR	6 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners (2 BBs), 4 Ks, ERA at 3.16. Only two walks, and it sounds like whatever pitching coach Pete Walker was feeding Dylan Cease all year has been bottled and handed out for Soriano’s consumption too. Up!
52	Robbie Ray	SD	4 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 3.28.  It took him 84 pitches to get a dozen outs, so it’s a tough sell here, but he only gave up two hits (one of which was a home run), and three walks. File this one under “It could’ve been worse”.
53	Dustin May	MLW	7 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.13. That’s back-to-back quality starts since winging it to Wisconsin. Look out, Yovani Gallardo, here comes the newest Brewers’ beast.
54	Michael Soroka	ARI	He’s back! Game 1: 4.1 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks. ERA at 2.92. Please be healthy…and good. Game 2: 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks, the no-decision, and NO NEWS about any health setbacks. Let’s go!
55	Casey Mize	SD	Game 1: 6 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks. ERA at 3.38. A much better start than his first one with the Dads. Game 2: 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, and his 5th win. At the risk of upsetting some folks who were waiting for another Guess Who reference, I’m going with the serious one here. Casey Mize might end up being the best pitcher acquired at this year’s trade deadline. There. I said it.
56	Mackenzie Gore	TEX	Game 1: 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 9 Ks. ERA at 4.43. That move up last week was warranted. Hopefully Game 2 is much of the same. Game 2: 5.2 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks. Well, he gave us more earned runs, hits, and walks, and fewer strikeouts, but it was enough to nab us a win (his 7th).
57	Walbert Urena	LAA	6 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.67. Setting his locker up far away from Grayson Rodriguez’s stuff was the best move they made here.
58	Nick Lodolo	CIN	Game 1: 4 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.86. And no blister yet. Maybe now, though. Wait. Count to ten and check again. And again? Game 2: 5 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and no decision…how about now?
59	Bryce Miller	SEA	6 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.39. Ugh. We might as well call this guy Tom Petty because he’s Freefallin’. Down. It’s tough, too, because the next pocket of arms just kept getting squashed today when I moved a bunch of others up.
60	Jake Bennett	BOS	“4 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 6th loss. Uh…that’s his 3rd loss in his last 4 GS. And he’s allowed 14 ER in his last 21.1 IP. It’s been a far cry from the budding ace we saw in June, that’s for sure.”
61	Taj Bradley	MIN	4 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.98. Apparently, he’s allergic to corn fields. And Field of Dreams games. And not getting pumped for 7 H, 4 BB, 2 HR, and 5 ER by the Phillies. Oof. Down today.
62	Matthew Boyd	CHC	5.1 IP, 7 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 2 Ks, and 4 (!) HR allowed. When you agree to be a rookie’s personal batting practice pitcher, please do it before the actual game starts, Matty. STL’s Josh Baez must’ve liked what he saw in this one.
63	Freddy Peralta	TB	Game 1: 6 IP, 3 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks. ERA at 5.33. Rays easing him back into the good books by chipping away layers of Mets trash. It’ll take a bit of time, but he’s getting there. Game 2: 4.2 IP, 2 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 2 Ks, on 76 pitches and his 10th loss. I doubt the Rays are going to have him chucking the ball 100 times every start, anyway, but he’s headed in the right direction.
64	Jackson Jobe	DET	“3.2 IP, 6 ER, 9 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and his first loss. Last week’s return from a lengthy layoff was great. This one? Uh, not so great.”
65	Brandon Pfaadt	ARI	“7 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and his 7th win. If you’ve been reading the Top 100 Starting Pitchers each week, thank you first. Secondly, this Pfaadt run is no surprise to you. Last night’s game was his 4th straight quality start, and he has not allowed an earned run in 27.2 innings. In a row. Yep, that’s right. He’s over 25 scoreless innings since June 28th, and he’s headed to the top of the list of contenders for the lede in Monday’s write-up by yours truly. Now I need to go through all of those old Fat Boys cassettes.” Phew. And if you need more, well, there’s more above!
66	Shane Drohan	MLW	5 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 3 hits, 3 walks, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.94. Another youngster quality start? You’ve got to Drohan-d it to him. He’s been pretty good.
67	Bubba Chandler	PIT	“5 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 6th win. I backed into my own creation of sorts in the Top 100 Starting Pitchers list with my “Youngster Quality Start”. That’s a starting pitcher who’s 26 or younger that almost hits the 6-inning mark, but posts fewer than 3 ER anyway. Bubba notched one of those last night AND only walked two guys. That should be worth two wins.”
68	Noah Cameron	KC	Game 1: This guy is the ultimate fake-out artist. Just when it looks like he has it all figured out, he gives us one of these: 5.2 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, ERA at 4.45. It could be worse, but…it could be way better. Game 2: 9 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his 7th win. See what happens? The Angels trade Jo Adell, and everything goes to crap. Or, I guess “Everything stays crap” is probably more fitting. You what isn’t crap, though? No-hitting a big league club into the 7th inning. Wowzers. Well, talk about way better, I guess.
69	Roki Sasaki	LAD	6 IP, 2 ER, 9 baserunners (5 BBs), 2 Ks, ERA at 4.46. Grey said it last week. Roki is just keeping a spot warm for Tyler Glasnow. It’s ok, though. They’ll send Sasaki to the bullpen for Glasnow’s return; Tyler G will sneeze in the middle of the third inning, his back will explode again, and Roki will be back in the rotation. No worries here. But he moves down anyway.
70	Michael Wacha	KC	6.2 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. So…he has 7 QS in his last 10 starts. Guess how many of those netted him a win. If you guessed one, you either cheated or suffer the same fate that I do – you roster him.
71	Shane Baz	BAL	3 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 4.00. This Baz has been tarred. Someone grab the bag of Oriole feathers.
72	Clay Holmes	CHC	6.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, and his first win in a Cubs uniform. He was my short lede in the Friday night roundup – Cubs Fans Happy To See Newest Starter Clay It On The Line, and you can read more of it if you click that link!
73	Michael McGreevy	STL	6 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and his 5th win. He could’ve thrown a perfect game in this start and still been a Joshua Baez afterthought. Up.
74	Tanner Bibee	CLE	6 1/3 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.99. I knew last week’s 10 strikeout game was too good to be true. Let that be a lesson for you, kids. Optimism comes with a heavy hand…(across the backside if you roster this guy). Game 2: 6 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and his 13th loss. Man, what a foot in the gut.
75	Andrew Abbott	CIN	4 1/3 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks. ERA at 4.13. Yuck.
76	Will Warren	NYY	4 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 4 BB, 3 Ks, and 3 HR allowed. I had another manager in a league tell me that Warren was not available in trades, and it took a lot of restraint for me to not say “Oh, don’t worry. I’d pick up Marcus Stroman before I dealt for that bag of bones”.
77	Framber Valdez	DET	5 2/3 IP, 4 ER, 11 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.26. I don’t even roster this guy anywhere, and it still bugs me when folks ask if they should hang on to him. Down.
78	Janson Junk	MIA	6 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 4.41. This guy is another one who doesn’t deserve the name. He’s been the anti-Junk.
79	Shane Bieber	TOR	“6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and his 4th win. This guy is such a Jekyll and Hyde case; I truly don’t know what to say. One week he throws well enough to be in the Top 50-60 SP rankings, then the next week it’s a wonder he doesn’t slide entirely off the list.”
80	Brandon Young	BAL	6 IP, 1 ER, 9 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.33. Considering he was just a FAAB pickup to fill in for your injured starters at one point, I’d say he’s more than lived up to his side of the bargain for fantasy baseball value.
81	Keider Montero	DET	This one deserves a Grey copy/paste jobber: “6 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, zero Ks, ERA at 3.22. When they instituted the pitch clock, I invented how to draft pitching: Forget Ks, go for command. Montero is taking that to its foregone conclusion. He induces a ton of weak contact and has rock-solid command. Call him Eider Montero, because there’s no Ks. Streamonator says he gets the Pirates next and I don’t mind it or him.” And that’s me quoting Grey! UP!
82	Connor Prielipp	MIN	Dumper. More below.
83	Davis Martin	CWS	Dumper. More below.
84	Robert Gasser	MLW	“6.1 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and his 5th loss. Hey, this wasn’t too bad for a kid that had to survive a trip into the heart of the Avengers’ Tower. Even Tony Stark would be proud of this effort.”
85	Patrick Sandoval	BOS	Game 1: 6 IP, 2 ER, 11 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.30. Patrick is handing out tickets to first base like he’s Oprah, but still limiting damage, and scoring a quality start is good in my books. Game 2: 4 IP, 7 ER, 9 H, 3 BB, 6 KS, and a rain delay, but I’m pretty sure he’ll end up getting tagged with the loss. Uh…this one is NOT GOOD in my books.
86	Landen Roupp	SF	“5.2 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and his 12th loss. This was his 4th L in a row, and he’s given up 14 ER in his most recent 19.1 IP. That’s one big WOOF from the Roupp-Dogg.”
87	Luis Castillo	CWS	7 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 2 walks, 10 Ks, ERA at 4.96. This start brought to you by Biff Tannen’s Sports Almanac and sponsored by Hill Valley’s favorite, Lou’s Diner.
88	Christian Scott	NYM	Game 1: 4 IP, 4 ER, on 82 pitches. ERA at 3.45. He allowed 8 baserunners and struck out 6 batters in this one, so it wasn’t all bad. The stamina issue is still the biggest hurdle here. Game 2: 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, on 90 pitches, and his 4th win. Well, this was the first time all year that he’s gotten an out in the 7th inning in any of his 18 starts this season, so that’s some good news. Baby steps.
89	Andre Pallante	STL	6 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 3.46. Oh, it’s not a big deal. He just matched Cristopher Sanchez pitch-for-pitch in this game. This guy deserves a spot in Sonny Gray’s Court of Underrated Misfits. Up.
90	Shohei Ohtani	LAD	Bob Nightengale said last week that the Dodgers expect Shohei to be back on the mound in September. I’m sure they meant a major league mound, and not a training complex mound made out of fiberglass and astroturf (but it would be funny if they did!). He’s down just in front of the bottom ten arms today, and will likely sit there until we get definitive news about a return or a shutdown.
91	Kyle Leahy	STL	5 IP, 1 ER, 5 hits, zero walks, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.38. This was his 9th win. And he’s allowed more than 1 ER in just two of his last nine starts. Up.
92	Martin Perez	ATL	6 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 2.96. And I added him for $1 in the TGFBI FAAB before this one. Yeehaw!
93	Anthony Kay	CWS	5.1 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and he’s 31 years old so this one can’t be a Youngster Quality Start. It was definitely an Anthony Kay start, though – not too bad, not so great, but good enough to not kill your ratios.
94	Edward Cabrera	CHC	Me seeing that Edward Cabrera was due back yesterday – “Wow!”. Me seeing the aftermath of Edward Cabrera’s 3.2 IP, 7 ER start yesterday – “Wow.” For the record, there was a much different tone for each of those “Wows”. Regardless, he’s back in here today.
95	Gage Jump	ATH	“5.1 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 1 K, and the no-decision. I said it last week in the Top 100 Starting Pitchers write-up, but it bears repeating. If you roster him in a keeper league, hold on tight, but I wouldn’t trust him much in a redraft league for the rest of the way this year. The walks are out of control. Pun relatively unintended. (or is it?).”
96	Zebby Matthews	MIN	5 IP, 4 ER, 8 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 5.34. It’s fine, but he’s not heading up past SP90 with these kinds of starts.
97	Grant Holmes	ATL	3.2 IP, 6 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and his 5th loss. Come on, Grant. You know we all love you because of the flowing head of lettuce you’ve sprouted on that skull, but…can you give us some good pitching results to love at some point, too? Please? Down.
98	Cody Bradford	TEX	Game 1: 7 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 1 K, ERA at 2.38. Yes. No Cody BADford. Now keep it up! Game 2: 4 IP, 2 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and I don’t feel too bad about typing his name out as Chad Bradford at first because this looks a lot like a relief pitcher’s line anyway. Either way, he’s in today.
99	Jacob Lopez	ATH	Game 1: 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 KS. ERA at 5.38. Game 2: 6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks. That’s 6 straight starts with fewer than 3 ER in each one. The inning count is climbing, too. He’s in today.
100	Dean Kremer	MIN	Jumper! More below.

JUMPERS (Players who jumped up the list this week).

Dylan Cease – Game 1: 5 IP, 3 ER, 9 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 2.40. The walks crept back in for this start, but I’m not worried about it, and you shouldn’t be either. He’s been in a zone all season long. Game 2: I had this one on while I was catching up on Saturday’s games for the notes and just kept shaking my head each time Dan Shulman announced the strikeout total. 

Game 2: 6.1 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 10 Ks. Cease hit his 200th K on the season in this game, and I know a lot of people think he shouldn’t even be in the conversation for a Cy Young, but he’s been phenomenal. And, just as I wrote that up, John Schneider came out to make the pitching change because the Yankees had a few lefties coming up to bat. He was out with the game tied at 1-1. Win or no win, this is still a pretty filthy line.

Eury Perez – Game 1: 7 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.39. This is the ace we were looking for, and I can’t wait to draft him at a discount next year…so hopefully he doesn’t decide to complete his evolution in August and September. Game 2: 6 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 5 BB, 5 Ks, and his 7th win. Just make sure you talk up the walks at next year’s draft table/chat room.

Nick Martinez – 9 IP, 4 ER, 8 hits, zero walks, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.74. The Master of Marshmallow Tossers has ascended to the peak of Fluff Mountain. Will he stop there? The answer is an emphatic NO. He wants to climb to godlike status. And if he keeps on truckin’, he’s going to get there with some Cy Young votes along the way. 

Blake Snell – 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 5.00, and I wondered how the eff a guy has a 5.00 ERA when he started one game and gave up one earned run. It’s been so long since his IL appointment that I forgot Snellzilla had already started once…on May 9th. He’s up closer to where he should be this week, but not quite where he belongs. That depends on him giving us at least one or two more starts like this one.

Dean Kremer – Game 1: 7 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks. A friend of mine sent me the trade deadline write-up (from a different site) that announced the Twins were “beefing up” their rotation with Kremer. I giggled too, but let’s not forget this one was against his old buddies in Baltimore. 

Game 2: 5.1 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks. Maybe when they said “Beef” the broadcast got cut off, and the real quote was “Beef-ore you get too excited about our trade deadline pitcher adds, I have to tell you we traded for Dean Kremer instead of a good arm”.

It was between him and Jacob Lopez for the bottom spot here, and it could have gone either way, but I ended up clearing more space for adds, so the stress was all for naught.

DUMPERS (Players who dropped down the list this week).

Justin Wrobleski – 6 IP, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 5th loss. This was his third straight L, and things are not right. EDIT: Placed on the 15-day IL on Sunday, and I was going to remove him next week, but we needed space for Jacob Lopez and Cody Bradford, so he’s out today.

Davis Martin – 2 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 4.32, and a big old ejection for throwing at Sal Stewart’s big old skull twice in a row. I thought he looked pretty sincere when he threw the first one and immediately apologized to Stewart, who was understanding and gave him the “It’s OK” nod. Then, after Martin chucked the next pitch up and in, Stewart was more than a bit less understanding. Benches emptied, and Martin was ejected, but blamed the loss on control and an injury. The White Sox doubled down on the apology/excuse and sent him to the IL with a blister issue. 

I don’t know, but if you want to pin giving up 21 earned runs in 19 innings over your last 5 starts on a “blister issue”, that’s fine. Just get this guy out of the lineup already.

Connor Prielipp – 5 IP, 8 ER, 8 H, 4 BB, 6 Ks, and his 6th loss. ERA at 5.34. WHIP at 1.38. Ugh. Well, that’ll take 5 months to correct my team’s ratios. They’ll still be playing in January, right? Down today.

Randy Vasquez – Um…Ok, if a guy follows not only ONE, but TWO other arms, can we still have him on a Top 100 Starting Pitchers list? I suppose the 5 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 5 K outing answers that question itself, though. Buh bye.

Merrill Kelly – I felt bad about leaving Bradford and Lopez out today, so I cut bait on a couple of slugs near the bottom. Sorry, Merrill. For the record, this was the note I had written up for him – “5 IP, 6 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 2 Ks, and one response of “I really don’t know” when asked why I still have this guy on our list.”

STUMPERS (These names might stump you as to why they aren’t on the Top 100…yet. Some of these guys are close).

Blade Tidwell – Game 1: Called up and gave us his second straight solid start last week: 5.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.78. That warrants a monocle, at least. Game 2: 4.1 IP, 6 ER, 3 H, 5 BB, 1 K, and the no-decision. Ouch. This Blade got run.

Ronel Blanco 

Jordan Montgomery 

Robert Stock – “4.1 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. This was last week’s quote: “ His name sounds like he’s a daytime soap opera star. With a line like 3 IP, 8 ER, 9 H, 5 BB, 4 Ks, he would’ve needed a lot more than a Guiding Light for this one.” At least Friday’s start was a lot more bold and beautiful than last week’s was.”

Hayden Wesneski – Game 1: 7 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and the no-decision. This was his third straight solid start, and, arguably, his best one. He’s on the short list to replace folks in the bottom 10 today. Game 2: 4 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks. *immediately heads over to TGFBI FAAB page to delete him from the adds list*

Jameson Taillon – 4 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks. ERA at 5.68. A friend that I coach with brought his kid to this game and said that Taillon looked good, but he assumed they had him on a pitch count because he left early. It would be nice if that’s what it was (he got pulled with forearm discomfort).

Tyler Phillips – 5 1/3 IP, 4 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.65.

Bailey Ober 

Ryan Johnson – 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and his 7th loss. The low-hanging fruit here would be asking why the Angels called him back up to lose another game, but this start was his longest in 9 GS, so it wasn’t all that bad.

Eric Lauer – 6 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.67. So is he a starter or a reliever? I honestly couldn’t tell you, but I know he’s a headache that I don’t need to roster either way.

Kyle Freeland – “8 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and his 4th win. I wrote this up before the last out was recorded, so I fully expected the Giants to come back and have the Rockies blow Freeland’s dub. EDIT: They didn’t.”

Kai-Wei Teng 

Slade Cecconi 

Zac Gallen 

Chris Bassitt – “5.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and the no-decision. This was a pretty solid first start back for a guy who missed over two months with back surgery (bone spurs).”

David Peterson 

Adrian Houser – 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.28.

Rhett Lowder 

Tomoyuki Sugano

Colin Rea

Jose Urquidy – “3.2 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and his first win of the year. Speaking of Astros! *intern whispers in ear* I mean, speaking of FORMER Astros! Urquidy is back… kind of… since he didn’t technically start this game, but he followed Sean Newcomb’s 1.1 innings of ‘opening’. I’d monocle Urquidy in deeper leagues, though, if you really need the help. It would have to be a very big need, though.”

Sean Manaea – 6.1 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks.

J.P. Sears  

Walker Buehler

Tyler Mahle – 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 hits, zero walks, 7 Ks, ERA at 4.64. All of this buzz around Dustin May and the potential rebirth in Milwaukee overshadows a story like this one. Mahle’s been just as good in two starts in his new home, too (ATL): 12 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 16 Ks.

Cal Quantrill 

Matthew Liberatore – “5.1 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and a tough-luck loss (his 10th). The ERA and WHIP are gross (5.07 and 1.48, respectively), but the St Louis Liberator deserved better in this one. When your offense gives you zero runs to work with and just three hits, though? Ya, that makes posting a dub pretty difficult.”

Aaron Nola – 5 IP, 1 ER, 8 baserunners, 9 Ks, ERA at 5.33. There’s a special place in hell for Fantasy Baseball players who land on the wrong side of Judgement Day. They’re allowed access to the purgatory FAAB list, but it’s just 500 Aaron Nolas and Framber Valdezes to stream each day. No one else. 

Brady Singer – 6 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks. I saw the name in the box score and said, “Bobby Singer? What?” I suppose it’s time to stop bingeing Supernatural for a bit.

Kendry Rojas 

David Sandlin 

Seth Lugo – “4.2 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks, and the no-decision. Remember a few years ago when Seth Lugo was ranked in the Top 20 on the Player Rater? No, I swear it was this universe and not a parallel one.”

Trevor McDonald 

Bryce Elder – 5 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 4.03, and this is the answer to the question, “Why don’t you have Bryce Elder in the Top 100?” Game 2: 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision.

Noah Schultz 

Griffin Canning 

Jack Perkins

Drew Anderson – 5 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks. He’s been fine in three starts, and it looks like the Tigers are stretching him out for more rotation work. (His last three pitch counts have been 42, 70, 74).

Grayson Rodriguez – “4 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 7.17. WHIP at 1.59. “If you don’t stick around long enough, you can’t get saddled with the loss.”

Erick Fedde

Tatsuya Imai

German Marquez

Kumar Rocker – “5 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 5 BB, 3 Ks, and the no-decision. Keep on Rockin’ in the Mediocre Pitcher World.”

Brayan Bello 

Hunter Dobbins – Game 1: 5 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks. ERA at 3.40. And if he keeps throwing like this, we’re going to have to give him a book with an old sock in it to free him from the Stumper list. Game 2: 5 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 4 BB, 7 Ks, and the win. Yes, Dobbins walked a bunch of muggles, Harry Potter. But Dobbins also won his third game of the year. Yes! Dobbins is a THREE ELF…er, three-win…Cardinal?

Randy Dobnak – 5.2 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks.

Zac Thornton – 6 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 2.78. At the very least, he was on the short list for adds today.

Carson Whisenhunt

Mitch Bratt – 6 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.74. And you thought the only Bratts you were going to see this summer were at the community swimming pool. 

Max Scherzer 

J.T. Ginn 

Andrew Painter – Game 1: 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, and the win. Game 2: 5 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 2 Ks, and the win? EDIT: He took a no-decision.

Ryan Gusto – 4.2 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks. The zero walks was good enough for an MC Gusto Stumper add this week.

BUMPERS (Injured starters or minor league guys who could or would bump others off the list if they were active on the big league roster).

Kris Bubic

Justin Wrobleski

Tony Gonsolin

Drew Thorpe

Max Meyer

Jack Flaherty

Reynaldo Lopez

Stephen Kolek

Quinn Mathews

Jackson Kent – 4 IP, 3 ER. A 10.9 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in the minors at least warrants a second look here if you’re in a deep league.

Spencer Arrighetti 

Connolly Early 

Joe Musgrove

Ben Brown

Ryne Nelson

Lucas Giolito

Justin Steele 

Robby Snelling 

Jeffrey Springs 

Jonah Tong

JR Ritchie

Spencer Strider

Jack Kochanowicz 

Lance McCullers Jr.

Joe Boyle

Spencer Schwellenbach

Zach Eflin

Javier Assad

Johan Oviedo

Cole Ragans

Cody Ponce

Cade Horton

Shane Smith

Quinn Priester

Clarke Schmidt

River Ryan

Corbin Burnes 

Pablo Lopez

Kade Anderson

Nick Pivetta

Thomas White

Ryan Pepiot

Jose Berrios 

Miles Mikolas – DFA’ed.

Justin Verlander

Reese Olson

Mick Abel 

Didier Fuentes

Randy Vasquez

Garrett Crochet 

Tyler Glasnow

Yusei Kikuchi

Mike Burrows 

Emmett Sheehan

Hunter Greene

Shane McClanahan

Trey Yesavage

Griffin Jax

Mitch Keller

Noah Schultz

Brandon Sproat

Joe Ryan

Nathan Eovaldi

Merrill Kelly

WHEE! – These players vaulted onto the Top 100 list this week.

Michael Soroka

Nick Lodolo

Edward Cabrera

Dean Kremer – (because why not?)

Cody Bradford

Jacob Lopez

OOF! – These players fell off the Top 100 list this week.

Joe Ryan

Justin Wrobleski – IL

Nathan Eovaldi – IL (elbow inflammation).

Randy Vasquez (Dumper. More above).

Javier Assad – optioned to the minors.

Merrill Kelly

And, as promised, the magnum opus from our lede inspiration on this fine Monday afternoon…

That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed it! If you’re feeling extra fired up about some of the names I do (or don’t) have here, drop some comments in the chat. Have a great week!

 

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