Number one reason why I think you can punt top starters is there’s just so many starters you can draft later. Exhibit A: All these fantasy baseball sleepers. Subsection A in Exhibit A, or AA, as my uncle calls it, is Joe Ryan. Last year, Ryan went 13-8/3.55/1.10/151 in 147 IP. He’s being drafted around 147th overall. If you were to draft five Joe Ryans, a hand of Ryans, as they say in Moroccan markets, you’d have One Full Joe. One Full Joe is all you need to win your fantasy league. A hand of Ryans or One Full Joe gets you in the top three for ERA, Wins, WHIP and Ks. You need a few decent relievers — let’s call them a Sprinkling of Holmes. A Sprinkling of Holmes plus a hand of Ryans or a One Full Joe, and you have all the pitching you need. See, if your hand of Ryans were to fall a little, then you could grab onto an invisible strand of Holmes, and have a Sheer-Lock Holmes. Woof, you walked right into that nonsense. No, seriously, all you need to win your fantasy league is pitchers who do as well as the 30th best starter, give or take. Not saying they have to do better than their ranking, but, let’s be honest, I’m writing them up because I expect them to do better. Think about this with, I don’t know, outfielders. If you get a hand of Castellanosses, would you do top three in your league in hitting? I grabbed Castellanos, because he’s currently going about a dozen spots before Ryan. Or, what if you had a hand of Blackmen — uh, multiple Blackmons? He was ranked 39th overall last year for outfielders on the Player Rater, and Ryan was 39th for starters last year. You might be saying, “Sure, but you need the Sprinkling of Holmes, so not the same as only a hand of Blackmons.” Fine, fill the rest of your hitting with great hitters off waivers, which is what Holmes was last year, a waiver wire pick. You really think your hitting will be good enough with a hand of Blackmons and top waiver pickups at all other hitting spots? No, of course not. Pitching is just easier to figure out later. So, it would be nice to have a Sandy Alcantara, but you really only need him if your hand of Ryans turns into a hand of Berrios. A hand of Ryans is all you need. You can’t say that about any other position. So, what can we expect from Joe Ryan for 2023 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?