Baseball is back! Our long wait through an absolutely ridiculous winter (in pretty much all aspects of life) is finally over!
I looked back at my re-ranks from last year to kick off the season, and can you believe this is Year 5 of the Pitcher Profiles?! Who woulda thought Grey would let me write these silly things this long?! I’m in my 5th year though, have a lot of seasoning, I’m ready to hit my prime!
As always, a lot had changed in the past month+ since I put out my ranks in late February, with big names falling to elbow issues/concerns this time out vs. a fairly injury-free 2016. My Alex Reyes dynasty team weeps for this offseason! Plus ya know, massive changes after opening day. Drop Masahiro Tanaka everywhere! Yeah, if I were in any schmohawk leagues, I’d offer buy lows non-stop for Tanaka. Wait, I am in the Perty Perts league, I’ll try there! Haha I keed, I can’t walk the walk, not like I’ve topped the Perts league my first two years against Grey’s 1,000+ moves every season…
We’ll be getting into the Profiling next week (everyone watched those first 3 games, seems silly to profile any of those Opening Day guys), so get ready for some mad GIFs! And going to try a little something new for the GIFs too! Hopefully you like em…
Here’s my updated top 100 SP for the first week of the fantasy baseball season:
Updated Top 100 SP
(rankings for ROS based on 12-team Roto, green for risers, red for fallers)
| RANK | SP, TEAM |
|---|---|
| 1 | Clayton Kershaw, LAD |
| 2 | Max Scherzer, WAS |
| 3 | Madison Bumgarner, SF |
| 4 | Noah Syndergaard, NYM |
| 5 | Yu Darvish, TEX |
| 6 | Corey Kluber, CLE |
| 7 | Chris Sale, BOS |
| 8 | Justin Verlander, DET |
| 9 | Jon Lester, CHC |
| 10 | Stephen Strasburg, WAS |
| 11 | Jake Arrieta, CHC |
| 12 | Jacob deGrom, NYM |
| 13 | Johnny Cueto, SF |
| 14 | Kenta Maeda, LAD |
| 15 | Gerrit Cole, PIT |
| 16 | Masahiro Tanaka, NYY |
| 17 | Kyle Hendricks, CHC |
| 18 | Danny Duffy, KC |
| 19 | Cole Hamels, TEX |
| 20 | Danny Salazar, CLE |
| 21 | Carlos Martinez, STL |
| 22 | Chris Archer, TB |
| 23 | Aaron Sanchez, TOR |
| 24 | Zack Greinke, ARI |
| 25 | Lance McCullers, HOU |
| 26 | Matt Harvey, NYM |
| 27 | Rich Hill, LAD |
| 28 | James Paxton, SEA |
| 29 | Carlos Carrasco, CLE |
| 30 | John Lackey, CHC |
| 31 | Sean Manaea, OAK |
| 32 | Blake Snell, TB |
| 33 | Ivan Nova, PIT |
| 34 | Rick Porcello, BOS |
| 35 | Jose Quintana, CHW |
| 36 | Michael Fulmer, DET |
| 37 | J.A. Happ, TOR |
| 38 | Kevin Gausman, BAL |
| 39 | Matt Shoemaker, LAA |
| 40 | Taijuan Walker, ARI |
| 41 | Jameson Taillon, PIT |
| 42 | Dylan Bundy, BAL |
| 43 | Felix Hernandez, SEA |
| 44 | Vincent Velasquez, PHI |
| 45 | David Price, BOS |
| 46 | Marcus Stroman, TOR |
| 47 | Jerad Eickhoff, PHI |
| 48 | Dallas Keuchel, HOU |
| 49 | Junior Guerra, MIL |
| 50 | Aaron Nola, PHI |
| 51 | Jeff Samardzija, SF |
| 52 | Julio Teheran, ATL |
| 53 | Jason Hammel, KC |
| 54 | Tanner Roark, WAS |
| 55 | Eduardo Rodriguez, BOS |
| 56 | Joe Ross, WAS |
| 57 | Zach Davies, MIL |
| 58 | Daniel Norris, DET |
| 59 | Robbie Ray, ARI |
| 60 | Jonathan Gray, COL |
| 61 | Jeremy Hellickson, PHI |
| 62 | Tyler Glasnow, PIT |
| 63 | Julio Urias, LAD |
| 64 | Tyler Skaggs, LAA |
| 65 | Carlos Rodon, CHW |
| 66 | Adam Conley, MIA |
| 67 | Mike Foltynewicz, ATL |
| 68 | Brandon Finnegan, CIN |
| 69 | Garrett Richards, LAA |
| 70 | Michael Pineda, NYY |
| 71 | Reynaldo Lopez, CHW |
| 72 | Jake Odorizzi, TB |
| 73 | Marco Estrada, TOR |
| 74 | Drew Pomeranz, BOS |
| 75 | Jharel Cotton, OAK |
| 76 | Adam Wainwright, STL |
| 77 | Robert Gsellman, NYM |
| 78 | Amir Garrett, CIN |
| 79 | Bartolo Colon, ATL |
| 80 | Matt Moore, SF |
| 81 | Gio Gonzalez, WAS |
| 82 | Josh Hader, MIL |
| 83 | Lance Lynn, STL |
| 84 | Jaime Garcia, ATL |
| 85 | Hisashi Iwakuma, SEA |
| 86 | Ian Kennedy, KC |
| 87 | Ervin Santana, MIN |
| 88 | Joe Musgrove, HOU |
| 89 | Dan Straily, MIA |
| 90 | Charlie Morton, HOU |
| 91 | Collin McHugh, HOU |
| 92 | Steven Matz, NYM |
| 93 | Jose De Leon, TB |
| 94 | Francisco Liriano, TOR |
| 95 | Patrick Corbin, ARI |
| 96 | Andrew Triggs, OAK |
| 97 | Luis Severino, NYY |
| 98 | Michael Wacha, STL |
| 99 | Nate Karns, KC |
| 100 | Zack Wheeler, NYM |
Dropped Out: Anthony DeSclafani, CIN (elbow), Drew Smyly, SEA (flexor strain, insert “frowny” joke here), Luke Weaver, STL (didn’t crack rotation and out of room), Lucas Giolito, CHW (I knew he wouldn’t make the rotation, but again, out of room…), Sonny Gray, OAK (never have been a fan, and now he’s hurt), Jordan Zimmermann, DET (still think there’s a chance, but not enough room!), Jesse Chavez, LAA (same here, might have deep league sleeper appeal, but gets edited out with some new guys coming in)
- I’ll mention this on the Podcast as well, but during the Giants/Dbacks game, the broadcast booth reported that the MLB has changed how they determine velocity – now it’s speed out of the hand vs. speed ~50 feet to the plate. That little bit of extra air friction might have velocities across the league look a little up; I’m going to try and find more info on this during the first week. Couldn’t find much yet, let me know if you guys have seen something!
- Is Madison Bumgarner the best overall baseball player in the world right now?
- Carlos Martinez sure looked awesome last night. The Cubs K a ton though, and I dunno if C-Mart is gonna be able to peak at 100 MPH very often. I really debated moving him to the 14-15 range, but will hold off until we see his next few starts. Might really take that ace leap this year though…
- Man, rough start for two of my top-15 pitchers in the Feb. initial ranks, with Carlos Carrasco‘s elbow barking and getting rocked in Spring, and David Price‘s elbow flaring up, with legit risk he might not be able to come back and need surgery. Price said something to the effect of, “if I were younger, I’d go ahead and get the surgery”. At least I heard something like that… As with more of the fantasy consensus, I’m pretty worried about the pair.
- I can’t believe the deflated value where I got Zack Greinke. Not a great start, but he looked fine to me.
- The same goes for Matt Harvey, who I got a round later in the Perty Perts. I drafted Jon Lester and Stephen Strasburg as early-mid round guys, then got Greinke and Harvey in the late round flier range. With his velo amping up through the Spring, I’m happy with where I have him/ranked him initially.
- Definitely a fubar on not ranking Tyler Glasnow initially – I really didn’t see him making the opening day rotation. Always liked his stuff (this is me filming here!) through the Minors, but didn’t show enough of a 3rd pitch last year in the Majors. Apparently a new change-up looked good in Spring, and the concerns with his shoulder are assuaged.
- I’ve been a big Amir Garrett fan ever since I’ve scoured every single player in the NL when the REL launched last year. A little surprised to see him in the rotation this soon, but his groundball tendencies for that park should be a great fit. Innings limit and wins are concerns though…
As always, let me know what else I fubared, so I can fix for next week! Love debating on some ranks, and looking forward to the first week of action to kick it off. Good luck in week 1, and happy pitching, Razzball Nation!
