Man, name a starting pitcher and there’s a 50% chance he’s hurt!
It’s been a brutal Spring – Tommy J’s, ACLs, dead arms, demotions, sports betting on Twitter… It never ends! It feels like we’re just another few injury-plagued Springs away from having pitching machines on the mound. Would spell a devastating end to Krispie Young, that’s for sure!
So as we’ll update every Monday through the season, below is an update to my first edition of the Top 100 SP Ranks, which you can find through the magic of clickity-click. Standard in-season-esque green for risers, red for fallers, additional notes at the end, and my principle is usually to not rank pitchers in the bullpen unless it’s highly anticipated they will join the rotation in the immediate future. So Sayonara Cingrani! Sounds like an episode title of The Sopranos… Here’s my updated Top 100 SP:
JB’s Updated Top 100 SP
(rankings based on 12-team Roto, green for risers, red for fallers)
| RANK | SP, Team |
| 1 | Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers |
| 2 | Chris Sale, Chicago White Sox |
| 3 | Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners |
| 4 | Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals |
| 5 | Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants |
| 6 | Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians |
| 7 | Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals |
| 8 | David Price, Detroit Tigers |
| 9 | Matt Harvey, New York Mets |
| 10 | Jon Lester, Chicago Cubs |
| 11 | Johnny Cueto, Cincinnati Reds |
| 12 | Jake Arrieta, Chicago Cubs |
| 13 | Zack Greinke, Los Angeles Dodgers |
| 14 | Jordan Zimmermann, Washington Nationals |
| 15 | Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies |
| 16 | Carlos Carrasco, Cleveland Indians |
| 17 | Garrett Richards, Los Angeles Angels |
| 18 | Gerrit Cole, Pittsburgh Pirates |
| 19 | Alex Wood, Atlanta Braves |
| 20 | Jeff Samardzija, Chicago White Sox |
| 21 | Julio Teheran, Atlanta Braves |
| 22 | Collin McHugh, Houston Astros |
| 23 | Jacob deGrom, New York Mets |
| 24 | James Paxton, Seattle Mariners |
| 25 | Tyson Ross, San Diego Padres |
| 26 | Masahiro Tanaka, New York Yankees |
| 27 | Yordano Ventura, Kansas City Royals |
| 28 | Sonny Gray, Oakland Athletics |
| 29 | James Shields, San Diego Padres |
| 30 | Michael Pineda, New York Yankees |
| 31 | Alex Cobb, Tampa Bay Rays |
| 32 | Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals |
| 33 | Brandon McCarthy, Los Angeles Dodgers |
| 34 | Hisashi Iwakuma, Seattle Mariners |
| 35 | Scott Kazmir, Oakland Athletics |
| 36 | Phil Hughes, Minnesota Twins |
| 37 | Lance Lynn, St. Louis Cardinals |
| 38 | Matt Shoemaker, Los Angeles Angels |
| 39 | Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros |
| 40 | Mat Latos, Miami Marlins |
| 41 | Anibal Sanchez, Detroit Tigers |
| 42 | Shane Greene, Detroit Tigers |
| 43 | Gio Gonzalez, Washington Nationals |
| 44 | Jake Odorizzi, Tampa Bay Rays |
| 45 | Mike Fiers, Milwaukee Brewers |
| 46 | Homer Bailey, Cincinnati Reds |
| 47 | Chris Archer, Tampa Bay Rays |
| 48 | Michael Wacha, St. Louis Cardinals |
| 49 | Francisco Liriano, Pittsburgh Pirates |
| 50 | Drew Smyly, Tampa Bay Rays |
| 51 | Ervin Santana, Minnesota Twins |
| 52 | Doug Fister, Washington Nationals |
| 53 | Jose Quintana, Chicago White Sox |
| 54 | Jered Weaver, Los Angeles Angels |
| 55 | Andrew Cashner, San Diego Padres |
| 56 | Derek Holland, Texas Rangers |
| 57 | J.A. Happ, Seattle Mariners |
| 58 | Kyle Hendricks, Chicago Cubs |
| 59 | Ian Kennedy, San Diego Padres |
| 60 | Jason Hammel, Chicago Cubs |
| 61 | Daniel Norris, Toronto Blue Jays |
| 62 | Mike Leake, Cincinnati Reds |
| 63 | Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers |
| 64 | Jake Peavy, San Francisco Giants |
| 65 | Drew Hutchison, Toronto Blue Jays |
| 66 | CC Sabathia, New York Yankees |
| 67 | Jimmy Nelson, Milwaukee Brewers |
| 68 | Kyle Lohse, Milwaukee Brewers |
| 69 | Chase Anderson, Arizona Diamondbacks |
| 70 | A.J. Burnett, Pittsburgh Pirates |
| 71 | Trevor Bauer, Cleveland Indians |
| 72 | Taijuan Walker, Seattle Mariners |
| 73 | Kevin Gausman, Baltimore Orioles |
| 74 | Hyun-Jin Ryu, Los Angeles Dodgers |
| 75 | Wily Peralta, Milwaukee Brewers |
| 76 | Chris Tillman, Baltimore Orioles |
| 77 | Jesse Hahn, Oakland Athletics |
| 78 | Carlos Rodon, Chicago White Sox |
| 79 | Mike Minor, Atlanta Braves |
| 80 | Jose Fernandez, Miami Marlins |
| 81 | Rubby De La Rosa, Arizona Diamondbacks |
| 82 | Noah Syndergaard, New York Mets |
| 83 | Shelby Miller, Atlanta Braves |
| 84 | Matt Cain, San Francisco Giants |
| 85 | Danny Duffy, Kansas City Royals |
| 86 | John Lackey, St. Louis Cardinals |
| 87 | Drew Pomeranz, Oakland Athletics |
| 88 | Aaron Sanchez, Toronto Blue Jays |
| 89 | R.A. Dickey, Toronto Blue Jays |
| 90 | Matt Garza, Milwaukee Brewers |
| 91 | Wei-Yin Chen, Baltimore Orioles |
| 92 | Tim Hudson, San Francisco Giants |
| 93 | Kendall Graveman, Oakland Athletics |
| 94 | Clay Buchholz, Boston Red Sox |
| 95 | Rick Porcello, Boston Red Sox |
| 96 | Henderson Alvarez, Miami Marlins |
| 97 | Kyle Gibson, Minnesota Twins |
| 98 | Jon Niese, New York Mets |
| 99 | Tom Koehler, Miami Marlins |
| 100 | Nathan Eovaldi, New York Yankees |
Dropped Out: Yu Darvish (TJ), Marcus Stroman (ACL), Zack Wheeler (TJ), Tony Cingrani (bullpen), Cliff Lee (hoping to rehab that flexor, but camon), Danny Salavar (demoted), Carlos Martinez (likely heading to relief)
- I know, I know, I know… I’m going nutso for Harvey. “JB’s an effing amateur, he things Spring Training stats mean something!” Well, of course not. But Harvey looks amaze-balls, the velo is fantastic, and he’s confident. I caught on a broadcast that in his TJ procedure they took 3 tendons from his calf instead of the standard 2 to sew up his elbow. Does that mean anything? I don’t know, but with all that time off and maybe that giving him an extra iota of confidence, I’m moving him into ace-level top-10.
- Man, I just have Mets fever! Quick, get me a vial of David Wright‘s sweat! I’m not overrating Spring stats, I just now what I saw in a few of Jake DeGrom’s Spring starts. Looks fantastic.
- I don’t like to draft any hurt pitchers, unless the upside is #1 or #2 starter. Even a healthy Cobb I wasn’t huge on, and other injured pitchers get major downgrades from me as well.
- Love what I see from Daniel Norris. He would’ve been higher my original ranks had I known a rotation spot would be his; this is not entirely predicated on Spring numbers.
- I guess some Red Sox have to make it now… Hah!
- In Pts leagues, Graveman is way, way more interesting as a sleeper. But in roto, dat low-K doe!
- Really worried about what happens to Carlos Martinez. With Jaime Garcia (shocker! not in the ranks!) healthy – for who knows how long- looks like C-Mart might be bullpen-ized. UPDATE – Garcia got hurt while I wrote this over the weekend… Doh! C-Mart will likely go to 75-80 in the next update.
- I know I said no relief guys usually make my ranks, but we don’t know yet with Gausman. We can only cross our fingers and hope Buck makes the right move.
Thoughts on the re-ranks? As always, shoot your thoughts below Razzball Nation! And may your fantasy staffs be as robust as… yeah let’s just leave it at that.
