Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!

Today, I’ve got mostly the same Top 100 Starting Pitchers list for you. 

There aren’t too many changes to report based on news, signings, or anything else that might affect our century club.

But I figured I could move us ahead with some of the news and things I didn’t have space or time to include in my post last week. 

Expect a quiver of Bowden arrows North of the border, and a short write-up on why you should take a shot with a Bibee in Cleveland, (among others).

As a refresher from last Monday, there are two icons that you should have some explanation for in my Top 100 SP rankings.

The Marmo icon

This is an easy way to find which players MarmosDad is swooning over this Spring. These are pitchers that I want to draft where or when I can and expect success from in 2025.

The Skibidi Montgomery icon

Skibidi Toilet is probably best explained by the 9-year-old in your life. If there’s something you don’t like, think might be a bad idea, or just generally irritates you…Skibidi Toilet. As a caveat, I don’t exactly hate these players just as I don’t particularly dislike Mr. Montgomery. There’s a reason (or a few) why I’m not looking to draft these guys for 2025.

And as a bonus, because I’m a sucker for extra work, I’m adding Grey’s SP rankings in a column on the chart to have a quick reference point of where the guy who I look to for SP guidance is slotting his starters for this Spring.

But before we get into it, there’s a bit of business to take care of first. If you haven’t signed up for it, The Razzball Fantasy Baseball Subscription should be your go-to reference for the entire season. It will save you a lot of time researching and often includes those “Oh, I never thought about that” solutions. The Streamonator is a helpful resource throughout the season when making lineup decisions, and if you sign up early enough you’ll get access to the War Room too. Rudy’s tools are well worth the price of admission. If you’re serious about improving throughout the season, check the link, yo.

 

The Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2025

 

SP RANK (Player Rater)	Name	Team	Average  SP Ranking (Or ADP)	GREY’s RANKINGS	Notes
1	Paul Skenes	PIT	2.25	1
2	Tarik Skubal	DET	2.25	2
3	Zack Wheeler	PHI	3.5	3
4	Logan Gilbert	SEA	5.5	4
5	Cole Ragans	KC	10.5	7
6	Garrett Crochet	BOS	10	12
7	Dylan Cease	SD	9	6
8	Corbin Burnes	ARI	10.25	20
9	George Kirby	SEA	14.5	5
10	Blake Snell	LAD	13.75	10
11	Gerrit Cole	NYY	18.5	21
12	Framber Valdez	HOU	12	8
13	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD	21	15
14	Chris Sale	ATL	10.25	19
15	Tyler Glasnow	LAD	28	34
16	Grayson Rodriguez	BAL	31.75	27
17	Jacob deGrom	TEX	36.75	18
18	Roki Sasaki	LAD	34.25	17
19	Shota Imanaga	CHC	21.75	13
20	Bailey Ober	MIN	24	23
21	Shohei Ohtani	LAD	2	9
22	Aaron Nola	PHI	19	42
23	Bryce Miller	SEA	26.75	14
24	Spencer Schwellenbach	ATL	39	16
25	Joe Ryan	MIN	24.75	41
26	Sonny Gray	STL	28.5	28
27	Michael King	SD	22.5	11
28	Hunter Greene	CIN	27.75	40
29	Freddy Peralta	MLW	28.75	32
30	Pablo Lopez	MIN	14	22
31	Max Fried	NYY	25.75	39
32	Luis Castillo	SEA	21.25	38
33	Logan Webb	SF	22.75	24
34	Tanner Bibee	CLE	33.25	29
35	Zac Gallen	ARI	31	25
36	Bryan Woo	SEA	57.75	26
37	Kevin Gausman	TOR	32.75	57
38	Spencer Strider	ATL	55.75	59
39	Jack Flaherty	DET	46.5	31
40	Shane McClanahan	TB	49.25	60
41	Yusei Kikuchi	LAA	47	63
42	Hunter Brown	HOU	34.75	30
43	Jared Jones	PIT	44.25	33
44	Kodai Senga	NYM	45.5	58
45	Carlos Rodon	NYY	41.25	35
46	Cristopher Sanchez	PHI	47.5	49
47	Justin Steele	CHC	33.25	36
48	Brandon Pfaadt	ARI	48	37
49	Robbie Ray	SFG	64.75	48
50	Reynaldo Lopez	ATL	49.25	44
51	Seth Lugo	KC	45	43
52	Shane Baz	TB	69	54
53	Taj Bradley	TB	53.25	55
54	Mackenzie Gore	WSH	59.25	66
55	Zach Eflin	BAL	53.25	45
56	Ranger Suarez	PHI	59.5	47
57	Bowden Francis	TOR	65.7	56
58	Jose Berrios	TOR	55	71
59	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX	66.5	46
60	Tanner Houck	BOS	54.75	68
61	Luis Gil	NYY	50.25	62
62	Sandy Alcantara	MIA	74.25	61
63	Jesus Luzardo	PHI	86	65
64	Ronel Blanco	ATL	56	64
65	Kutter Crawford	BOS	79.5	70
66	Nick Lodolo	CIN	79.25	75
67	Mitch Keller	PIT	59.5	79
68	Sean Manaea	NYM	57	51
69	Gavin Williams	CLE	79	83
70	Chris Bassitt	TOR	76.75	90
71	Ryan Pepiot	TB	63.75	52
72	Spencer Arrighetti	HOU	70	53
73	Jeffrey Springs	ATH	81.5	105
74	Max Scherzer	TOR	99.5	122
75	Nick Pivetta	SD	73.5	50
76	Yu Darvish	SD	87.25	72
77	Reese Olson	DET	80	67
78	Merrill Kelly	ARI	73.25	103
79	Brandon Woodruff	MLW	67.75	106
80	Brady Singer	CIN	68	91
81	Brayan Bello	BOS	72.25	78
82	Clarke Schmidt	NYY	66	85
83	Michael Wacha	KC	74.75	69
84	Walker Buehler	BOS	73	104
85	Matthew Boyd	CHC	96.7	76
86	Jackson Jobe	DET	79	73
87	Jose Soriano	LAA	105	101
88	Ryne Nelson	ARI	95	119
89	Drew Rasmussen	TB	100.75	87
90	Tobias Myers	MLW	89	80
91	Bobby Miller	LAD	101	108
92	Dustin May	LAD	122	88
93	Cody Bradford	TEX	94	74
94	Tomoyuki Sugano	BAL	96	77
95	Luis Severino	ATH	82	97
96	Eduardo Rodriguez	ARI	113	131
97	Justin Verlander	SFG	119	123
98	Charlie Morton	BAL	93.5	125
99	DJ Herz	WSH	95	81
100	Kumar Rocker	TEX	83	114

Considered but not here…yet: Noah Schultz, Bubba Chandler (82), Grant Holmes, Lucas Giolito, David Festa, Clay Holmes (100), Quinn Matthews, Joey Cantillo, Hayden Birdsong, Edward Cabrera, Eury Perez, Luis L. Ortiz (95), Kris Bubic, Jake Irvin, Kyle Bradish, Kyle Hart (102), Andrew Abbott, Dean Kremer (99), JP Sears, Erick Fedde (98), Kyle Harrison, David Peterson (86), Nestor Cortes (107), Jameson Taillon (93), Tyler Mahle, Andrew Heaney, Frankie Montas (92), Reid Detmers, Aaron Civale, Shane Bieber, DL Hall, Triston McKenzie, Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw, Nick Martinez (84), John Means, Jack Leiter, Rhett Lowder (89), Zack Littell (94), Ben Lively (96), Andrew Painter (109), 

I’ll add my ranking for each player below and put Grey’s rank in parentheses.

MARMO ARMS

These are the good ones. If you drafted a team of these guys, I would call you the best arm picker in the land.

George Kirby SP9 (Grey’s SP5) – For full disclosure, I’m tracking which players I write up for my posts. This is why I forced myself to leave Paul Skenes alone (for one week). George Kirby? I haven’t written him up yet, so he gets a blurb today. All the guys below here haven’t gotten a write-up (outside of maybe a couple of words in my first post back in January).

As for Kirby, there isn’t much to say that you likely don’t already know. He led the league in BB/9 with a pristine 1.08. His 8.43 K/9 was not as sexy and ranked him 33rd among eligible starting pitchers. Is Kirby a Top 5 SP? Probably not right now, (please don’t fire me, Boss), but that has more to do with the fireballing arms that are ranked ahead of him than anything else. If he can figure out how to boost that strikeout rate back up to even the 9.21 K.9 that he had in 130 IP in his first year, He could sneak into that super-elite group pretty quickly.

Tanner Bibee SP34 (29) – Oh baby baby, who’s looking to take a shot on Bibee? I wrote up Tanner Bibee a few times last year, not just because his name elicits a plethora of puns to fill our baseball writers’ baskets. What I found pretty funny was when I opened the one write-up from last April (Hit Me Bibee One More Time), I had him ranked in the SP32/33 spot. This year, and entirely through a weird coincidence, he’s my SP34. If you compare him to George Kirby, Bibee gives you a better K/9 (9.69) but a worse BB/9 (2.28). If I can get this 25-year-old starter at a good price as he enters his third full MLB season, I’m jumping at his 101 overall price tag (NFBC). Great, now I’ll have ‘Toxic’ in my head all day, too.

Jared Jones SP43 (33) – I know I mention the Detroit Tigers starting pitchers more than I should, but the comparison to this Pirates group of young arms is too obvious to pass up. Jump into the way-back machine and travel with me to 2019. The Tigers’ Top 5 prospects included Casey Mize (1), Matt Manning (2), and some other guy named Tarik Skubal (5). All three were considered “can’t miss” potential aces. Back then, you couldn’t pry Mize loose from another manager in a keeper league unless you overpaid in a trade offer.

I’m not saying I think Paul Skenes will fall apart and flop as the first two pitchers from the Tigers analogy did. (I knew I couldn’t go a full write-up without mentioning Skenes). What I am saying is, wouldn’t it be interesting if Jared Jones came out and posted better strikeout numbers and peripherals than Paul Skenes does in 2025? Now that’s an Allegheny River-sized IF for sure, but would it be as surprising as Tarik Skubal’s ascension to ace status with Detroit was?

To compare him with the breakout potential above him here, Jones’ K-BB% is pretty darned close to Tanner Bibee’s (18.5 vs. 20.1), and Jones’ ADP is nearly 50 picks after the Guardians’ ace (147 at NFBC).  I’ll jump on that all day.

Zach Eflin SP55 (45) – This one is about the suppression of walks. And to echo/paraphrase something Grey said this week, a good fantasy analyst knows to not waste their reader’s time so I’ll keep this short and sweet. Eflin’s BB/9 went UP last year to 1.31 after posting a 1.22 with Tampa in 2023. That was good for 2nd in all of baseball (behind Kirby). If you loaded up on a couple of flamethrowers with your early SP picks or are planning on taking a shot on some high strikeout arms with command issues later in your draft, Eflin is a guy who will help keep your ratios down.

Bowden Francis SP57 (56) – There are some easy spots to shine the light on if you’re looking to poke holes in or shoot arrows at a Bowden Francis sleeper post. He only throws a 92 MPH fastball. His Swinging Strike rate is just 11%, and that’s nowhere near what we’re looking for in a breakout (we want 14-16% for those ace-type arms). I can’t argue with that but Bowden Francis is our SP57 so I’m not drafting him to be an ace-type arm. At first glance, Francis’s 8-5 record last year is about as “Meh” as it gets. But if we cherry-pick from his final 10 starts of the year? This is the line we get…

9 GS, 59 IP, 4 W, 56 K, 8.54 K/9, 1.07 BB/9, .125 BABIP, 1.53 ERA

I’m sure you’re spotting the theme here…pitchers who limit walks are good. Francis isn’t a deep sleeper at 227 overall, but he’s certainly a guy I have on my radar this Spring.

Shane Baz SP52 (54) – Shane Baz should be ranked with Bowden Francis and Zach Eflin, if not higher. I was worried about the bounceback from arm surgery when I put my list together over the past few weeks, but Baz was good in the limited action he saw last year. And he looks like he’s a man on a mission this Spring. 

I chickened out in ranking him among the Top 50 and I can see him returning to that group if he has no problems with his first few Spring starts. I should’ve had Baz ranked much higher right from the beginning, and after reading news about how Brandon Woodruff is expected to be ‘built up slowly’ and start the year on the IL, it was an easy (and convenient) flip of the two in the list today.

Plus…do you want to mess with this guy? 

Angry or focused? New hair and new elbow? Sign me up.

Jackson Jobe SP86 (73) – Ok. So I lied about not writing up any players I had already gone over at least once this year. But bear with me. There’s a reason for that.

I have a few Tigers fan friends around town, and I sent them what I wrote about the Tigers’ rotation last week. Alex Cobb is not a solid 4th/5th starter. He’s there to serve as a placeholder for Jackson Jobe, or one of the other younger arms in the Motown system (Matt Manning?!).

Well, it took less than a week for this news to surface.

 

Death, Taxes, and an Alex Cobb IL stint.

Without analyzing too much by way of options available or wanting to suppress service time, this has to mean Jobe or Manning gets the first crack at a rotation spot this Spring. Could Detroit sign someone like Jose Quintana or reunite with Spencer Turnbull? Of course, they could. They do have a bunch of Bregman money all packed up with no place to go. But I assume this is one less speed bump to slow down Jobe in his race back to the MLB roster.

Assuming he has the inside track on a rotation spot now, I did move Jobe up a few spots and flipped Charlie Morton to Jobe’s 98th position from last week.  I nearly switched him with the new Woodruff spot (79) because I’d likely draft him over the MLW pitcher anyway.

Not to be lost in the Jobe excitement is a little snapshot I found from Jeff Zimmerman’s “Mining The News” this week. If you’re a Jobe fan, you’ll want to peek at this.

More strikeouts = Good plan.

Jose Soriano SP87 (101) – Remember in the Eflin blurb when I said to pick him up if you were planning on drafting a pitcher in the later rounds who has the potential to post a high strikeout rate but also struggles with command? This is one of the guys I was talking about. The 98 MPH fastball is about as sweet as it gets. The 3.58 BB/9 last year? Uh…the optimist in me says at least it was better than the 4.93 BB/9 that he posted in 2023!

SKIBIDI ARMS

Skibidi toilet! These are not favored, Bob! Due to a poor history, bad draft position, or crummy situation…me no likey.

Ronel Blanco SP64 (64!) – Grey and I hit the same number! I don’t know what that says about Blanco other than it seems like we both don’t trust him.

Here’s what Grey said in his Top 80 Starting Pitchers post, “His numbers don’t make total sense. He had a 2.80 ERA and 8.9 K/9, 3.66 BB/9 in 167 1/3 IP. Okay, zero sense. Throw in a 39.8 GB%, .220 BABIP, and – Well, I have two thoughts on him. He will repeat his value because the Astros work magic with their starters. Or he will fall back to earth. I will risk it this late on the Astros having something else up their sleeve besides a drumstick for their trash can”, and that’s me…well, you know.

Houston could work magic on him and finish transforming him into a reliable arm, but I need to see it before I believe it. He feels much more like a flash in the can…er, pan, to me.

Chris Bassitt SP70 (90) – The only thing that makes Bassitt worthwhile here is that he’s basically free in drafts. With an overall ADP of 427, and a strong offensive team to give him run support, Bassitt could be a decent late-round pick. The 35-year-old veteran kept his K/9 at a respectable 8.84 last year, but his calling card of excellent control looks like it has expired. Bassitt’s 2024 BB/9 jumped more than a full walk from 2.66 in 2023 to 3.68 in 2024. If he drops far enough, I can justify the homer pick here, but he’s likely slipping off the Top 100 list quickly if he struggles with command early in 2025.

Jeffrey Springs SP73 (105) – I was a big fan of this one when he came up with the Rangers in 2018. When he was shipped from Boston to the magic-wand-waving Rays in 2021 it was ‘hope Springs eternal’, as long as Springs was healthy and not relegated to a bullpen role. Well, we know how that worked out. The K/9 is still eye-popping, but this is a 31-year-old guy who has thrown more than 45 innings just once in his 7-year career.

Adding him to an Athletics rotation who will be playing in a very friendly (minor league) hitters park is not my idea of a good gamble, especially when he’s being drafted in the Top 250 overall. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who reacts this way when I see that Tampa Bay traded a pitcher away. That’s never a good sign.

Nick Pivetta SP75 (50) – A 6’5” Canadian with a 5-pitch repertoire and a 94 MPH fastball should set my maple-syrupped heart aflutter. Alas, I don’t buy it. When he was with the Red Sox, I was worried that Pivetta would get bounced back and forth between the bullpen and the rotation. That wasn’t an issue and he’s put up some healthy innings totals over the last four years. Signing in San Diego is an even bigger boon as the park is one of the better ‘pitcher parks’ (29/30 for offense). Pivetta even cut his walk rate from 2023.

Yes, this sounds counter-intuitive, but the Pivetta fade is more of a gut feeling than anything else. If he keeps up the impressive K/9, my SP75 ranking is going to look silly. But I’m fine watching him post a good season on someone else’s team since I’m not going to be paying the average draft cost to sign him. Other SPs in and around his 207 ADP are Spencer Arrighetti, Tanner Houck, and the aforementioned Bowden Francis. I’d prefer to draft one of them instead.

Brayan Bello SP81 (78) – Every time I hear his name I think, “Ayo, Bay-O!”, a la Tony Danza. That probably says more about me than it does about the 25-year-old Dominican-born pitcher. If your league-mates are working with a “How To Win At Fantasy Baseball’ book from the 1990s, they’ll jump all over his 14-5 record from last year. The strikeouts will be there and I’ll admit that Bello is young enough to break out in 2025. The problem is, he’ll have to clean up that walk rate if he wants to show people Who’s The Boss.

That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed it! Next week, I’m into our deeper dives for those beefed-up rosters and/or those leagues with more than 15 managers. This is where I’ll try to uncover some AL/NL-only gems like I did last year. The SP101-200 group from the 2025 Preseason Player Rater will be our base for next week.

Drop some comments in the chat if you’re feeling extra fired up about some of the names I do (or don’t) have here. Have a great week!

Follow me @marmosdad on Twitter/X and Bluesky @marmosdad.bsky.social