Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!

If there’s one good thing about only having 4 days since our last update, it’s that it didn’t give me much time to piece together a new trade offer to send yet another fan favorite out those MarmosDad Fantasy Baseball saloon doors.

But I’ll tell you one thing. 

If I rostered Peter Lambert, I’d definitely be looking at what kind of return I could get in a redraft league.

I mean, if you’ve got a starting pitcher on your roster who has allowed more than two earned runs just twice in his last 10 starts, it might seem silly to even entertain the idea of selling high. But Peter Lambert is the kind of guy that a top team is looking to add as it gets itself ready for a playoff run. If you’re wondering whether we’re talking about fantasy or ‘real-life’ baseball…it’s both!

That said, do I think the Astros will move out their best starting pitcher while they make a run at the AL West title? Maybe not. But if Houston falls further out of the race over the next couple of weeks, Lambert’s one-year $1.5 million contract would be at the top of every contender’s rental wish list.

Tell me this isn’t a 10-game span that a wild card team would build a strong trade package to acquire for the stretch run: 10 GS, 6 W, 56.2 IP, 17 ER, 42 H, 22 BB, 56 Ks, with a 2.70 ERA, an 8.89 K./9, and a 3.49 BB/9.

There’s more on Peter Lambert below in the “Jumpers” section that was missing last Thursday.

I mentioned the section switch-up in last week’s Top 100 Starting Pitchers – The Man Who Sold The Woo-rld writeup, and I’ll also remind us all again what my other main message was: The second half of the season is crunch time. 

It’s officially time to pause, assess our league, re-assess our motley crew of fantasy baseball dudes, and look at where we can use our roster strengths to address any weaknesses (or injury losses) so we can make a run at that coveted championship trophy.

But, of course, before we get to that, 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.

One last piece of information about the short-week turnaround. Last week’s list was posted on Thursday morning, so that gave us a whopping 4-day schedule to recap (not including the lone Thursday night game – but I’ll have that one too). 

Today, any new updates from the last few days are in here, and I’ll input our fan favorite (but seldom used) Marmo icon to signify no changes from the previous article that led us off for the second half on Thursday.

If you see this,  it means that the player hasn’t had much to update since last Thursday’s list went live: .

And you’re looking for the note on one of those guys (or any of the arms that have less of a write-up today), you’ll need to clicky clicky this – Top 100 Starting Pitchers – The Man Who Sold The Woo-rld.

(P.S.: If Grey is reading this, I did NOT just create an extra reason for folks to re-read Thursday’s write-up just to give them one more chance to visit The Goblin King’s Leggings of Doom. Beaver Scout’s honor!)

 

The Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2026

MARMO RANK	Name	Team	Notes
1	Jacob Misiorowski	MLW	After a bit of an arm scare, he’s scheduled to throw today vs NYM. Also, just an FYI if you’re a Miz-head – don’t look at the Rest of Season Player Rater. (The robot has him ranked as the SP16 ROS).
2	Paul Skenes	PIT	7 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, and his 9th win. That’s three straight wins for the Allegheny Ace, and it’s looking like we’ll get a Miz, Skenes, Skubal top three sooner rather than later.
3	Zack Wheeler	PHI	He gets the Dodgers at home tomorrow.
4	Tarik Skubal	DET	7 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 9 Ks, and his 6th win. Any rust he was shaking off in those first three June starts is long gone now. He’s back up to the Top 5 today, and it’s not going to be long before he pushes his way into the Top 3. Up.
5	Chris Sale	ATL	7.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, 0 BB. 6 K, 10th win, ERA at 2.06. I say it too often, but I was convinced this guy was finished about three years ago, and he keeps toeing the rubber and straight dealing at age 37. I don’t know when or if he’s supposed to decline as he gets closer to 40, but it sure doesn’t look like anything is headed that way this season.
6	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD	9 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and his 10th win. I know Grey isn’t a big fan, and I get that the Dodgers will likely start to mix things up to rest guys in the second half, but if Yamamoto isn’t the most reliable guy in the league, he’s awfully close. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Sonny Gray). Including yesterday’s start, Yoshi’s thrown 100+ pitches in 7 of his last 10 games.
7	Cristopher Sanchez	PHI
8	Dylan Cease	TOR
9	Cam Schlittler	NYY	4.1 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, and his 6th loss. Good thing he got all that rest during the All-Star Game. Smh. Remember that ROS Player Rater, too? If you were angry about Misiorowski’s ranking, don’t look up Schlittler’s!
10	Jacob deGrom	TEX	He throws today vs CWS.
11	Shohei Ohtani	LAD	“It’s going to be some time” before he pitches again is not what we were hoping for when we drafted him in those daily moves leagues at 1.01.
12	Chase Burns	CIN
13	Joe Ryan	MIN	He throws at CLE today.
14	Max Meyer	MIA	3 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. It was his shortest outing of the year, and he was yanked after 74 pitches (Hey-now! phrasing!). Sorry. I’m guessing a lot of teams will treat their less-than-veteran-status aces like this the rest of the way – give them 80-90 pitches to get through 6 innings, but if they struggle with baserunners, pull the pin early and don’t give them time to overthrow or hurt themselves trying to correct it in-game.
15	Sonny Gray	BOS	Jumper! No, really! Can you imagine? More below.
16	Logan Gilbert	SEA	6 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 10 Ks, and his 8th win. Outside of a couple of minor blips on the radar, this is the LoGi we’re looking for.
17	Logan Webb	SF	6.2 IP, 3 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. Another good-but-not-great Webb gem!
18	Bryan Woo	SEA	Dumper. But not by much. More below.
19	Drew Rasmussen	TB
20	Hunter Brown	HOU	4.2 IP, 4 ER, 3 H, 6 BB, 4 Ks, and his first loss. The history is there, so it’s up to you to decide how long a leash you want to give him. I wouldn’t be dropping him anytime soon, but if you have other options, I’d consider benching him until he figures out the control problems (15 BBs in his last 14.2 IP). It’s been rough, but he’s an easy ‘Down’ today.
21	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX	4 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks. The gopher ball was his undoing yesterday as the Rangers couldn’t come back from his 3 HR allowed. Down a bit today.
22	Jesus Luzardo	PHI	5 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 9th win. I’d say this was yet another “youngster quality start,” but he’s 29 years old, so he doesn’t qualify.
23	Nolan McLean	NYM	6 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 10 Ks, and his 7th win. Outside of maybe Sonny Gray, this guy might be the hottest arm right now. Yesterday’s start was his best of the year, and he’s pumped out four straight quality starts. His numbers since June 30 have been filthy – 24 IP, 2 ER, 17 H, 7 BB, 29 Ks. He’s back up!
24	Hunter Greene	CIN	6 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and his 2nd win. It wasn’t as dominant as his previous outing, but it was darned close! Up.
25	Justin Wrobleski	LAD
26	Parker Messick	CLE
27	Braxton Ashcraft	PIT
28	Bryce Miller	SEA	5.2 IP, 7 hits, 2 ER, BB, 6 K. It took him 91 pitches in this one, and he couldn’t finish off the 6th inning. It’s ok though. He’s been nails.
29	George Kirby	SEA
30	Shane McClanahan	TB	5 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and his 6th loss. He’s pitched into the 7th inning just once in his last 10 starts, and has only thrown more than 89 pitches once in that span, too. Not great! Down.
31	Gerrit Cole	NYY	6.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, BB, 8 K, 5th L. Back-to-back quality starts against a couple of tough offenses with nothing to show for it but a couple of losses. Make sure to mention the losses if you’re putting a trade package together. He’ll give us innings and quality the rest of the way. Up.
32	Gavin Williams	CLE	6 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 11 Ks, and his 5th loss. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t immediately look at the walks and strikeouts and get a bit excited before the cold bucket of earned runs got dumped over my head. As odd as it sounds, focus on the zero walk and almost a dozen Ks as the main takeaways from this start. And maybe give him some props for being kind enough to give out 3 homers to the Pirates as well. What a nice guy.
33	Kyle Bradish	BAL
34	Payton Tolle	BOS
35	Logan Henderson	MLW	5.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, 4 K. 73 pitches and “left with forearm tightness”. The good news is it’s supposedly not serious, and he’s expected to make his Wednesday start vs NYM. Monitor, of course, but it sounds like he’s ok for now.
36	Kevin Gausman	TOR
37	Eury Perez	MIA	6 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 9 Ks, and the no-decision. Saying he hasn’t allowed more than 2 ER in a start since May 17th is a bit misleading because he missed a month, but Eury’s chucked three QS in a row now, and this one was a beauty. Up.
38	Emerson Hancock	SEA
39	Jared Jones	PIT	5 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks. Seth Hernandez WHO?! JJ is making it known that (a) he’s not going to the bullpen, (b) the Pirates need to move a different starter at the deadline, and (c) there’s no C.
40	Ryan Weathers	NYY	He gets PIT at Yankee Stadium today.
41	Foster Griffin	WSH	7 IP, 1 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and his 11th win. Here’s another member of Sonny Gray’s All-Underrated team. Either that or Foster Griffin is doing some weird Freaky Friday thing where he switched bodies with Bryan Woo.
42	Freddy Peralta	NYM
43	Nick Martinez	TB
44	Sean Burke	CWS	6.2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and his 7th win. He ran into a strong start from Trey Yesavage and didn’t flinch. The Jays’ offense is certainly not a world-beater these days, but Burke spun a gem nonetheless. He was one of our guys in the “Discreet” section last week, and I think I’m going to have to go out and put together a trade offer right now!
45	Troy Melton	DET	5.2 IP, 4 hits, ER, 4 BB, 9 K. It’s been nice of Melton to have his breakout this year and distract the Tigers fans from the Skubal trade rumors and the fact that they were robbed of a Justin Verlander farewell tour.
46	Sandy Alcantara	MIA	6.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, 4 BB, 7 K, ERA at 3.90. Sure, the walks aren’t great, but that tiny nit gets squashed when the BBs and Hs get stranded and he gives us more than a half dozen strikeouts in a quality start. Up.
47	Max Fried	NYY	Boone said that Fried will “make two rehab starts” before anything is set in stone. His first one is scheduled for Friday, and he’ll be on a 50-pitch limit. If all goes well, we could see him in The Bronx by the end of next week.
48	Eduardo Rodriguez	ARI	2.2 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, and the no-decision (left after 68 pitches). Uh oh. Someone must’ve left his lucky rabbit’s foot back in Philly.
49	Shota Imanaga	CHC	7 IP, 0 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and his 6th win. What’s this piece of paper on the ground? “How to break a three-game (personal) losing streak”? But all it says is “Play the Twins while Byron Buxton is injured”. Huh. I guess that makes sense. Up.
50	Emmet Sheehan	LAD	He pitches at PHI today.
51	Jake Bennett	BOS	Jumper. More below.
52	Robbie Ray	SF	4 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision. He got to 86 pitches yesterday, and to be honest, the two walks are encouraging, but call me when they cast him in the Labyrinth remake if you want me to pay attention.
53	Trey Yesavage	TOR	So I sat down yesterday to catch up on some notes and flipped on the Jays game in time to hear Dan Schulman say: “Trey Yesavage has FIVE strikeouts through his first two innings this afternoon”. Uh. Insert blinking eyes gif here? I guess someone was mad that I included him in the YEET! group last week. The line looks even less impressive than his start was, too. He had a couple of guys at a 1-2 count before giving up a couple of untimely hits. The margin for error wasn’t big either, as Sean Burke pitched even better than Trey did. 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks, and his 5th loss.
54	Reid Detmers	ANA	6.0 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K. I say it below with Roki’s note, but I’m currently trying to figure out if I should trade away arms that I don’t fully believe in for more boring, reliable ones. Detmers is on the former list, but if he can crank up the consistency, like an acrobatic firefighter, he could jump to the latter.
55	Gage Jump	OAK	Dumper. More below.
56	Michael King	SD
57	Cade Cavalli	WSH	Jumper. More below.
58	Trevor Rogers	BAL	6.1 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and a tough no-decision. Don’t look now, but that’s his 6th straight start with two or fewer earned runs allowed. Up.
59	Peter Lambert	HOU	Jumper. More below.
60	Will Warren	NYY
61	Jose Soriano	LAA
62	Ian Seymour	TB	3 IP, 3 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and the no-decision. I said it with Max Meyer above, and Seymour’s start was similar. He needed 61 pitches to get 9 outs, and after surrendering two homers, the Rays opted to yank him early instead of pushing him for another 25 pitches to see if he could get through 5-6 innings. Not an official “innings management”, but classic Rays bubble wrap for sure.
63	Griffin Jax	TB	5.0 IP, 8 hits, 7 ER, BB, 6 K, 7th loss. It looks really ugly, but on Saturday, Dan Pants pointed out that Jax was unfortunate enough to walk right into the Red Sox buzz saw. No one wants to see the Beantown bullies on their 12-game win streak, and Jax was just another speed bump in the road.
64	Taj Bradley	MIN	5 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and his 4th loss. Apparently, five straight solid starts were enough of a streak that he needed to reset before he hit half a dozen. We all knew going in that these games would be unavoidable; it’s just a question of how many we’ll get.
65	Joey Cantillo	CLE	5 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks, and a ‘youngster quality start’. I said in last week’s article that he needs to clean up the K/BB rate too, but he’s better than just a serviceable arm, especially in the right matchup.
66	Matthew Boyd	CHC	6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and his 6th win. That’s 5 W in his last 6 GS! Don’t look now, but we’ve got ourselves a sneaky second-half gem from the Land of the Marshmallow Tossers.
67	Framber Valdez	DET
68	Davis Martin	CWS	5.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and a tough-luck 1-0 loss to Shane Bieber in Toronto. I say it in Bieber’s blurb below, but the same can be said for Martin here: “…doesn’t mean he’s magically cured of whatever ailments he’d been pushing through, but…(it) is as good as we could have expected…”.
69	Andrew Abbott	CIN
70	Shane Drohan	MLW	6 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, his 5th win, and now 6 consecutive starts with 3 or fewer earned runs allowed. Up.
71	Casey Mize	DET	3.1 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. Was he lifted after 74 pitches with two injury concerns? I wonder what…oh, come on. How am I supposed to promise Grey that I won’t mention David Bowie’s Labyrinth pants anymore, then somehow just ignore the obvious joke after Casey Mize was removed from yesterday’s game with “groin tightness and a sore wrist”? Sigh.
72	Michael McGreevy	STL
73	Brandon Young	BAL	7 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and his 8th win. He’s 5-1 in his last 10 starts and is firmly entrenched as one of the main supporting guests in “Sonny Gray’s Mister Underrated World of Surprises” (local blackouts may apply).
74	Bubba Chandler	PIT
75	Shane Baz	BAL
76	Tanner Bibee	CLE
77	Landen Roupp	SF	7.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 7th win. I listed him as a “dishonourable mention” in the YEETs last week because of the K/BB rate, and while his most recent two starts have been solid, his 2.36 K/BB ratio is still 13th worst in the entire league. When you’re on a list like that and nestled in between Mitch Keller and Shane Baz…it’s gonna take a lot more starts like his last two to right the ship. That said, 1 ER in 15 IP with 5 BB and 7 Ks is a good place to start cleaning things up.
78	Noah Schultz	CWS
79	Dustin May	STL	5 IP, 5 ER, 8 H, 4 BB, 6 Ks, and May-be the right call was to drop him three weeks ago when I said it at the beginning of July. Eek.
80	Mackenzie Gore	TEX	5.2 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and can you guess the result? If you guessed that he recorded his 6th win in this one, you’re better at this home than I am.
81	Connor Prielipp	MIN	He threw three scoreless innings yesterday in a rehab game and struck out three. We might see him return before next Monday.
82	Brandon Sproat	MLW
83	Michael Wacha	KC
84	Roki Sasaki	LAD	5.2 IP, 5 hits, 0 ER, BB, 5 K. I’m trying to shop him around in a keeper league for a more reliable arm for the second half, but he’s a tough one to figure out. On one hand, I don’t trust the improvement and wonder when the next faceplant will be. The other hand holds a piece of paper that reads “But what if he has a better second half than whoever you trade him for?” On the third hand, that’s really just a garden rake with a cloth over the end…uh, are we willing to take a chance that Roki doesn’t Sa-sucky for the next three months?
85	Luis Castillo	SEA
86	Spencer Arrighetti	HOU	5 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 4 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision. It’s been a flip-flop of 8 ER then 1 ER for his last 4 GS, but until he cleans up that 1.81 K/BB rate, I don’t want him anywhere near my active rosters.
87	Zebby Matthews	MIN	Dumper. More below.
88	Walbert Urena	LAA	“Hey Walbert, my dog called. Wants to know more about those ‘free walks’ you’ve been gfivin’ out!” – Wow. Italicized call from the peanut gallery is harsh today.
89	Shane Bieber	TOR	I know I said it earlier today, but a lot of last week’s notes hadn’t had much time to marinate before today’s post. Bieber’s note, on the other hand, aged quickly like a glass of milk outside in the hot July sun. 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks doesn’t mean he’s magically cured of whatever ailments he’d been pushing through, but Saturday’s 1-0 win over CWS is as good as we could have expected from Biebs. One good start like this doesn’t solve all the problems in the world, but it was enough to talk me into pulling my thumb away from that ‘drop’ button, that’s for sure. Up.
90	Javier Assad	CHC
91	Anthony Kay	CWS	4 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and another mediocre start from the CWS veteran. Is there another word for just average? A-Kay?
92	Jack Flaherty	DET
93	Janson Junk	MIA
94	Noah Cameron	KC	Dumper. More below.
95	Andre Pallante	STL	5.1 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, and the no-decision. And can you guess how many wins this guy has? I mean, he didn’t get one in either of his last two starts, so it must not be many, right? (He has 10 wins.)
96	Merrill Kelly	ARI
97	J.T. Ginn	ATH	6.1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks, and his 8th win. When your A’s squad puts up 15 runs at home, you’d think it would be easier to cruise to the iVictory coast, but Ginn threw like he was locked in a pitcher’s duel. He was clinging to a spot last week, so let’s give him some breathing room today. Up.
98	Mitch Keller	PIT
99	Christian Scott	NYM	5.2 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and if this 2nd straight outing with 0 ER wasn’t enough to convince the Mets to loosen up the reins a bit, I don’t know what they’re thinking. He moves just inside the Top 100 today and will move up next week if he gives us a quality start.
100	Jackson Jobe	DET	More below as a stash. Jumper.

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

Sonny Gray – Well, well, well. Would ya look at that. Yesterday’s Mr Underrated quality start was much the same as his previous NINE games. Yep, that’s right. 9 straight quality starts, his 12th win, a 2.48 ERA, a 1.12 WHIP, and a hilarious graphic that I spotted online about “Who Wins AL Cy Young?”

When are people going to learn? 

At least Mister Underrated had a nice, relaxing week at home during the All-Star Break!

Cade Cavalli – 6.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 6th win. Ok, that’s it. I was late to give out credit here and hesitated to push him up after a couple of short outings in his last dozen starts. He has 4 QS in his last 5 starts, and 37 strikeouts in his most recent 27.1 IP. Up! 

Jake Bennett – 6.0 IP, 1 hit, 0 ER, BB, 3 K, 5th win. He should have his own lede, and I could have run with it today, but I didn’t. Maybe he’s catching the “Mister Underrated” blessings from Sonny Gray. I’m sure he’s grateful. If you’re a player who rosters Bennett instead of Connelly Early and/or Payton Tolle this year, I’m sure you’re also grateful.

Peter Lambert – 6.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, 3 BB, 10 Ks. He’s an interesting one. If you can stomach an occasional 3-inning jobber with a few earned runs allowed but still a decent strikeout total, he’s worth an add. Is he an ace yet? I don’t think so – an 8.9 K/9 and a 3.52 BB/9 are solid for an SP 2/3.

The ratios are solid, and 8 wins are nothing to turn the nose up at, but this guy’s innings totals over the past 4 years have all been around 100. He’s at 92.1 IP so far this year, so I can’t see Houston pushing him past more than another 40-ish innings the rest of the way (maximum). He’s fine to add; just be prepared for skipped starts in about a month if he’s with a contender after the trade deadline (Houston or elsewhere). More above? Ya, up there.

Justin Verlander – I know! Justin Verlander isn’t a “real” Jumper today in that he isn’t making the list anytime soon. I wanted a good excuse to include a clip from the All-Star Break where he’s showing Rob Friedman all of his different pitch grips, and this felt like the right spot for it. To be honest, I saved it so I could show my kid before his next start (while simultaneously shouting ‘Don’t even think of throwing a slider!’)

Jackson Jobe – This is one that I should have added as an honorable mention in the “Discreet” section last week. He’s only thrown 4.1 innings over two starts (total), but as with any kid’s arm coming back from a lengthy injury hiatus, any innings without setbacks or control issues are good innings: 4.1 IP, 1 R, 4 H, 5 Ks. Stash him now if you can.

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

Bryan Woo – 6 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and the no-decision. It’s a fine start, but it would’ve looked even better if it were on the road. A lot has been said about how beneficial it is for Mariners’ pitchers to throw at T-Mobile Park, and Woo’s splits are as pronounced as anyone’s.

I think he’ll be fine, but when you’re registering a 7.13 K/BB at home and a 3.75 K/BB on the road, the roadmap for improvement doesn’t need too many street signs to point a guy in the direction of what he needs to work on. Honestly, it would take a lot worse for me to be out, but it would be great to see him solve the road troubles.

Gage Jump – 3.2 IP, 4 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K. The strikeouts are very nice, but 87 pitches to get 11 outs is anything but ideal. He’s gone 6+ innings in just three of his last 10 GS. At 52.1 innings, maybe he doesn’t get rested as often as some of the other rookies, but when we add in his 32 AAA innings, it pushes his total up to 84.1 IP (because Math!). I’d be surprised if he finished with more than 60 second-half innings, but maybe they push him a bit to see what he can handle. (He threw 112 innings last year). 

Noah Cameron – 5 IP, 7 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 1 K, and his 8th loss. Outside of those two strong stats at the beginning of June, it’s been a ride through a mountain of manure for the man with two first names. Hopefully your competition keeps starting him each week, but they won’t find him next Monday because he’s outta here today! 

Zebby Matthews – 3 IP, 8 ER, 9 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks, his 7th loss, and 16 ER in his last 13.2 IP.

As for yesterday’s start, I was saving this one for the Cristopher Sanchez implosion a couple of weeks ago, but it fits here as well. Down!

*NOTE* Now y’all be careful if the kiddos are around. Ol’ Crash Davis uses some language that’s not drawing-room fashion at all, at all, so turn down your volume or shout, “EARMUFFS!” at your children before you hit the red button there.

***The Stumpers and Bumpers sections are filled with notes from the last 10 days. If your guy hasn’t pitched since early last week, this is likely his ‘old’ news that I had written up for last week***

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

Jameson Taillon 

Ryan Johnson – 5 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and his 2nd win. And I don’t care if he wins 30 games this year; The Last Jedi still sucked. 

Bailey Ober – 5.1 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 7th win. Yes! For once, B.O. doesn’t stink! To be fair, when he’s been good this year, it’s been very good. But I don’t think we’re seeing another May 12 (9 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks) anytime soon. 

Patrick Sandoval – Game 1: 4 1/3 IP, 1 ER. I don’t have a lot of faith here, but like I said last week with him and Bailey Ober, he’s a stumper for now. Game 2: – 5 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. It’s good that he’s finally back, but do you really want to pin your second half hopes on a guy who hasn’t pitched in close to two years? He’s a streaming Stumper for now. EDIT: Sometimes I write these up a few days in advance. This one made me chuckle during edits because I ended up adding a $1 Sandoval in TGFBI FAAB last night. And, no, I really don’t want to pin my second half hopes on him. But here we are. 

Kai-Wei Teng 

Kyle Leahy 

Slade Cecconi 

Zac Gallen – Scratched from last Saturday’s start and placed on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation.

Jacob Lopez – 4.1 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and his 4th loss. 

Martin Perez 

Chris Bassitt 

David Peterson 

Rhett Lowder – 2.1 IP, 8 ER, 11 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks, his 7th loss, and one terribly researched breakout candidate from January. I guess we should be impressed that he gave up 11 hits, zero walks, and zero homers, but somehow still had 8 runners cross the plate. Hashtag sarcasm. Ugh. 

Tomoyuki Sugano – 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and who says pitching in Colorado is tough?! Tomo arigato, Mister Sugano. 

Colin Rea 

Eric Lauer – 6 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.81. It’s an extra saucy boot to the chin when I write up Eric Lauer’s quality start in my notes right after outlining a Kevin Gausman stinker. 

Dean Kremer – 5 IP, 4 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 4.09. 4 HR allowed is much crunchier than creamy. Ew. 

Jeffrey Springs

Sean Manaea  – Game 1: 7 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.56. HRs a Streamonator call. Nothing more, nothing less.Game 2: 4.2 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 5th loss. Still no more than a streamer, but I’d rather roster him than Kodai Senga! 

J.P. Sears 

Walker Buehler 

Tyler Mahle 

Cal Quantrill 

Matthew Liberatore 

Aaron Nola – 6 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 4 BB, 6 Ks, and his 7th loss. Here’s hoping someone in your league is still auto-starting him. And here’s hoping that someone isn’t you.

Brady Singer – 7 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.72. Streamonator was ok with this start, and I still couldn’t dream of picking him up. Translation: nope. Game 2: 7.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 6 K, 4th win. It was the second hardest smack by a Brady last week since the Logan Paul vs Tom at Fanatics Fest NYC. 

David Sandlin 

Seth Lugo 

Cristian Javier – 3 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 9.98. Well, it was a start. Technically. 

Stephen Kolek 

Trevor McDonald – Game 1: 2 1/3 IP, 8 ER, ERA at 5.46. This was worse than working a 5-hour shift in the French Fry grease pit at Ronald’s place. Game 2: 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks. This was much better than working a 5-hour shift…

Bryce Elder – 4 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 4.12. Ok, let’s make a deal. No return to the list until you post back-to-back quality starts, ok? 

Griffin Canning – 3.2 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, his 8th loss, and I’d be surprised if he was in the Top 200 SPs on the Player Rater. (I checked. He’s the PR’s SP254 at $-23.7, right below Max Scherzer’s $-23.6).

Grant Holmes – Game 1: 5 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.51. It was between him and Drohan for the promotion last week, and after MLW gassed Gasser, it cleared an obstacle for Drohan. Holmes is right there in the next ten arms, though. Game 2: 5 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, his 6th win, and his 2nd dub in 3 GS. The talent was never in question; the ability to give us innings remains a bit hazy, though. He’s close.

Kumar Rocker

Jack Perkins

Grayson Rodriguez – 5.1 IP, 6 hits, 3 ER, BB, 0 K, 3rd win, ERA at 7.55. Does anyone know the phone number of a very effective, but reasonably priced fantasy baseball exorcist? Because that’s what I think I’m going to need to eject the lingering thoughts of “Huh, maybe I should pick him up again” when I see GrayRod not getting shellacked. Then again, I’m probably safe for now since he struck out ZERO hitters last week. Game 2: 4 IP, 6 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, and his 3rd loss. If you’re running this guy out each week, I don’t know what to tell you. The good news is he’s a must-start in those leagues that count negative points.

Reynaldo Lopez – 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.18. Uh oh. It’s gonna be time to move someone out of the bottom of the list soon so we can make room for Rey-Lo’s Taco-Flavored K-sses. Game 2: 5 IP, 4 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.50. ReyLo is a fine deep league arm to roster. And he hasn’t been linked to Ben Affleck either, so that’s a double win.

Tatsuya Imai – 3 2/3 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 6.06. More like, “I’m…ah…sorry I added him to the list in the first place”.

German Marquez – 3 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks. It’s a good thing I don’t put their teams in the Stumpers because I thought he was still in Colorado. Oops!

Robert Gasser – 5 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. This is the one. Right here. This is the guy I dropped because I was worried about his innings being throttled and/or him getting sent back to the minors. Now he’ll not only stay up, but he’ll rifle off a bunch of strong starts in a row to punish me for the negativity.

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).

Connelly Early 

Nick Lodolo

Kyle Harrison

Joe Musgrove

Max Scherzer 

Ben Brown

Keider Montero 

Ryne Nelson

Max Fried 

Lucas Giolito

Michael Soroka

Edward Cabrera

Justin Steele – If you haven’t seen the fan letter circulating online the last couple of weeks, it’s worth a look here. No good news to report about the injury recovery, but a good story nonetheless.

Robby Snelling 

Jonah Tong

Brandon Pfaadt – 5 IP, 0 ER, 4 hits, zero walks, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.84. Pfaadty BoomBatty with another scoreless outing. Grey said it’ll take 7 consecutive decent starts before he’s back in, and the only part I could disagree with is that even then I’d probably still be hesitant. Game 2: – He’s started 4 games since being put back into the rotation at the end of June, and he has four straight wins to show for it. The 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks was almost the same line as his start at LAD two weeks ago (with one more strikeout last week). 

JR Ritchie – 1 IP of relief? Pffft. 

Spencer Strider

Jack Kochanowicz 

Lance McCullers Jr. – Milwaukee Magic? The rehab assignment is finished, and he’s expected to be in that Brewers bullpen soon.

Randy Vasquez

Joe Boyle

Spencer Schwellenbach

Zach Eflin

Johan Oviedo

Cole Ragans

Cody Ponce

Cade Horton

Shane Smith

Quinn Priester

Clarke Schmidt

River Ryan

Corbin Burnes 

Pablo Lopez

Kade Anderson

Nick Pivetta

Andrew Painter 

Thomas White

Ryan Pepiot

Jose Berrios 

Justin Verlander – All-Star Game Legend. Get him in your lineup if you have that as a scoring category in your league. In all seriousness, though, I watched the All-Star Game ( before I fell asleep in the 8th inning), and is there a more natural fit for a managerial position than Justin Verlander? I mean, I wouldn’t be rushing out the door to get another job right after I retire if I could stay home making Spanish omelets and freshly ground coffee every morning for Kate Upton either, but at some point in the not-too-distant-future, this dude seems destined to be a very good MLB head coach.

Reese Olson

Mick Abel 

Didier Fuentes

Garrett Crochet

Tyler Glasnow

Steven Matz

Kodai Senga 

Brayan Bello

Braxton Garrett

Yusei Kikuchi

Mike Burrows – 4 1/3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 5.99. Let me Burrow that shovel…to fill in the hole after Mike heads downstairs. Optioned, then his option was “nullified” after the Astros opted to send him to the 15-day IL instead.

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

Christian Scott 

Jackson Jobe

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

Kyle Harrison – The MRI came back “all good” according to Harrison, and he’s already thrown a bullpen session. This might be just a short stay off the Top 100 list.

Nick Lodolo – IL. No news, unless you want to read about a drained blister.

Kumar Rocker – He was the bottom last week and was supposed to be a chop after I had two SP13s, but we left him in at 101. The 7 ER implosion from July 11th sealed the deal, though. He’s back in the waiting/wading pool of sludge (aka SP101-120).

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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