Happy Monday, and welcome to September, Razzball faithful!

So last weekend, when I took the kids to the Neil Young concert, we had some time to kill beforehand. As luck would have it, the concert venue was located inside the same place where the annual “Toronto Exhibition” is held. The Ex is kind of like a giant carnival: a bunch of different games, food vendors, and rides for people to enjoy.

After the kids swung the bat in a cricket simulator (which was very cool), we headed to a booth for a free candy sample, and I spotted a line of retro arcade games.

The first one that caught our eye? Burgertime. 

Royals fans rejoice! It’s BergertTime!

Razzballers of a certain vintage will remember this one. It was a one-player platform game where you had to navigate a chef over parts of the burger to assemble it, while avoiding killer fried eggs, sausages, and pickles with just a can of literal pepper spray at your disposal to slow them down.

As a kid, it was awesome to play. As a dad with two kids? Still awesome, but very tough to explain what the heck was going on there.

And don’t even get me started about how I tried to explain Dig Dug to them.

Are you headed off on yet another nonsensical tangent, MarmosDad?

NO! I can tie it all back in! 

It’s been a quiet, but surprisingly effective bit of “Bergert-Time” since the Kansas City Royals traded Freddy Fermin to the Padres for Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek.

In 5 starts since the trade deadline, Bergert has produced some solid ‘under-the-radar’ numbers: 28.1 IP, 8 ER, 21 H, 8 BB, 25 Ks, with a 2.54 ERA and a fairly eye-popping .224 BABIP. 

Yes, Bergert has just 2 wins in 12 GS this year, but since joining the Royals, he’s been stretched out and has come within one or two outs of recording a quality start in EVERY game he’s started (5 GS).

Last week, Ryan Bergert – 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 3 K, and his 2nd win (at CWS), recorded his first QS of the year. It also marked the first time he’s come close to throwing 100 pitches in a start (98). 

His Statcast page might not be soaked in red ink, but this is a guy who might be available on your waiver wire. Now that we’re well past the fantasy baseball trade deadline, this is exactly the kind of add that could push your ratios in the right direction if you’re looking for some reinforcements in your starting rotation for the stretch run.

Is Ryan Bergert a Tetris-like fit into your fantasy squad’s pitching rotation?

Will Bergert-Time crack the Top 50 SPs this week?

Well, before we get to the list, I need to remind you to lock in your Razzball Fantasy Baseball Subscription. This should be your go-to reference for the entire season. The Streamonator is also a helpful resource when making lineup decisions. Rudy’s tools are well worth the price of admission. 

The Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2025

SP RANK	Name	Team	UP / DOWN	Notes
1	Tarik Skubal	DET		“6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 12 Ks, ERA at 2.28. SEE?! Those hiccups over the last few games were nothing to be concerned about. No word on whether he saw the Sinead O’Connor graphic from last week and used that as fuel for this one.” That was the note after his first start last week. Yesterday’s 7 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks was almost as impressive. There’s no doubt this is our SP1.
2	Garrett Crochet	BOS		6 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, ERA at 2.40. It’s a good thing that Rex Sox fans are going to obsess over Payton Tolle the rest of the way. Maybe that’ll mean some of them miss the Tarik Skubal Cy Young announcement.
3	Paul Skenes	PIT		“ 6 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 7th win. ERA at 2.05. Imagine being called up to start the first game of your career and knowing it was going to be against this guy? Yeesh.”
4	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD		He was on his way to a third straight quality start yesterday while I was writing this up. EDIT: 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 B, 10 Ks, and the no-decision after Tanner Scott coughed up a 3-run homer to Corbin Carroll.
5	Bryan Woo	SEA		It wasn’t quite equivalent to the Madden cover curse, but right after I rolled out the Bryan Woo lede last week, his streak of 6+ IP starts ended. More below.
6	Tyler Glasnow	LAD		Back-to-back losses, but at least the one last week was a quality start. 7 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks isn’t a bad line.
7	Jacob deGrom	TEX		DeGrom broke a 5-game (personal) winless streak with yesterday’s dub against the Athletics.
8	Blake Snell	LAD		“5.1 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 8 Ks, and his 3rd loss. ERA at 2.41. When you’re a Top 10 SP, even a decent game like this can push a guy down the rankings a bit. And like I said in last week’s Top 100 Starting Pitchers article, Snell ran into an SP that was just a bit better than he was last night. A loss to ARI after two starts of 2 ER (total) and 13 IP against the Padres juggernauts? Yep. Because baseball is weird sometimes.”
9	Joe Ryan	MIN		“5 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 3.22. This game against the Jays and Max Scherzer was an easy money bet for those of you who dabble in gambling. Don’t get me started about the rules on that stuff up here, though.” That was my note after his start last Monday. Then, yesterday, he showed us the real Joe Ryan – 7 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his 13th win.
10	Freddy Peralta	MLW		“6 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his league-leading 16th win. This guy. Seriously. If you know someone who says he’s not a Top 10 arm, I don’t know what numbers or starters they’re looking at.” A big jump into the Top 10 today.
11	Hunter Brown	HOU		He gave up a bunch of unearned runs last Tuesday, but the back-to-back losses are deceiving. Including yesterday’s start, he’s allowed two or fewer earned runs in each of his last 7 GS.
12	Logan Gilbert	SEA		Another QS from Lo-Gi last Saturday. 6 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and a tough luck loss (6th).
13	Cristopher Sanchez	PHI		7 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, and a no-decision. The 6 ER implosion at NYM two weeks ago was an anomaly.
14	Logan Webb	SF		7 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.16. Logan 3:16 says Mister Webb just whipped your Cubs. And that’s the bottom line, son.
15	George Kirby	SEA		“7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks. ERA at 3.95. His ratios aren’t as pretty as they usually are, but the walk total last night was what we’re used to seeing here.”
16	Trevor Rogers	BAL		More below.
17	Max Fried	NYY		7 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.06. It was a homer fest in this game – the Yankees hit 6 – so it’s even more impressive that Fried only allowed 4 hits (and zero homers).
18	Framber Valdez	HOU		Nothing like a start against the Rockies to help an SP right the ship. 7 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 12th win.
19	Nick Pivetta	SD		5 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision at MIN last week. Just the second time he’s allowed more than 2 ER in his last 10 GS.
20	Carlos Rodon	NYY		“6 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 15th win. ERA at 3.18. See what kind of excellent results we get when Carlos doesn’t walk a half a dozen…of wait, it was against the White Sox. Carry on then.”
21	Hunter Greene	CIN		Roughed up by the Dodgers in LA last week. 5 IP, 5 R (3 ER), 6 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks.
22	Chris Sale	ATL	N/R	It’s tough to rank these kinds of guys when they return from a big injury. 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, and the no-decision means he’s Top 25 for now.
23	Shota Imanaga	CHC		7 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.08. It still feels like he’s very undervalued, which means I’ll likely roster him everywhere next season.
24	Robbie Ray	SF		“4.1 IP, 6 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.18. Remember when I said the ball was moving last night? The Giants had 18 hits and gave Ray 15 runs of support, but he couldn’t get out of the 5th and was pulled at 94 pitches. Woof.”
25	Kyle Bradish	BAL	N/R	6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 10 Ks. I sat down on Tuesday night for Bradish vs Giolito to see how Baltimore’s SP was going to bounce back after a lengthy IL stint. The movement on Bradish’s slider and two-seamer was fantastic. He hit 97 MPH on the fastball in the first, and struck out four in his first 2 innings. That’s as good a return as we could have asked for. Sliding right into the SP25 spot might be an eye-opener, but he looked surprisingly good.
26	Sonny Gray	STL		7 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 4.19. It’s a game of duck, duck, goose when trying to figure out which start will be the implosion, but last week’s wasn’t the goose.
27	Ranger Suarez	PHI		“5 IP, 1 ER, 10 (!) H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and the no-decision. Ranger’s start would have been excellent…if you flipped his hits total with his strikeout one.”
28	Brandon Woodruff	MLW		More below.
29	Drew Rasmussen	TB		6 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.64. Kevin Cash is channeling his mid-1980s high school kid. “He’s on a strict innings limit…PSYCHE!” This was Rasmussen’s 4th consecutive, 6-inning quality start.
30	Cade Horton	CHC		More below.
31	Ryan Pepiot	TB		5 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and his 10th win. ERA at 3.70. This one nets Pepiot a boost, which is nice, but I still feel like he’ll be pushed far too high up the SP list next draft season for my liking.
32	Eury Perez	MIA		“Eury Perez (0.2 IP, 5 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 0 K) was not up for the kid-pitching duel. He managed to secure just two outs on 39 pitches in the first and gave up homers to Juan Soto (33) and Brandon Nimmo (21) before getting the hook and being replaced by Todd Zuber.”
33	Dylan Cease	SD		4.1 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.82. I honestly can’t figure out which pitcher drives me more crazy: Shane Baz or Dylan Cease. At least we expect Baz to get rocked each week. Then again, maybe a lot of us think the same way about Cease.
34	Seth Lugo	KC		“3.1 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 4 BB, 5 Ks, and his 7th loss. ERA at 4.15. 85 pitches. He didn’t have it last night, but will look to bounce back next week at home vs LAA.”
35	Jesus Luzardo	PHI		4 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.23. Fluctuation station. Ugh.
36	Noah McLean	NYM		More below. It was between him and Tong for this spot.
37	Brayan Bello	BOS		6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.99. Hey-o, Bello? Just keeps on chugging along and making me almost forget I also roster Bryce Miller and Shane Baz … almost.
38	Noah Cameron	KC		5 IP, 6 ER. Last week, I said I hoped this wasn’t a sign of him slowing down. Then on Monday night, he hit a wall. To compound the worry, the Royals pushed him back so he missed his expected start last Saturday. He’s scheduled to pitch at home vs MIN this week.
39	Nick Lodolo	CIN	N/R	4.2 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 3.22 as he was activated from the IL. A bit of rust here, but rust never sleeps. That said, you’ll want to let him rest a bit more as he gets TOR at home this week.
40	Merrill Kelly	TEX		Back-to-back wins and 4 straight QS.
41	Lucas Giolito	BOS		I watched the Bradish start last Tuesday and ended up being just as impressed by Giolito’s start. 8 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 3.47. He walked 5 in 6 innings yesterday, but still recorded the win. Back-to-back Ws and 14 Ks in his last 14 IP.
42	Quinn Priester	MLW		His original start was pushed back because he reported wrist soreness, but it didn’t look like it was bothering him in Saturday’s start at TOR: 6 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 0 BB, 3 Ks.
43	Shane Bieber	TOR		“5.1 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, and his first loss of the year. ERA at 2.38. This one was more about Freddy Peralta’s dominance and less about any mistakes Biebs made (he made very few, if any).” He wouldn’t look out of place 20 spots higher, but let’s give him a couple more starts before we push him up too much.
44	Spencer Strider	ATL		7 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.95. Just slowly walking through the gates of hell back into purgatory after this one. Because another word for slowly walking is… Ah, never mind.
45	Edward Cabrera	MIA		7 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 10 Ks, and a thorough manhandling of Spencer Strider and the Braves last Monday, and I was all set to push him up the list. Then, the Mets lit him up on Saturday for 4 IP, 5 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 4K, and handed him his 7th loss. He stays here for now.
46	Cam Schlittler	NYY		He’s only won once in his last 6 GS, but the numbers are there. August starts – 33.2 IP, 6 ER, 22 H, 11 BB, 39 Ks. This is keeper league gold, folks.
47	Jonah Tong	NYM	N/R	This guy was my lede in the Saturday morning round-up. I wanted to put him in a lot higher than this, but that instinct felt heavy with recency bias and excitement, so I went the conservative route today. More below.
48	Jacob Misiorowski	MLW		5 IP, 3 ER, 5 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 4.33. Just making opposing hitters Miz-erable.
49	Kevin Gausman	TOR		7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, and the gas man was on fire! Then J “eff off, man!” came in to ruin another stellar start and blow another save. Smh.
50	Max Scherzer	TOR		4 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and the no-decision yesterday vs MLW. I kept him in the Top 50 based on the 3-game win streak, but there were whispers about “upper back tightness” after the game. If there’s an “Uh Oh” emoji, slap that sucker in here.
51	Will Warren	NYY		5 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.30. A meh start is better than an ouch start? Ya, that’s all I’ve got.
52	Luis Castillo	SEA		More below.
53	Matthew Boyd	CHC		13 ER in his last 16.1 IP (3 starts). Ugh.
54	Jack Flaherty	DET		5.1 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks at KC qualifies as a good bounceback after the 10 H, 8 ER the Royals gave him two weeks ago.
55	Ryan Bergert	KC		More above! He narrowly missed the Top 50 cutoff.
56	Sean Manaea	NYM		4.2 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 5.01. I asked last week which second-half sleeper darling was due to disappoint us more, Joe Boyle or this guy. Can we accept “both” as an answer?
57	Gavin Williams	CLE		The curveball was lethal on Saturday, and the output reflected it. 7 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his 9th win.
58	Payton Tolle	BOS	N/R	More below
59	Casey Mize	DET		3.1 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks at ATH. Bing Bong Stadium takes another unsuspecting victim. Then again, was it really all that unexpected? You think you can find another 12-win SP that has looked this shaky? Hmph. Pfaadt chance.
60	Shohei Ohtani	LAD		5 IP, 1 ER, 2 hits, 2 walks, 9 Ks, ERA at 4,18, a season-high 87 pitches. I watched the replay of this one, and Shohei looked frustrated in the first couple of innings when his control was off. Then he stopped “overthrowing” and settled in. “It must be nice to have that switch to flip!”: A quote likely from at least 90% of this year’s starting pitchers.
61	Aaron Nola	PHI		6 IP, 4 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 6.47. 6-4-7? Don’t make me pull out the galaxy brain gif again. Also of note, those 4 Ks pushed his career total above 1845, which was good enough to pass Cole Hamels for 3rd place on the Phillies’ all-time strikeouts list.
62	Yu Darvish	SD		4 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 5.66. “I honestly don’t know what to think about Yu. For a while, it was all rainbows and happiness. Now Yu is so unpredictable, I don’t know if I can trust Yu anymore.” This also works if read as a direct quote from a marriage counselling session.
63	Clayton Kershaw	LAD		5 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.06. All these youngsters with control problems, and Grandpa Clay keeps heading out to the field and putting work in. Just make sure he gets in his afternoon nap on game days.
64	Andrew Abbott	CIN		It took him 96 pitches to get through 5 innings last week, and he hasn’t won in the second half. (His most recent W was on July 9th).
65	Kodai Senga	NYM		More below.
66	David Peterson	NYM		2 IP, 8 ER, 8 H, 3 BB, 1 K vs MIA. Oh boy. David’s stamina is Petering out.
67	Jose Soriano	LAA		“5.2 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.85. Back from the DR baby trip and back into the W column.” That was my note after his first start last week. He was due to move up, but yesterday’s 7 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 8 K outing was even better.
68	Yusei Kikuchi	LAA		4 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 3.68. Last week it was Pop Kikuchi. This week? He was blown up.
69	Mitch Keller	PIT		I was excited when he looked like he was back early last week with another quality start. Yesterday (5 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks) wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but we can’t rely on him in H2H playoffs right now.
70	Braxton Ashcraft	PIT		5.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.58. I guess the good news about sucking for as long as the Pirates have sucked is that they have the chance to draft and develop excellent pitching talent.
71	Clay Holmes	NYM		5 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 3.60. His inning count is at 142, and he’s already more than doubled his previous career high. At least he’ll have all winter to nurse that loose shoulder.
72	Ryne Nelson	ARI		6 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.53. Boring but effective. Which sounds like the motto for all of the residents of Wachaville.
73	Jose Berrios	TOR		Last pitched two weeks ago (Saturday, August 23rd). He was pushed back for extra rest and should go at CIN tomorrow. I don’t know what that says about management’s confidence in him when they skip his home start against another playoff team (MLW), but maybe I’m reading too much into that.
74	Emmett Sheehan	LAD		7 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 3.56. Boing!
75	Luis Gil	NYY		5 IP, 1 ER, 9 baserunners (4 BBs), 5 Ks, ERA at 3.75. “Oh, He’ll be fine!” – that’s fantasy managers who roster him as they ignore the elephant-sized walk rate in the room.
76	Sandy Alcantara	MIA		More below.
77	Justin Verlander	SF		Yesterday’s steam-rolling vs BAL was a welcome sight. 5 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 10 Ks, and his 3rd win (and second in a row!)
78	Brady Singer	CIN		4 straight quality starts mean we have to move Singer up today. He was originally slotted as a George Michael (Singer in the mid-80s), but yesterday’s 6 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 9 K outing at ARI forced my hand, and he was promoted to a Freddie Mercury (late 70s).
79	Zack Littell	CIN		“7 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.63. His 16th quality start moves him into a tie for 10th place among MLB leaders.”
80	Michael Wacha	KC		Two straight games against DET were NFG for Wacha. 10.2 IP, 7 ER, 13 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks. Let’s cut him some slack, though. He just came back from the paternity list yesterday.
81	Jack Leiter	TEX		“6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 9th win. ERA at 3.77. That’s two quality starts and wins in each of his last 2 GS with 17 Ks in 13 IP.” I had Bibee here before a Hobbit edit (a second breakfast edit this morning).
82	Jason Alexander	HOU		5.2 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 4.61.
83	Spencer Arrighetti	HOU		After losing 5 games in a row, there were some positives to take away from Saturday’s no-decision vs LAA. The Pasta Pirate threw 100 pitches for the first time this year and finished 6.1 innings before being lifted. The 5 BBs weren’t encouraging, but the 8 Ks were.
84	Tanner Bibee	CLE		He’s allowed fewer than 4 ER in just three of his last 10 starts. Ugly. Even this feels like it’s too high, and I dropped him down twice before submitting.
85	Zebby Matthews	MIN		“6 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and his 4th win. ERA at 5.06. His first 6-inning outing in just over a month, Matthews took care of a tough Padres offense and shaved a few points off the ratios.”
86	Jeffrey Springs	ATH		“ 5.2 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 9th loss. He hasn’t won since July 30th (6 starts ago). I still can’t get past thinking of a little kid asking for a juice box and a handful of Animal Crackers every time I hear that first name, though.”
87	Jose Quintana	MLW		3.2 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 3.69. No way, Jose!
88	Michael McGreevy	STL		More below.
89	Cade Cavalli	WSH		2 1/3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 5.11. Cade tripped and fell into the valley of homers that is Yankee Stadium.
90	Zac Gallen	ARI		“6 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 8 Ks, and his 10th win. ERA at 4.94. A gallant effort from Zac as the D-Backs rolled into D-land and picked up the dub. I don’t want to jinx anything, but it’s worth noting this was the 5th QS in his last 6 starts. Credit where it’s due when you’re facing a tough Dodgers lineup.”
91	Chris Bassitt	TOR		5.2 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.14. The win total is great. The offensive support is excellent. The ratios are meh. Oh, and the Eric Lauer fans are honed in on him as their target to push out of the rotation.
92	Adrian Houser	TB		“4 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks. ERA at 2.85. 86 pitches to get 12 outs isn’t ideal, but the Rays played it safe instead of giving him the chance to try to get to 6 innings.”
93	Parker Messick	CLE	N/R	7 IP, 0 ER, 4 hits, zero walks, 6 Ks, ERA at 0.66. I was on the fence here, and wasn’t sure whether he should be in the list or just recorded in the Stumper group. I know one thing. His results so far have been far from making me sick. He’ll start low today and move up quickly if he keeps producing.
94	Cristian Javier	HOU	N/R	“6 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.38. They weren’t going to let him take a run at the no-hitter in just his 4th start back from the IL, but I do know one thing for sure. Someone needs to get the Top 100 Starting Pitchers guy on the horn and tell him to queue this guy up for an add on Monday!” That was from Saturday morning.
95	Charlie Morton	DET		5 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 5.25. Charlie-5 is NOT alive! This might be the time to jump off the spinny spinny machine if you haven’t already.
96	Bailey Ober	MIN		5 IP, 4 ER, 10 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 5.14. Last week, two people said to me, “Maybe he figures it out and bounces back the rest of the season.” I’ll let them handle the headache while they wait and be thankful he’s not on any of my rosters.
97	Hurston Waldrep	ATL		5.1 IP, 1 ER, 9 baserunners, 0 K. ERA at 0.90. A guy could throw a no-hitter with zero strikeouts, and I’d still look at the line like it was drenched in gym sweat.
98	Bryce Miller	SEA		This note autocorrected to Bruce Muller, and you know it’s bad when the immediate thought is, “I wonder if Bruce Muller would be able to get through 6 innings with 3 or fewer earned runs.” Because Bryce sure hasn’t.
99	Joe Boyle	TB		Optioned last week (August 22nd). I must have missed it, but let’s leave him here for two reasons. 1. Maybe he’s back in a couple of weeks, and 2. I’d still take him over our SP100.
100	Brandon Pfaadt	ARI		2.2 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 5.24. Aaaaand there it is.

JUMPERS (These are some of the players who jumped up the rankings this week)

Trevor Rogers – 7 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks. One solo home run to Willy Adames was the damage in this one. Tell me the truth, would it be a huge disservice to swap him with Tyler Glasnow in the list? Would anyone notice? He’s 7-2 in his last 10 starts. The two losses? A complete game 4-hitter with 0 BB and 8 Ks at CHC on August 1st, and a 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 3 K game vs MIA on July 12th.

Jonah Tong – As I said above, I was hoping that Tong would give us something to be excited about on Friday night, and he did not disappoint. I watched this one, and you can read my whole rundown of that game here. One thing that stood out was the comparison to Tim Lincecum. The broadcast booth spoke a few times about how the former Cy Young winner was Tong’s favorite pitcher to watch while growing up, and that the Mets super-prospect modeled his game (and delivery) after the 5’11” 170-pounder. 

Shortly after submitting that piece on Saturday morning, I found the side-by-side delivery comparison that Lance Brozdowski put together, and to say it’s kind of mind-blowing might be an understatement.

This is the Jonah Tong x Tim Lincecum mechanics comp you're looking for. ? pic.twitter.com/ikuqMd6fah

— Lance Brozdowski (@LanceBroz) August 30, 2025

Pure sorcery

If you’re still unsure about putting in a FAAB bid on Tong, it’s likely too late anyway. But it’s not too late to open that Saturday morning article in a new tab and listen to the Tong Song parody that I attached at the bottom there. It’s pretty sweet.

And, of course, I can’t move on until I give the Mets board operators some kudos for running this graphic every time “The Canadian Cannon” struck out a Marlin.

Nolan McLean –  8 IP, 0 ER, 4 hits, zero walks, 6 Ks, ERA at 0.89, 93 pitches, 69 strikes. Oh my goodness, look who’s in the Jumpers for the second week in a row! And speaking of seconds, let’s include a clip from our second Razzball alum here.

Take it away, Ralph!

.@GeoffPontesBA says he would start Nolan McLean in Game 1 of a playoff series ? pic.twitter.com/aWWUDe9vtJ

— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) August 28, 2025

Just listening to Ralph brings back some warm fuzzies from those old podcasts. But let’s also realize that the artist formerly known as Mr. Lifshitz is not wrong at all about the Mets potentially making a bold (and correct) call to send this kid out for Game 1 in the postseason.

Could you imagine if the Mets threw Nolan McLean, then Jonah Tong, in the first two games of a playoff series? Wild stuff, indeed.

And this clip was from the Phillies post-game show after McLean mowed down PHI (8 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, and his 3rd win in three games since his call-up).

Phillies postgame show talking about Nolan McLean: pic.twitter.com/YtvbOvJNAG

— taylor (@lindorlover123) August 28, 2025

Payton Tolle – This was the second of two big-time debuts on Friday night, and another one that I outlined in that Saturday morning roundup. 

“5.1 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, and the no-decision. I was cooking up a late dinner for the kids last night, so I had to wait until after the Tong start to flip on the PIT/BOS game. The Boys in Beantown had their own top pitching prospect debuting last night, and although his start wasn’t as impressive as Tong’s, he managed to rack up 8 strikeouts and hold his own against the NL’s best (healthy) arm in Paul Skenes.”

The link in that writeup is to one of my favorite kinds of clips – the recording of the kid getting the news that he’s being called up to the show. That was almost as great as Tolle’s start itself.

If the kid gives us that kind of goodness AND bite-sized beauties like this one, then, like I said in our writers Discord this weekend, he’s going to be Mayor of Beantown by Wednesday morning.

Cade Horton – “5 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and his 9th win. ERA at 2.92. This snaps his streak of allowing one or fewer earned runs in his last 7 games. Yes, you read that right. He’s been pretty awesome.”

Sandy Alcantara – 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 5.87. He’s been excellent lately, but this still feels like a giant trap. An Admiral Ackbar kind of trap…which is fitting since he’s with the Marlins.

It’s nice to watch him record these quality starts, but you know if you add him, and he gets blown up, people will say, “I told you so!” EDIT: Yesterday’s start was even better than the last. 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 8th win. Tell that space squid to beat it and ride it out until he gives you a reason to hit the eject button.

DUMPERS (With apologies to Cal Raleigh, these are some of the big dumpers in the rankings this week)

Bryan Woo – 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.95. It’s not a “Dumper” in the truest sense here, but he slips a bit, and I needed the space here to rant. Yes, Woo was at 95 pitches. Yes, he lost the shutout and was in danger of giving up a couple more runs (he was up 4-2 with runners on when they yanked him). But come on. How do you not let him throw another 10 pitches? Just to try to get that last out? He yelled a specific expletive into his glove after they pulled him, but I missed it live because I was coaching. And when I saw it on the MLB Recap Rundown Thursday morning, my morning turned from glad to sad in the span of about 15 seconds. At least he got the win.

Nathan Eovaldi – Oh boy. I said last week that maybe we cursed him with a spot in the Top 10. Eovaldi goes from a Jumper last week to a Dumper this week after the announcement that he’ll likely miss the rest of the year with a rotator cuff strain. Woof.

Brandon Woodruff – Speaking of Woofs, the Blue Jays kicked this guy in yesterday to the tune of 4.1 IP, 8 R, 10 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, and (at the time of writing) the no-decision? I gave in to temptation and said no-decision instead of a loss just because the Jays went to Jeff Hoffman in the 9th to close it out while I wrote this up. Woodruff still had 11 Ks in his last 10 IP, but he’s also allowed 10 ER over that span, too. Ugh. EDIT: Hoffman didn’t melt down. Woodruff got tagged with the loss.

MacKenzie Gore – Take the Eovaldi news, sprinkle in some more walks, add in a splash of shoulder inflammation, and you’ve got yourself another drop in redraft leagues.

Luis Castillo – 5 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.75. I had him up as high as the 20s just a few weeks ago, but the slide has been rapid and downright disappointing. His last 3 starts: 13 IP, 14 ER, 14 H, 5 HR allowed, 6 BB, 13 Ks, and one barf emoji.

Jacob Lopez – The Athletics announced that J-Lo was shut down indefinitely. That’s fitting because that also sounds like what’s happened in a half dozen of the other J-Lo’s marriages.

Kodai Senga – A big 20-spot drop. If there were no such thing as false hope, there’d be no hope at all here. He’s pitched 6 innings just once since June 1st and has one win in his last 10 GS. I said it a while ago. I don’t think he’s as bad as his recent outings indicate, but whether I thought that or not, he’s proven (multiple times) otherwise.

Michael McGreevy – 6 IP, 4 ER – like Grey said, he gave up the earned runs in the first three, then gutted out the next 3 innings to make the result a bit more palatable. It’s hard to believe that’s not like taking a tiny bite of a roadkill sandwich instead of eating half of it, though. Still tough to stomach either way.

Chris Paddack – He’s flip-flopped good starts with bad ones throughout August and has finished 6 innings just once in his last half dozen starts. With better arms, we could afford to cut him some slack, but when he’s already in the SP100 spot? Forget the slack and just cut him.

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

Nestor Cortes

Dean Kremer

Cade Povich

Brandon Young

Jake Irvin

Joey Cantillo

Mick Abel

Eduardo Rodriguez

Jameson Taillon

Tyler Anderson

Brad Lord

Tomoyuki Sugano

Landen Roupp

Javier Assad

Taj Bradley

Slade Cecconi

Bubba Chandler – I said it last week, but he’s not a starting pitcher (at least not right now), so he doesn’t qualify for the list.

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)

Cole Ragans 

Spencer Schwellenbach

Shane McClanahan 

Jared Jones

Gerrit Cole

Justin Steele

John Means

Grant Holmes

Griffin Canning

Reese Olson

Grayson Rodriguez

Jackson Jobe

Andrew Painter

Tyler Mahle

Pablo Lopez

Tylor Megill

Ryan Weathers

Clarke Schmidt

Logan Henderson

Corbin Burnes

Max Meyer

Michael King 

Chase Burns 

Zack Wheeler – thoracic outlet surgery. Out 6-8 months. 

WHEE (New arrivals to the list this week)

Chris Sale

Nick Lodolo

Kyle Bradish 

Jonah Tong

Payton Tolle

Parker Messick

Cristian Javier

OOF (Stumbled or were replaced by others in the list this week)

Nathan Eovaldi 

MacKenzie Gore

Jacob Lopez

Colin Rea – He’s finished 6 innings just once since July 10th. It was fun while it lasted.

Eric Lauer – Rocked for 10 H, 8 ER, and 4 HR on Wednesday. Don’t hit your head on the way to the bullpen, buddy.

Dustin May – MayDay indeed. Where’s Sammy Malone when you need him?

Chris Paddack

 

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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