Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!

As many of my colleagues here have mentioned, we’re into the home stretch for the 2026 Fantasy Baseball Season!

Many of us are heading into our final week in the head-to-head playoffs, or trying to squeeze every point out of our rosters in the hunt for a rotisserie title.

And, hopefully, the next two weeks matter in your league, and you haven’t been stuck in last place for a month (that’s the case in two of my seven leagues, but I’m still trying to escape the basement!).

I was reviewing some end-of-season posts from last year and came across a good quote from Rudy that says it all about our final dozen (or so) games in the MLB season.

This is a VERY important factor to consider in any fantasy baseball league, but it’s even more valid when we’re planning out our starting pitchers.

All we can pray for is that our starting pitchers don’t hear that often-repeated Gordon Ramsay catchphrase: “Shut it down!”

It’s tough to rely on any information about starting pitchers and to plan things out accordingly when many of the big clubs don’t even know what they’re going to do with starters from one day to the next.

That doesn’t mean we should completely abandon the Razzball Tools for the rest of the year. It just means that a resource that was very accurate throughout the season might be more difficult to edit/update with all the constant changes in rosters and managerial plans (let alone any change in workload expectations being sent down from the front office to the coaching staff).

Alas, we’ll do what we think is right, and let the chips fall where they may.

I said it to Martin last week, but it bears repeating to the masses. The end of the fantasy baseball season is like playing in a high-stakes poker game. 

You have to take any information that your opponent gives you (or, in this case, the teams), get all of your chips in when the percentages are in your favor (or make the ‘right’ decision about your active roster based on the information you have before the lineup locks), then hope and pray that the outcome is as beneficial as the percentages say it will be.

Could your well-planned starting pitcher activations turn sour and leave you short on innings, wins, or strikeouts? Sure they could.  

But if we make the right move and pay attention to what makes the most sense, there’s a much smaller chance we’ll be disappointed when our pocket Aces get knocked out when our opponent hits the 5% flush on the river.

At risk of using that clunky analogy to make a clunky segue to the list, and fully leaning into the “I don’t know! But I hope this makes sense for this week!”…

Let’s get to it!

*For today, and likely for the next two weeks, I’m removing the Stumpers and Bumpers from our list. With the volatility of pitching schedules, many of the guys I have listed in the Stumpers and Bumpers are likely going to be skipped or given a short leash in their games anyway. If you want to see the full list of those names, click here for last week’s Top 100 Starting Pitchers article from September 7th.*

The Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2026

MARMO RANK	Name	Team	Notes
1	Jacob Misiorowski	MLW	6 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 9 Ks, ERA at 1.95. Sometimes I look at his box scores, then close my eyes and pretend it was from Paul Skenes instead. Then I shed a big, salty tear. Two starts this week.
2	Tarik Skubal	LAD	7 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.84. We can flip-flop him and Sale for the SP2 spot the rest of the year, but either way he’s a beast. Two starts this week.
3	Chris Sale	ATL	7 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and no decision.
4	Cam Schlittler	NYY	Game 1: 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 hits, 10 Ks, ERA at 2.01. Ok, I’ll admit it. Biases aside, it should go to this kid. Game 2: 6 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, and his 14th win.
5	Dylan Cease	TOR	Game 1: 5 IP, 4 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.40. Cue the Yankee trolls. Game 2: 5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 5 BB, 9 Ks, and his 11th win.
6	Blake Snell	LAD	5.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, and his 4th win (second straight). Between him and Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers have TWO aces with a total of 99.1 innings pitched this year. I think it’s safe to say neither one of these guys is getting the “innings management” treatment the rest of the way.
7	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD	7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 10 Ks, and his 13th win. Ho-hum. Just another day at the office for our green dinosaur. If there’s any way a Dodgers starter can be underappreciated or underrated, this guy is it.
8	Drew Rasmussen	TB	7 IP, 1 ER, 8 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks, and his third straight no-decision. The Rays offense has let him down, and he has just one W in his last 4 GA to show for it. All were QS, though.
9	Zack Wheeler	PHI	7 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks, and his third straight quality start. He’s back up just a bit today.
10	Logan Henderson	MLW	5 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 10th win. It’s a good thing I edited this a couple of times last night as I had him mixed up with Kyle Harrison again. This guy is the Brewer you want!
11	Jacob deGrom	TEX	6 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 12 Ks and…NO DECISION!? Sweet baby Jesus Sanchez, what the actual eff?! This was arguably deGrom’s best start OF HIS CAREER and he didn’t even pick up a win for his trouble. Oof. Oh well. Take solace in the fact that he’s about as auto-start of an arm as it gets for the rest of the way.
12	Gavin Williams	CLE	The bad news is he got bumped back last week. The good news is that it’s now a two-start week and CLE needs everything he can give them. They were 1.5 games back of CWS at the time of writing this yesterday, and they’re giving him the ball today for the start of that series. He’s going to be amped up and I’m betting on a big game for that first start of the week.
13	Payton Tolle	BOS	His start two Sundays ago was dynamite. Yesterday’s start at home (vs KC) was delayed by rain, but it didn’t matter. 6 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and no decision. Bonus points to me for not sharing the clip of his smile before he threw an immaculate inning in this one, too.
14	Jesus Luzardo	PHI	Jumper! Kind of! More below!
15	Cristopher Sanchez	PHI	6 IP, 6 ER, 10 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks. Whoa. That’s a guaranteed loss, right? PSYCHE! He won his 17th. Somewhere Reid Detmers is looking at this line and wishing he had half of the Phillies’ offense with him in Anaheim.
16	Logan Gilbert	SEA	7 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 11 Ks, and his 12th win. His start at LAA tomorrow is about as automatic as it gets.
17	Gerrit Cole	NYY	Dumper. More below.
18	Sonny Gray	BOS	6 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 5th loss. It’s a shame because I was hoping he’d get to 20 (or more) wins just to make the folks who are laughing about him being in the Cy Young conversation look even dumber.
19	Cade Cavalli	WSH	6 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks, and his third straight no-decision. He throws at STL this week.
20	Parker Messick	CLE	5.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks. I’d usually err on the side of caution with the younger arms who have thrown a lot of innings (Messick is at 172.1 IP), but this is a different situation. I’d be surprised if he didn’t go all-out in this week’s series vs CWS.
21	Bryan Woo	SEA	6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his third straight win. The only caution here is his last implosion was after three solid starts…oh, and this week he’s at COL.
22	Tyler Glasnow	LAD	4 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 7 Ks, and his first loss. See Blake Snell’s note above.
23	Carlos Rodon	NYY	6.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his 6th win. I said it above with Snell and Glasnow, but Rodon is right there with them when it comes to superstar arms who have a ton of innings left in them for this year. He’s up today.
24	Hunter Brown	HOU	5 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and no decision. He’s a two-start guy this week at home (KC and ATL).
25	Paul Skenes	PIT	7 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and no decision. It still feels gross to have him ranked this low, but the reality is he’s won just once in his most recent 9 GS.
26	Reid Detmers	ANA	6 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 1 walk, 9 Ks, ERA at 3.32. You know it’s bad when I assumed he DIDN’T get the win. I mean, he did, but that 5th win total (from the season) should have a 1 in front of it.
27	Max Fried	NYY	3.1 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks. He’s still building up stamina after a health setback, and punching out 7 of his 10 outs with Ks is encouraging. 3.1 innings isn;’t getting us a win, though. (If that matters in your leagues).
28	Eduardo Rodriguez	ARI	5.1 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and his 6th win. He gets the Yankees at home this week, but are you still betting against him? I’m not.
29	Sandy Alcantara	MIA	4 1/3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 3.78. Hey, summer is pretty much over so it makes sense to forget about the sand.
30	Nolan McLean	NYM	5 IP, 5 ER, 10 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and his 9th loss. The hits are the most he’s given up…ever. Please, Mets, don’t ruin him. Or at least trade him to Tampa this December for Bryan Baker, Jonny DeLuca, and Liam Hicks.
31	Nick Martinez	TB	6.1 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and no decision. I swear to you (literally) that I said out loud, “Are you fn kidding me?!” when I saw the line here and the no-decision. It’s shocking enough that this dude has done what he’s done ALL SEASON, but it’s also crummy when he does it and gets no run support from his first place ball club.
32	Joe Ryan	MIN	4 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 3.68 (66 pitches). He’s baaaaack. That start should be enough of a “dip the toe in the water” to get him at least 85 pitches on Sunday. Game 2: 4 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 1 K. Well, at least he’s back? *dodges tomato basket*
33	Jared Jones	PIT	7 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks. Holy crow. Or, I guess crow’s nest. This Pirate is putting up Jacob deGrom-type starts. Maybe he gets a sleeper post for 2027?!
34	Michael King	SD	7 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks, and his third straight win. King of the castle! (But be careful because he’s at COL this week).
35	Chase Burns	CIN	Dumper. Ugh. More below.
36	Kevin Gausman	CHC	4 IP, 6 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and his 12th loss. This is a perfect example of a pitcher I love as a player, but would not risk starting the rest of the way in fantasy. He gets ATL this week and the Goose ain’t worth the squeeze.
37	Trevor Rogers	BAL	Game 1: 7 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 hits, zero walks, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.15. If you took away the ERA, you might think this was a line from last year. Too bad those stats don’t count this year. Game 2: 6 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and his 10th loss. This one is especially tough because one of the 3 HR allowed was to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. IN TORONTO (his first homer at home this season). That means Rogers has to retire now. Sorry, thems the rules.
38	Ranger Suarez	BOS	7 IP., 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, and his second straight win. He only has 7 dubs on the year, but with fewer than 140 innings this season, I’d be surprised if the Sawx didn’t let him run with the ball in each start the rest of the way.
39	Troy Melton	DET	Dumper. More below.
40	Logan Webb	SF	Game 1: 6 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 4.10. Zendaya approves of this Webb. Game 2: 4.1 IP, 6 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks. It’s looking like he’s running out of Webb fluid and I’m sitting him next week because I’m scared the Dodgers will unleash a symbiote on him.
41	Ian Seymour	TB	6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 10 Ks, and no decision. It’s so frustrating. He threw a game like this on August 31st, then gave us a 3 IP jobber in between the two. Here’s hoping the Rays let him go as far as he can against the Red Sox this week (at TB). He got a big boost today.
42	Michael Wacha	KC	6 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.25. He’s been white hot for a month now. The strikeouts will never be eye-popping, at least not consistently, but he’s the kind of guy that will improve your ratios and won’t get lit up as often as a lot of other guys will.
43	Shota Imanaga	CHC	6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and his 10th win. That pushes his record to an even 10-10, and it encapsulates what this guy is all about. One week it’s great, the next week it’s meh. At the end of the year, it averages out to just…average. Like I said above with Gausman, I’d be careful starting him vs ATL this week.
44	Foster Griffin	CLE	2.1 IP, 8 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and his 5th loss. Uh…this isn’t what the Guardians want to be rolling out against the White Sox as they chase them down for the AL Central title this week.
45	George Kirby	SEA	6 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks. This guy has been one of the most polarizing starters all year. And I guess that fits, since Kirby looks like a big pink snowball.
46	Kyle Harrison	MLW	Dumper. More below.
47	Sean Burke	CWS	Dumper. More below.
48	Jackson Jobe	DET	6.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his 2nd win. Easily his best start of the year. With such a low innings count (34.2 IP), I don’t see any reason for the Tigers to limit him the rest of the way.
49	Jose Soriano	TOR	7 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.48. I don’t know who scheduled the Jays for West Coast games during the first week of school, but they’re demons. I lasted two innings for Cease’s first start of the week and was out cold before this one even hit the pregame warmups.
50	Noah Cameron	KC	Game 1: It’s a quick Grey quote here because it’s a nice little eye-opener that doesn’t need too much of a set-up. “6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.93. His 2nd-half ERA: 2.51. Boing.” Boing indeed. And that’s me quoting Grey! Game 2: 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and no decision.  And I really need to stop confusing this guy with Nolan McLean. It took me much longer than I care to admit that I couldn’t match up Game 1 with Nolan McLean’s line from last week. Ugh.
51	Cal Quantrill	TEX	Game 1: 6 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 2.89. He’s 4-1 in his last 5 starts with three shutout outings. Game 2: I was going to say start him at ARI before I realized it was a Sunday game and not today. Game 2: 6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks, and his 9th win. Be careful this week, though. After the game there was news that he was working through back tightness yesterday.
52	Walbert Urena	LAA	6 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks. Yes! Keep those numbers looking crappy so I can sneak you in during the middle-to-late rounds of next year’s draft!
53	Tyler Mahle	ATL	7 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and his 6th win. The 6-10 record doesn’t do him justice. He’s had 6 quality starts in his last 7 games. He’s up today.
54	Freddy Peralta	TB	Game 1: 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 4.82. He’s fixed! Game 2: 5 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks. I know I joked that he’s fixed, but yesterday was his 4th straight start with one (or fewer) earned runs.
55	Jake Bennett	BOS	5.1 IP, 6 ER, 9 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and his 7th loss. He’s only thrown 105 IP for Boston this year, but part of me gets the feeling that he’;s running out of steam. He’s one of those “it’s up to you” starts at TEX this week.
56	Eury Perez	MIA	Game 1: 4 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.94. Game 2: (vs LAD) 5 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and no decision. Just like I told ya, he’s gonna be great…in three years.
57	Taj Bradley	MIN	6 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 4 BB, 6 Ks. “Wait, how did you manage to walk four guys, strike out a half dozen, and not get hammered with a bucket full of earned runs?” That’s Robbie Ray texting Taj after this start.
58	Nick Pivetta	SD	Jumper. More below!
59	Bubba Chandler	PIT	Game 1: 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 hits, zero walks, 8 Ks, ERA at 4.25. And, for the record, I wasn’t the one who wrote out the word “ZERO” there (it was Grey). But I LOVED it! Game 2: 5.1 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 3 Ks, and his 8th win. Ya, I figured those zero walks from Game 1 were too good to be true.
60	Mackenzie Gore	TEX	4 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 2 Ks on 68 pitches. He’s at 161.2 IP now, and has been pumped in three of his last four starts. Oh, and he’s thrown 6+ innings just 3 out of his last 10 GS.
61	Robbie Ray	SD	5 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 5 Ks. I’ve said it before, and it was the same last week. When he’s walking guys, it’s ugly.
62	Nick Lodolo	CIN	4.2 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and his 4th loss. Ok, kids, serious question. For next year or, if you want to get silly, for their entire careers. Which guy do you have locked into your “ride or die” pool for starting pitchers? This guy, or Eury Perez?
63	Corbin Burnes	ARI	3 IP, 0 ER on 57 pitches. It was a silly stream in the RCL, but I’m just glad he got through it with no setbacks. I’d start him vs MIA today.
64	Kade Anderson	SEA	6 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks on 81 pitches, and his FIRST WIN! So much for cutting back on those innings and managing him with baby gloves, I guess.
65	Peter Lambert	HOU	6 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks, and a tough-luck loss (his 9th). I chickened out and didn’t stream him last week. He’s had crummy luck, and, with the exception of an August 20th implosion, hasn’t pitched poorly, but he’s winless in his most recent 12 starts. (Don’t bother checking, it shocked the heck out of me, too, so I triple checked it).
66	Matthew Boyd	CHC	Game 1: 7 IP, 3 ER, 7 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 4.03. Another quality start from one of the marshmallow-tossing gangsters? With more than just a couple of Ks? Yeah, Boyd! We’ll take it! Game 2: 5.1 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, and his 5th loss. This was his 6th consecutive start without a win.
67	Christian Scott	NYM	6 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks on 82 pitches and his 5th loss. It would be a perfect example of the chaos of starting pitchers if all of the kid-arms got shut down, and this one, who we’ve been concerned about for a month now, rips off 3 quality starts to end the year and pushes 90+ pitches in each one.
68	Clay Holmes	CHC	5.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 6 Ks and no decision. I know it’s a Captain Obvious kind of thing to say, but walks really do kill a decent start and any chance at a quality one.
69	Andre Pallante	STL	5 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks, and no decision. I’m tempted to start calling him Grandma because every start is like this: “It’s fine, Dearie”.
70	Emmet Sheehan	LAD	Game 1: 5 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 5.08. Whoa! Double-digy strikeouts in the return to LAD? Hopefully at least a few of you caught it in time to stream him. Game 2: 6 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks. He’s back.
71	Kyle Bradish	BAL	Dumper. (And will be removed for next week). More below!
72	Joey Cantillo	CLE	Dumper. More below.
73	Dustin May	MLW	6 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 7th win. Thank you, Reds! (Although I wouldn’t have started him if this was away from American Family Field).
74	Shane Drohan	MLW	3.2 IP, 5 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and no decision. Can we include him in that Dumpers section of “Shut him down” below?
75	Jacob Lopez	ATH	Game 1: 6 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 1 K. Game 2: 3.2 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and no decision. Don’t be fooled by the walks that he’s got. He’s still, he’s still J-Lo from the block.
76	Andrew Painter	PHI	Game 1: 5 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 5.71. He should have to issue an apology to all of the folks that started him in their head-to-head playoffs. Game 2: 5 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks and no decision. Eugh.
77	Casey Mize	SD	5.2 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks. He’s a two-starter this week (at COL, MIA).
78	Tanner Bibee	CLE	Game 1: 4 1/3 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 4.22. Now where’s that barf emoji again? Game 2: 6.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 5th win! Seriously! He actually won a game!
79	Landen Roupp	SF	6 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners (4 BBs), 2 Ks, ERA at 4.00. If he can solve the walk problem, I could see him improving next year, but you could say that about a lot of arms.
80	Framber Valdez	DET	6 IP, 0 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and his 2nd straight win (10th). It feels just about right that Framber would turn it on to finish the season now that the Tigers are almost mathematically out of the playoff race.
81	Davis Martin	CWS	5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 K on 68 pitches. It was Martin’s 7th loss, but this was encouraging. He’s allowed just one earned run in his most recent 10.2 IP.
82	Brandon Young	BAL	3 2/3 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 3.71. Wooooooof. Down.
83	Andrew Abbott	CIN	2 IP, 7 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 0 K, and his 11th loss. Well, at least he didn’t give up ALL of Milwaukee’s 20 runs! Yikes. Shut it down!
84	Zebby Matthews	MIN	2.1 IP, 5 ER, 2 H, 4 BB, 2 Ks. This is where trusting him for months is going to bite us in the arse. Speaking of which, I’m sitting him vs NYY this week.
85	Keider Montero	DET	4 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and placed on the paternity list last week. With all those twos, you’d better hope it isn’t twins!
86	Grant Holmes	ATL	Game 1: 6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.46. In the words of his doppelganger, Kenneth J Powers, “You’re fn out!” Game 2: 4 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 0 Ks. Yes, the lack of ANY strikeouts is none too good, but at least he got two starts last week and the Braves let him go. That’s good news for next week.
87	Ryan Johnson	LAA	6 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and his 4th win. He’s just 5 outs short (total) from 5 straight quality starts. This one was a 103 pitch game, so it looks like the Angels are fine with letting him throw.
88	Brandon Pfaadt	ARI	Dumper. More below.
89	Will Warren	NYY	6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, and his 10th win. He’s a two-starter this week, too. (at MIN and at ARI). And I almost pushed him up another 10 spots, but decided against it.
90	Hayden Wesneski	HOU	Game 1: 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 hits, zero walks, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.35. He’s been good since I made that WKRP Les Nessman joke. Coincidence? I think not. Game 2: 3 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and his 2nd loss. A bit of ticker shock when I saw the 7 runs scored off of him, but thankfully only a few were earned.
91	Michael McGreevy	STL	Game 1: 6 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 8 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.92. Game 2: 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and his 7th win. He’s been sneaky solid for a while now. And sneaky solid is really good…unless you’re a jogger with IBS.
92	Shane Baz	BAL	5.2 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and his 6th win? Wow. I didn’t know MLB handed out pity dubs for guys who already reached 15 losses on the year.
93	Patrick Sandoval	BOS	6 IP, 4 ER, 12 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 4.58. I don’t know why I streamed him, but at least it was in two leagues where it didn’t matter much.
94	Kyle Leahy	STL	3 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks on 38 pitches. Three cheers for workload management. We need to preserve this kid’s arm! He’s just a wee baby at…*checks notes*…29 YEARS OLD!?
95	Janson Junk	MIA	3 IP, 8 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 0 Ks. Full disclosure, this would be enough of a faceplant to turf him off the list and send him into the stratosphere, but he’s only at 111 IP so I assume MIA will run him out next week. He’s at ARI.
96	Connor Prielipp	MIN	5.1 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and his 5th win. I don’t know why I have so much faith in him, but here we are. He was behind an opener in his previous two starts, so monitor the news to see if he’s still starting next week (if that matters in your league).
97	Yusei Kikuchi	LAA	Jumper?! More below!
98	Martin Perez	ATL	7 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and no decision. I streamed him at TB and was legitimately worried he was going to get pumped, but I’ll take the ratio help! He’s at CHC this week.
99	Gage Jump	ATH	2 IP, 5 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks. He left Saturday’s game with a “shoulder impingement:” and it’ll be a race to see which one drops off the list next week first – him or Junk.
100	Bryce Miller	SEA	Dumper. More below.

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

Jesus Luzardo – 9 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 1 walk, 12 Ks, ERA at 2.87. Holy crap. Pun fully intended. Someone put in the work on Labor Day. That’s the good news! 

The bad-ish news? He had an MRI done on his sore shoulder that came back clean, and he “SHOULD” pitch sometime this week. Remember when I mentioned how unpredictable pitching schedules are this week in those paragraphs above? Good times!

For the record, his scheduled start is this Friday at NYM. I’d monitor in daily leagues, of course, but if you’re in a weekly moves league, it all comes down to risk tolerance. The Phillies are only 1.5 games up in the NL wild card race, so they can’t exactly afford to sit back and rest Jesus on the 6th day…or any other day…if they want to punch their ticket to the postseason.

Nick Pivetta – Game 1: 5 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, zero walks, 2 Ks, ERA at 3.43 (63 pitches). I’m not a fan, but if you need an arm that SHOULD be fine and get you innings over the next couple of weeks, he could be available on your free agent list. Check!

Game 2: 4 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks on 69 pitches. Not a bad increase in pitch count and strikeouts. I’d be adding him if I could.

Yusei Kikuchi – I was one arm short after dumping a few names off the list, so I went to our ROS (rest of season) Player Rater and sorted by SP. “I’m going with the top-rated guy who ISN’T on the list!” Well, you say goodbye, and I say hello! (And for the record, he’s the SP41 on our ROS Player Rater with an $8.5 R$ value).

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

With apologies to our webmasters, I’m going to hog some bandwidth for gifs in this section today!

Gerrit Cole – 4.1 IP, 5 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks on 77 pitches. Ok, so this one isn’t much of a huge dump, as it is a bit of a chuckle with how it all went down. The three home runs allowed aren’t great, and I’d still start Cole at ARI this week, but I don’t know how you can’t giggle after (or while) you watch this one.

Troy Melton – There’s a theme in our Dumpers section today.

5 2/3 IP, 4 ER, 8 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.42. What’s that? A guy who threw a career-high 120 innings last year is Melton down the stretch as he matches last year’s total and tries to push past it? 

Where’s that surprised face? I know I put it down here somewhere. *asked with surprised face securely fixed to head*.

He’s slated to go today at TOR, and I’m not so sure he’s an auto-start this week, despite the two starts (at TOR, at CWS). A double-start week is enticing if it gets you two wins, but it could also give you two 2.2-inning blowups.

Chase Burns – Game 1: 3 IP, 0 ER, 0 hits, 1 walk, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.73. Thank goodness they didn’t shut him down. They’re only 21.5 games back of the division lead and 9 games out of the wild card. Hashtag sarcasm. 

Game 2: 3 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks. To be honest, I can’t believe there was a Game 2 to report on from last week (yesterday). You can read more about why here.

Joey Cantillo – Game 1: 2 1/3 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.00. Can’t he, though? Uh…no, he can’t. I’d be careful the rest of the way with him if you need to polish up those ratios.

Game 2: I mean, the line is fantastic, but I feel like the clip here does my point more justice.

Sure, a 4 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 8 K outing is excellent. And it helps us shave a bit off our team ratios. But this little hop and jump from the MIN game sums it up for me.

When it comes to this week’s question of “Should I activate Cantillo vs ATH and expect more than 4 innings?”: Skip.

Sean Burke – 1 1/3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 3.58. 

Oh, what’s that? The White Sox haven’t shut him down yet so he can get some rest before the playoffs?

Kyle Harrison – 0 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 0 Ks on 17 pitches as he was used out of the bullpen (if you can call it that). Oh boy. I had a feeling that I’d be able to use that Gordon Ramsay gif in more than one spot today.

Here’s what I wrote about him last week: “3.2 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 4 BB, 4 Ks, and oh my goodness, his last two starts have been doozies. If we include the August 31st start, the total is enough to make a slow trickle of bile creep up the throat: 7.1 IP, 13 ER, 19 H, 6 BB, 6 HR allowed, 7 Ks. I said it last week in the comment section, but two things are likely the culprit here: (1) A dip in velocity (there were reports his fastball was down as much as 2 MPH), and (2) Tipping pitches. At least his second start of the week wasn’t another homerfest. Regardless, his 107 IP are nearly three times as many as he threw last year, and just below his career high of 124 (from 2024). The Brewers’ pitching coaches have some work to do here.”

Get this kid some rest, already.

Kyle Bradish – 3 IP, 5 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and his 14th loss. The Blue Jays gut-punched him so badly they sent him to the 15-day IL with lower-abdominal discomfort. It was either that or some bad poutine he had for lunch.

Either way, He’s out next week and the target of some Marmo-vitriol when I look back on the year, for sure.

Brandon Pfaadt – 6.2 IP, 6 ER, 10 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and his 3rd loss. Well, this was a nice ride while it lasted. The walks have been fine, but the hits and earned runs in his last 5 starts have been…out of control. Zing!

Bryce Miller – Game 1: 3 2/3 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.22. 

Game 2: 5 IP, 2 ER, 2 H (2 HR allowed), 5 BB, 5 Ks, and no decision on 91 pitches. For the record, I avoided streaming him yesterday and wrote this before his start: “Guy. Just pull the plug already.”

Names to watch this week (some with two starts)

Jonah Tong, Robert Gasser, Sean Manaea, Drew Anderson, Quinn Mathews, Griffin Jax, Bailey Ober, David Peterson, Walker Buehler.

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

Joe Ryan

Nick Pivetta

Emmet Sheehan – Strictly a ‘pick him up and see how it goes’ call here. He had two solid starts last week.

Yusei Kikuchi 

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

Braxton Ashcraft – It felt like a boot to the gut that PIT sent him to the 15-day IL last week. He might be done for the year, but he’ll be back at least one more time for my final round-up and season in review piece! (talk about a teaser!).

Shohei Ohtani – 0-for-3, 2 Ks. I’ll admit I saw the 2 Ks in Grey’s roundup and got excited because I thought Shohei pitched last week. He’s hurt now (15-day IL), so let’s finally put that SP-only talk to bed for this year.

Luis Castillo

Anthony Kay – Sorry, bro. You’ve given up 17 ER in your last 17.2 IP. To be honest, I’m surprised you stuck around this long.

 

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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