Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!

“Well, somebody Tolle-d me that you had a boyfriend”?

Uh, hey Las Vegas rock band “The Killers”, I wouldn’t necessarily call Payton Tolle a boyfriend, but if you said that I had a Fantasy Baseball mancrush? Well, that’d be a tough one to argue.

And, dearest reader, I don’t know what your thoughts are on the Red Sox’s big lefty, but if you watched any of his start against the A’s in Boston on Friday night, you saw it for yourself: He was certainly one of The Killers… of baseball bats.

That final Friday line for Payton Tolle? 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 14 Ks, and his 7th win. 

I’m sure if you asked the Athletics hitters after the Red Sox rookie was “breaking their bats just to know their names”, they’d give you a similar answer to one of the lyrics from that tune, too.

“Fourteen hacks and I’ve had it with this gaaaaaaaaaaame”.

No doubt.

But it wasn’t just the excitement of Tolle’s Athletic dismantling that was on the list of exciting events in MarmoVille last week.

There was a Public Enemy/Guns N Roses concert in the big city for your favorite Fantasy Baseball Dad and the Marmolets on Wednesday night.

Marmofolk revved up with anticipation for a date with Chuck D and Flavor Flav.

Then, last night, we had a pretty cool father-son debut moment as the eldest, and I ran a Little League travel playoff game to finish off the weekend.

One playoff Little League game to umpire, with one foul ball off the hand, and about 8-10 foul tips off my unprotected chest/body because this gigantic chunk of walking meat certainly cannot squeeze into the provided child-sized piece of body armor.

So, yes, in (many) other words, it wasn’t just Payton Tolle who had a pretty great week!

(Phew. The ADHD took over there, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to bring it back around).

But back to the Top 100 Starting Pitchers.

Dan Pants ran it all down in his Saturday morning rundown and was kind enough to provide this tidbit of Tolle terrific-ness: “He threw 84 pitches, the fewest number of pitches to reach 14 strikeouts in MLB history, folks. It’s giving Rocket Roger Clemens vibes. In fact, the 14 Ks were the most for a Red Sox pitcher under 24 since Roger’s 20-strikeout game.”

And if that wasn’t enough, I’ll borrow Dan’s inserted link to share here so y’all can peep the excellence that is Payton Tolle. (Thanks, Dan!)

Sure, the guy might look like your average, everyday high school caretaker, but he’s equipped with much more than just a mop and an angry stare…

Last week, Payton Tolle’s ranking was a modest SP36…

There’s no way Tolle breaks into the Top 25 with that kind of dominant outing…is there?

Well, before we get to that answer, 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.

Ok? Let’s get to it!

The Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2026

MARMO RANK	Name	Team	Notes
1	Jacob Misiorowski	MLW	6 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, and the no-decision. The fun fact today is: Jacob Misiorowski becomes the 2nd-fastest pitcher to record 200 Ks in a season (129.1 IP). I’d ask you to guess who the first was, but I’ll spoil the surprise to save us some time – Spencer Strider did it in 123.1 IP in 2023.
2	Tarik Skubal	LAD	Game 1: 6 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.81. And the LOSS! Ha! That’s what you paid for, Dodgers! Daniel Norris could’ve given you that for a lot less! (Yes, I’m kidding).
3	Chris Sale	ATL	Senior Sale versus Geriatric Gerrit in a no-holds-barred battle! Loser gets a free year in the MLB Old Folks Home. 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, and his 7th loss is the bad news. But he “wins” free applesauce and organized Bingo games!
4	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD	What an outing we got from a proven ace last week. What? Ya, I was talking about Brandon Pfaadt. Did you think…? Oh, you thought I meant Yoshi! 5.2 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks.
5	Dylan Cease	TOR	7 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 2.28. Pete Walker is such a good pitching coach that the Jays started collecting starters with sick K upside and sickening BB rates. First Jose Soriano, then Spencer Arrighetti. If the Jays are looking to complete the BB gauntlet, they only need to get a hold of Robbie Ray and Taj Bradley this offseason.
6	Cam Schlittler	NYY	7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 11 Ks and a NO-DECISION?! I’ll apologize now for the excessive use of capital letters today, but this is just silly. Even worse, this was the only earned run of the day, and the Yankees still lost in extra innings. Woof.
7	Cristopher Sanchez	PHI	5 IP, 2 ER, 8 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.65. It feels like a cheat to give him a youngster quality start, and he’s 29 years old, so he’s technically not a youngster anymore. Listen, don’t hate the player, hate the game. I don’t make the rules. (But, actually, for that one, I do).
8	Chase Burns	CIN	5.1 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and his 2nd loss. This was his “worst” start since June 27th. And the “worst” is in quotes there because he still struck out 10 dudes in that June start. Down a bit. But I don’t really want to do it.
9	Drew Rasmussen	TB	7.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 11th win, ERA at 2.75. I mean, how many Rah-Rah-Rasmussens do we need before we push this guy up even higher? SP10 is enough…right? RIGHT?
10	Paul Skenes	PIT	5 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners (4 BBs), 6 Ks, ERA at 3.96. I mean…he’s not the SP20 (but he is in Dan Plesac’s rankings). He IS nowhere near the top. Our Allegheny Ace needs to fix the walks. ASAP. And, no, that doesn’t mean “Accordingly, Seriously, A la Plesac”.
11	Gavin Williams	CLE	5.2 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and betrayed by his bullpen, so he got the no-decision. Come on, people. He can’t throw a complete game EVERY week.
12	Logan Gilbert	SEA	6.2 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K. A fun bit of numbers here…If Gilbert had allowed just two fewer earned runs and gotten himself just one more out in his last 10 games, they would have all been quality starts. And the not-so-fun numbers? He’s won just 4 of those last 10 GS.
13	Zack Wheeler	PHI	5.1 IP, 7 hits, 4 ER, 5 BB, 6 K. That’s his third loss…unless you count the 4th L he took for telling the Blue Jays bench to F*** OFF when they were complaining about him teetering off the rubber during every pitch. The walks push him down a bit today.
14	Jacob deGrom	TEX	5 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, and his 8th win. This one was like one of those old Mets starts where DeGrom was light out but didn’t finish 5 innings. The only part that matters is it was an excellent bounceback from last week’s debacle at HOU.
15	Gerrit Cole	NYY	7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 9 Ks, and his 6th win. Cue the smooth jazz ‘cause The Cole Train is back!
16	Logan Webb	SF	8 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and there’s no need to peek under the mask to see who this Webb-slinging superhero is.
17	Sonny Gray	BOS	6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 2.78. Mister Underrated is back! Have no fear, the last two weeks were just a blip on the radar because someone forgot to tell Sonny that games were back on “for real”.
18	Parker Messick	CLE	7.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, BB, 8 K, 9th win. At least there’s one pitcher on my rosters who isn’t making Messick.
19	Jesus Luzardo	PHI	Game 1: 8 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.36. I AM THE LUZARD KING! I CAN DO ANYTHING! Game 2: 7 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, and TWELVE strikeouts! That’s even better! (Unless he has Orion Kerkering coming in after he leaves to blow the easy win).
20	Hunter Brown	HOU	6 IP, 3 ER, 5 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 3.53. It’s been looking a lot nicer in Brown Town these days. If he’d gotten one more out in his July 31st game vs TEX, we’d be talking about three straight quality starts. Keep it up, Hunter!
21	Joe Ryan	MIN	Dumper. Just because he’s listed there below instead of being removed entirely. The IL assignment means he’s gone after this week. Down.
22	Logan Henderson	MLW	Game 1: 6 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 2.70. I really wanted to put him in the Jumpers section today just to highlight how folks should be trying to pry this guy loose if they’re in a keeper league. He’s dynasty gold.
23	Max Fried	NYY	6.1 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K. This one made it four starts since his activation (July 22) without a win. He’s down a bit today but more so because the Yankees aren’t giving him much offense to work with.
24	Bryan Woo	SEA	7 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.31. WOO HOO! That’s what we’re talking about! Up…but it’s not a big jump because he’s at NYY and HOU this week.
25	Sean Burke	CWS	4 1/3 IP, 2 ER, on 91 pitches. ERA at 3.08. I took some heat for ranking Burke at SP37 last week, and I get it. He’s been excellent. But the wet-blanket part of me also sees a 26-year-old arm who’s in his third year of pro ball, with 128 innings pitched already this season. He threw a total of 153.1 innings over the past two years, so as great as he is, I’d be surprised if CWS pushed him much past 150-160 innings. He’s up today, regardless.
26	Nolan McLean	NYM	5 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.51. So, let me get this straight: a month ago he was pumping out scoreless quality starts with 17 Ks (total), and now he gets mauled by Cleveland? This one ruined a streak of 6 straight quality starts. He’s down a bit today, but let’s see more of the good before we write him off for one bad start.
27	Payton Tolle	BOS	More above! Up!
28	Troy Melton	DET	Game 1: 7 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 1.58, moving to a 7-1 record. He’s had a lot of praise thrown at him in the last little while. And all of it is well earned. Ace. Game 2: 6 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision.
29	Kevin Gausman	CHC	7.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, BB, 4 K, 6th win. He’s going to go on a run here and make us Blue Jays fans even sadder, isn’t he? It’s a boost today because I think he’s going to be great for the Cubbies. Up.
30	Sandy Alcantara	MIA	7 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his 13th win! Sandy became the Marlins career leader in innings pitched in this start. His 1226 innings passed…who? Let me know your guess down below (no cheating!). If you need a hint, my guess was Josh Beckett…and I wasn’t even close. Sandy gets a big boost today.
31	Cade Cavalli	WSH	6.0 IP, 7 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 9th win. That’s 6 QS in a row now. ¿Está bueno? C.C.! He and Detmers get a boost together today because (like I say in the Imanaga note below) all the guys around them got crushed last week.
32	Reid Detmers	ANA	4 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and his 8th loss. How does this guy have a 10.47 K/9 and a 3-8 record?! Oh, that’s right, he plays for the Angels.
33	George Kirby	SEA	5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and the no-decision. Fine. He can move down a bit today. Just know that (a) he would have stayed put if he’d gotten 3 more outs or struck out 4 more hitters, (b) we’re not rostering him for the Ks; it’s for the stellar BB rate, and (c) there is no C.
34	Shota Imanaga	CHC	5 IP, 1 ER, 8 hits, zero walks, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.60. There’s a universe where Kevin Gausman and Shota Imanaga have a chat in the dugout, each has a ‘lightbulb-moment’, then they go on to lead the league in ERA and bring the Cubs to a World Series. Maybe that universe is this one? He moves up higher than I want him to, but just because everyone in his pocket got rocked last week.
35	Kyle Harrison	MLW	5 IP, 0 ER, 2 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 2.84. And to think I was worried about finding names to add this week. Phew. He’s back.
36	Braxton Ashcraft	PIT	Dumper. And I hate that he is. More below.
37	Ryan Weathers	NYY	Game 1: 6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.79. Ryan Weathers the storm and sticks in the Yankee rotation? Maybe a lede-worthy blip after all.
38	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX	5.1 IP, 4 hits, ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Looking at his last 10 starts, there’s a lot of earned runs littered across the board. But the good news is he managed to scrape out 5 QS from those games. And it would’ve been 7 if he could have gotten 5 more outs (across two starts). He’s down a bit, and likely still too high, but I’m still running him out there against almost anyone.
39	Justin Wrobleski	LAD	3.1 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and his 4th loss. That’s 15 ER in his last 13.2 innings. Eek. Down.
40	Nick Martinez	TB	Jumper. A bit. More below.
41	Kyle Bradish	BAL	6 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks on 98 pitches. And his 11th LOSS? What? I mean, I know this was at TEX, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t running out the Sega Genesis Sportstalk Baseball Rangers lineup for this one. (Seriously, go look it up; it was filthy good).
42	Emerson Hancock	SEA	Game 1: 6 IP, 3 ER, 10 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.33. Game 2: 4.2 IP, 2 ER, 9 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, and his 7th loss, and do we really care right now? How many of us are just hoping to see someone else pushed out of the way to make space for Kade Anderson? (sheepishly raises hand above head).
43	Peter Lambert	HOU	5 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and his 6th loss. If you sense that he’s losing some steam, it might be a bit misleading. Sure, he hasn’t won a game in 5 starts now, but he also hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs since June 29th. (That’s 7 games). Game 2: 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks, and his 11th win. Better make that 8 games. Up.
44	Jared Jones	PIT	Game 1: 4 IP, 3 ER on 83 pitches. ERA at 4.02. I’m going to curse it here, but still say “Don’t worry, his next start is Sunday against the Mets”. Game 2: Well, guess what! Remember right there when I typed “Don’t worry” before yesterday’s game and said I was going to curse it? 3 IP, 8 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks. Ugh.
45	Bryce Miller	SEA	5 IP, 4 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.08. Welcome to another exciting episode of: MarmosDad hangs on to starters way longer than he should!” I’m your host, MarmosDad, and I’ll tell you how YOU, TOO, can tank your team’s ratios by being too loyal to certain players that you added to your fantasy rosters after they had a hot start. DOWN.
46	Eury Perez	MIA	5 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks, and his 9th loss. The strikeouts are still there, and the walks aren’t terrible, but he’s not where he should be…yet. Down.
47	Ranger Suarez	BOS	Ranger Danger! Dumper. More below.
48	Eduardo Rodriguez	ARI	Game 1: 5 2/3 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 2.71. Not good, but there’s something to be said about a pitcher that gives up 5 ER and still has a sub-2.75 ERA after the fact. He’s good, but not as good as Dan Plesac thinks he is.
49	Trevor Rogers	BAL	6 IP, 2 ER, 3 hits, zero walks, 9 Ks, ERA at 4.20. Four and twenty orange birds baked in a pie. No, Cody Bellinger, I said PIE.
50	Michael King	SD	6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 7th win. He seems like he belongs on Team Underrated, but not nearly as much as a guy like Sonny Gray. That said, I’ll take the decent ratios even if it’s only coming with a 7.92 K/9.
51	Foster Griffin	CLE	4 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.31. Very kind of him to bring some earned runs with him from Washington. Last week he gave up 6 ER for the Nats, and this week it was 5 ER for the Guards. Jokes aside, back-to-back losses mean he’s down a bit today.
52	Jake Bennett	BOS	5.1 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and his 5th loss. You let off too much steam, Bennett!
53	Taj Bradley	MIN	5 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks and the no-decision at MLW. Three more outs would’ve given him his 4th straight QS (and 6th in his last 7 GS), but it wasn’t in the cards…er, Brewers.
54	Matthew Boyd	CHC	7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and his 8th win. The wins keep rolling in for Matty-Boy(d)!
55	Ian Seymour	TB	6 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 9th win. Back-to-back wins with an average of 94 pitches thrown and just two earned runs (total)? Sey no mour.
56	Jose Soriano	TOR	4.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and a big old welcome to Canada! Please pick up your basket of poutine and bag of ketchup chips at the front desk before heading to the showers.
57	Robbie Ray	SD	Dumper. Down.
58	Freddy Peralta	TB	3 2/3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 5.37. Yep. That Tampa pitching coach is gonna fix him. Any time now. Yep.
59	Andrew Abbott	CIN	6 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 9 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.92. This one was his 6th win, and as long as he’s giving us quality starts, we can look past the 6.92 K/9 rate. (That said, he did walk 9 batters in his previous 11 IP – two starts.)
60	Joey Cantillo	CLE	Game 1: 5 IP, 2 ER, 9 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.87. Game 2: 1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and an “Uh…what?” when I was writing this up. It was a rain delay that cost Cantillo the rest of his start, though, so don’t worry about an injury scare. He’s up a bit today.
61	Will Warren	NYY	5 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.18. Yep. It’s him AND Weathers in the rotation still! I would have lost that bet!
62	Jackson Jobe	DET	He made his first start of the year on Saturday (which was a weird sentence to type on Saturday morning before said start). Also, I read Grey’s blurb last week as “he was the bestest with elbow issues” and thought that was a really nice thing to say…until I re-read it and saw he had typed “beset”. EDIT: It was a beauty. 5 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks. He starts the climb up the list TODAY!
63	Mackenzie Gore	TEX	6 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 4.55. Yep. With quality starts in his most recent two starts, his boost was overdue. Then his lady had a kid, so he’ll be away from the team until tomorrow. Still, he’s up a bit today.
64	Dustin May	MLW	6 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.30. This Dust-in! The Brewers pitching coaches can make Dustin May look like an All-Star…or at least a serviceable SP4.
65	Shane Drohan	MLW	5.0 IP, 9 hits, 6 ER, 4 BB, 4 K. Oh. Shane it ain’t so. Sad emoji. Down.
66	Shane Baz	BAL	8.0 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, BB, 9 K. What a start! I mean, almost a complete game with just 4 baserunners and NINE strikeouts? That’s like an auto-victory! *italicized voice in head says ‘You’d think so, but he lost 2-1 at TEX’* Ouch.
67	Walbert Urena	LAA	2.1 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 2 Ks, and it was L-Albert in this one.
68	Casey Mize	SD	3 1/3 IP, 8 ER, ERA at 3.40. “This Mize…Oh, we’ve cried…This Mize has seen a lot of love, but he’s never gonna see another love from a Padres fan if that’s YOUUUUUUU”.
69	Michael Wacha	KC	5 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 1 K, ERA at 3.44. The good news is he bested his opponent, Bailey Ober, in strikeouts in this start. The bad news? Well, you can see it for yourself there.
70	Bubba Chandler	PIT	6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 5 Ks, and FORGET ABOUT THE WALKS! This guy has two quality start shutouts in his most recent 4 GS. I don’t know if it’s the start of something special, but at this point we’ll take whatever positives we can get. Oh, and for those of you still wondering, he only walked one last week. Up!
71	Tanner Bibee	CLE	5.2 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 10 Ks, and OF COURSE he didn’t get the win. I did manage to flip an outgoing Kevin Gausman for him and Bryan Rocchio last week in our AL-Only league, though, so hopefully he keeps this up.
72	Brandon Pfaadt	ARI	Jumper. More below. (I boosted him 3X in my edits).
73	Framber Valdez	DET	I mentioned one of my Tiger-fan friends up here last week, and later in our conversation, Framber came up. All I can say is there might not be a better way to explain my thoughts on the Tigers’ “ace” than what the boss gave us last week: “7 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.17. He can become Misiorowski the final two months, and I. Do. Not. Care. To prove my point, I even brought out the douchey one-word sentences.” And that’s me quoting Grey!
74	Noah Cameron	KC	8 IP, 1 ER, 3 baserunners, 9 Ks, ERA at 4.37. That’s two stud outings in a row. Time to put him out to pasture. *hears panicked voice in PitchCon headset on my head*. “Oh, wait. That doesn’t mean what I think it means. Time to move him up!”
75	Connor Prielipp	MIN	5 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and the no-decision. It’s tough sledding when your opponent is the best starting pitcher in baseball.
76	Davis Martin	CWS	Game 1: 5 IP, 9 ER, ERA at 4.13. If you’re in redraft leagues, it’s time to cut bait. That is, if you haven’t already. Game 2: 1 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 K, and finished for the day after a three-hour rain delay. Down.
77	Roki Sasaki	LAD	6.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, BB, 5 K. “Not a bad outing from your #14 starter!” – That’s Dodgers fans talking on their way out of the game after the trade deadline.
78	Clay Holmes	CHC	4 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 1 K. The haters will say this is nearly the same line as his previous start…on May 28th…but with 7 fewer Ks. If you want optimism, let’s say this was a fine outing of 70 pitches from a guy who hadn’t thrown in almost three months, so there was a lot of rust to shake off. He’s lining up at home vs STL this week, and I assume the Streamonator will think it’s a good idea to start him. This feels like a good spot to start him on the list.
79	Brandon Young	BAL	4 1/3 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 3.43. Ok, so it’s the first time he didn’t finish at least the 5th inning since May 17th, so maybe this isn’t a big deal. He’s still averaging 90+ pitches a start.
80	Shohei Ohtani	LAD	“Resumes playing catch, regular season return is still on the table.” Oh boy. That means he drops down a lot. If you’re holding him as a “pitcher-only” in a redraft league, it’s likely time to move on.
81	Michael McGreevy	STL	5.2 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and the no-decision. He’s still 26 years old, so let’s give him the youngster quality start for this one.
82	Landen Roupp	SF	His 11th loss and another start with a ton of BBs (5). We all know that Roupp Doggs love walks, but this is getting a bit ridiculous.
83	Janson Junk	MIA	3 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 1 K, and another short session because of a rain delay.
84	Shane Bieber	TOR	5.2 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks. The good news is four of the runs came off of two Kyle Schwarber homers. So that means he was fine with the other hitters. Right? That’s how it goes, no?
85	Patrick Sandoval	BOS	5 IP, 2 ER, 10 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.38. There’s some serious second-half value here if he can hold down a rotation spot and stay healthy. And I almost wrote his first name as “Pablo”. Hee hee!
86	Robert Gasser	MLW	4.2 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks on 94 pitches, and the no-decision. I’m sorry, did you say to add Robert Gasser or to pick up Bobby Farts? Who me? No, I don’t need to know. I’m…uh…asking for a friend.
87	Luis Castillo	CWS	4 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 5.30. You think it’s too late for the White Sox to say “Whoa, hey, we want a redo! We thought we were trading for Joey and not Luis! CaNtillo, not CaStillo!” (and, yes, that wordplay was due to a mistype in my CTRL-F work).
88	Christian Scott	NYM	5 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 7 Ks, on 96 pitches. ERA at 3.15. Ah, the good old youngster quality start. This line was almost identical to last week’s real one. Bottom line: If you want a seat at the “Two First Names” table, you’ll have to improve the pitch efficiency. The Mets have let him throw more than 90 pitches in his last two starts. Now he needs to figure out how to get outs. Pro Tip: Be aggressive and throw strikes.
89	Andre Pallante	STL	5 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.63. Don’t blame me for the low rating, despite solid results. As a Canadian, I’m not allowed to be anti-French. (Not that I would be, anyway). We had to take it all through high school, too.
90	Martin Perez	ATL	3 IP, 0 ER, ERA at 3.14. OK! Quick quiz question! Who is older, Martin Perez or Clayton Kershaw? Bonus points if you can guess by how many years without looking it up. (Seriously, though, how is this guy still pitching like this?)
91	Anthony Kay	CWS	Only one more win until his dub total equals the number of letters in his full name. (Unless his middle name is Alexander. If it is, he’ll need to get to 19 wins).
92	Keider Montero	DET	6 IP, 5 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and his 7th loss. Two homers allowed were his undoing in this one, but I’d still start him this week (at home vs CLE). I’m hoping he can grow into that SP3-4 that we’re all looking for in the second half.
93	Zebby Matthews	MIN	Ok, so he was optioned last week, then recalled, then removed from Friday’s game because of a right foot blister? If the Twins minor league coaching staff is telling the kids to throw with their feet, Minny may be in even more trouble than we thought.
94	Grant Holmes	ATL	Game 1: 6 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.67. Yeah, Holmes, it’s the Flav cold chillin’ in EFFECT! (Yes, I saw Public Enemy with my boys last week, so this is still in the forefront of the cerebral cortex). Game 2: 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and a new spot on the list this week!
95	Merrill Kelly	ARI	5.2 IP, 2 hits, ER, 4 BB, 4 K, and removed with a leg cramp? K-E-L-L-WHY? Because of the leg cramp. Jeez. It was right there.
96	Javier Assad	CHC	5 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.58. I said last week’s SP100 spot was between him and Mitch Keller. Keller is Kooked, so here’s Assad! I’m a man of my word. I suppose that may make me an Assad-man, too.
97	Gage Jump	ATH	Ladies and gentlemen, we have a first. Gage Jump’s first game of the week – 3.2 IP, 6 ER, 4 H, 6 BB, 5 Ks – had him in our OOF section, aka he gone. Well, I guess word got out, and he was unhappy with the threat of sliding off. Game 2: 6 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 11 Ks, and his 5th win is a surefire way to hold a spot in the Top 100. He’s way down in the bottom 5 today because I don’t trust it, but his second game of the week was excellent.
98	Blake Snell	LAD	It’s the lowest he’ll ever be on the list, but this is more about reminding you that he’s due back this week than any low ranking. He’s slated to start tomorrow against KC at Dodger Stadium.
99	Kyle Leahy	STL	5.0 IP, 8 hits, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 8th win. I’m not sure what I appreciate more, the pitcher’s current streak of starts with two earned runs (or fewer) – 8 – or Dan Pants’ Trailer Park Boys reference on Saturday morning. I’ll call it even. And you know what? He’s in today (mostly because the mass exit of arms opened up space for him and some others).
100	Randy Vasquez	SD	Game 1: 6 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 1 K, ERA at 4.19. You know what’s crazy? Doing a CTRL-F to find a name and coming up with just one “JONES” (Jared), but TWO “RANDY”s (Vasquez and Dobnak). Game 2: 5 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and his second win of the week. I’d say it’s a good sign, but the Padres added a few SPs at the trade deadline, so I’m not sure how secure that rotation spot is. Hence the SP100-slot today.

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

Nick Martinez – 5 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 hits, zero walks, 4 Ks, ERA at 2.65. So, yes, the guy’s Statcast page looks like a blue-and-red pinball machine turned on its side, but that BB/9 is sitting at a cool 1.4. Yep. That’s better than Drew Rasmussen’s 1.59 and George Kirby’s 1.84. George Kirby? Gasp! 

For those still unaware of where we’re going with this, Nick Martinez has the best walk rate in baseball. Yes. Just like we all expected when we scrambled over each other to draft him as our SP2…(said no one).

Brandon Pfaadt – I can’t believe I’m doing this. But a promise is a promise. Last week, I said this about the Pfaadt Boy: “7 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 4.00. Ok, so let’s make a deal here (that I will likely forget about in 6 days). If he has another one of these quality starts, let’s say, with a half dozen strikeouts, I’ll add him to the SP100 spot the following week. Deal?” 

Well, last week’s start was 6 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.66. 

Sure, he only struck out three, so I’d be well within my promise rights to keep him off the list, but he’s been very good in SEVEN starts since rejoining the rotation. 

That 4.65 K/9 leaves a lot to be desired, but the 1.11 BB/9 ranks him amongst the folks in the marshmallow-tossing royal family. He’s worth an add if he’s still floating out there in your league’s FA pool.

AND GAME 2 was even BETTER! 7 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, as he outpitched Yoshi Yamamoto and the Dodgers. It was a no-decision, but who cares? This was a nice serving of confirmation bias to add on Sunday afternoon.

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

Joe Ryan – Game 1: 5 1/3 IP, 4 ER, 9 baserunners, ERA at 3.65. “Well, Joe, the good news is we’re keeping you and making a run at the playoffs. The bad news is you’ve sucked, and no one wanted to send us anything good at the trade deadline, so…” Game 2: Uh….a 15-day IL assignment is a good thing? It’s a glute injury, so a sore bum? Ryan thinks he’ll be fine in two weeks. His 20 ER in his last 4 starts had no comment. Weird.

Braxton Ashcraft – 5 IP, 4 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.08. And I hate it. He’s been nuked in 5 of his last 7 starts, and even though we knew we’d be playing with house money after a certain point, I still hate it. When a guy is pumping gas (metaphorically) at age 26 and posting a 9.86 K/9 with a 2.18 BB/9, you’d be forgiven for planning out the birth certificate for your next newborn to read Braxton (whatever your last name is). 

The only lingering issue was that Ashcraft pitched 69.2 innings last year, 72 the year before that, and 53 in 2023.

Now, he’s up to 132.1 IP in 2026 in a Pirates uniform. 

Most of us knew the jump in innings would be tough for Ashcraft, but the upside potential was off the charts, so that was a worthwhile risk to take. He’s given us an excellent return-on-investment since draft season; just be ready with a backup plan if they start “managing” innings or skipping starts.

Hunter Greene – “Diagnosed with a partial UCL tear in his right elbow and will undergo surgery next week”. If you’re like me and thinking, “Hey, didn’t he just come back from elbow surgery?” Uh…yeah. I don’t know how the doctor that went in to “remove bone chips” didn’t slide some adamantium steel into that elbow while they were in there, but here we are. The quote also mentioned that his availability for 2027 is in doubt. Ya think?

Ranger Suarez – 3 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 3.32. Uh, ok. I’m going to give you some numbers (Yay!), and they aren’t exactly pretty (Boo!).

90, 97, 94, 102, 95 – Those are the pitch counts of Ranger Suarez’s five June starts. Yes, that’s the month where he averaged 6 innings per start and came up one inning shy of giving us 5 straight quality starts.

And now for the Boo…

53, 64, 65, 70 – Those are the pitch counts from his most recent starts from July and August.

The good news is he didn’t get rocked in the earned run department; he did, however, allow three earned runs in all but one of those starts.

The innings count, in order, from that July 5th start to his August 6th start last week?

2.2, 4, 4.2, 3. Uh…I believe it’s time to sound the alarm because we have ourselves some RANGER DANGER!

Robbie Ray – 5.0 IP, 7 hits, 4 ER, 5 BB, 2 K. Robbie Ray packing his suitcase for the trade deadline trip to San Diego: “Toothbrush? Check. Tight Pants? Oh ya. That’s a must. Control problems? Oh! We can’t forget to bring those with us!”

Mitch Keller – Dropping from the SP100 spot is rough enough, but landing on the 60-day IL with a “right arm teres major muscle injury” is extra sprinkles on top of Poop Mountain. And if you can say that 10 times fast without stumbling, you win an over-the-internet high five.

Nick Pivetta – He’s not a DUMPER in the truest sense of the word, but that he left his rehab start immediately after throwing a pitch was worth a bit of a write-up on its own.

Aside from the comments joking about how people “knew this was a bathroom emergency because of how he walked off the mound”, this one is a rough sight to see if you’re a Padres fan. 

The official words were “right elbow tightness, but apparently (he) felt fine afterwards”, and he is going to continue his rehab. I found the next quote in a New York Post write-up on Friday morning, lending credence to him trying to “get right” before a certain date hits in late August.

“If Pivetta spends more than 130 days on the injured list with a specified injury, his player options for the 2026 and 2027 seasons will essentially turn into club options. The looming deadline to reach that time period is Aug. 22, so there’s certainly more on the line than just returning to help the rotation for Pivetta.”

Adding Robbie Ray and Casey Mize at the deadline might have just been moves by a club looking to beef up the rotation, or maybe it was to ensure them a bit further in case Pivetta’s arm is toast. Conjecture, sure, but I wouldn’t be betting on many quality innings here for the rest of the 2026 season.

Spencer Arrighetti – Traded to the Jays for Dalton Varsho AND knocked out of his first AAA appearance with the Bisons because of his now-recurring foot injury? Ugh. I saw someone’s AI-generated photo in a comment section of the Arrighetti news, and while I’m not a huge fan of the AI “art”, this one felt like it captured what it’s like to be a Jays fan this year.

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

Ronel Blanco 

Jordan Montgomery – see Kumar Rocker below.

Cody Bradford – 4 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at  0.00. This was his first start in two years, so while it was certainly encouraging, he’s just a monitor for now in mixed leagues.

Robert Stock –  His name sounds like he was a daytime soap opera star. With a line like 3 IP, 8 ER, 9 H, 5 BB, 4 Ks, he would’ve needed a lot more than a Guiding Light for this one. 

Hayden Wesneski – 6 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.86. 

Jameson Taillon – 4 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 5.96. Well, I said it last week when he was traded to the Jays. Getting DFA’ed by the Cubs wasn’t great, but Taillon is a serviceable enough arm who fills in for the now-seemingly bare rotation in Toronto. No more Gausman, Yesavage, and yes, Patrick Corbin, too. He should get innings.

Tyler Phillips – MIAMI not METS!

Bailey Ober – 6 IP, 3 ER, 6 hits, zero walks, 0 Ks, ERA at 4.45. Please don’t suck me in again.

Kyle Freeland

Kai-Wei Teng 

Slade Cecconi 

Zac Gallen 

Jacob Lopez 

Chris Bassitt 

David Peterson 

Adrian Houser – 5.0 IP, 6 hits, ER, BB, 4 K, 3rd win. 

Rhett Lowder 

Tomoyuki Sugano

Janson Junk 

Colin Rea

Dean Kremer 

Sean Manaea – 6 IP, 2 ER, 12 baserunners (5 BBs), 7 Ks, ERA at 4.33. Game 2: 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 11 Ks. Whoa! He’s back on the radar now!

J.P. Sears  

Walker Buehler

Tyler Mahle – 6.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K. He’s flip-flopped the good with the bad in his last 5 starts, so he’s not quite an auto-jump yet, but he’s right there. That this was the result after his first start as a Brave? The intrigue is high!

Cal Quantrill 

Matthew Liberatore – 5 IP, 5 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks. 

Aaron Nola – 5 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks. Hey, the line was technically better than Scherzer’s. Stop laughing! 

Brady Singer – 6 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 1 K.

Kendry Rojas 

David Sandlin 

Seth Lugo – 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, and his 5th win. It’s not an easy job to pick apart the Cubs these days, but Lugo gave us a QS. I’d start him at LAA and vs ATH this week. 

Cristian Javier – 5 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks.

Stephen Kolek – AL-only leaguers? It’s Tommy John Surgery here. And that means it’s time to chop. From your roster, I mean.

Trevor McDonald 

Bryce Elder – 7 IP, 1 ER, 1 hit, 2 walks, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.69. If he’s gonna pull a Pfaadt one and shove his way back onto the list, this is a good start. Well, to be honest, his last four starts were good.

Noah Schultz 

Griffin Canning – 

Jack Perkins

Grayson Rodriguez – 4 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 8 Ks, and his 5th loss.

Erick Fedde

Reynaldo Lopez – 15-day IL

Tatsuya Imai

German Marquez

Kumar Rocker – 3 IP, 6 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and very nice of him to stink it up so badly that it made Jordan Montgomery’s follow-up 4 IP, 3 ER, 6 H look decent. 

Brayan Bello – He’s been very good in a bulk reliever role since his recall: 18.2 IP, 1 ER, 12 H, 3 BB, 16 Ks. Yesterday, he followed new teammate Erik Miller and gave us much of the same: 4 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks.

Hunter Dobbins – 6 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.60. “Dobbins gives his master another quality start! That’s TWO in Dobbins’ most recent THREE games! Dobbins is a free starter!”

Randy Dobnak – 5 IP, 4 ER, 10 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks. Ouch.

Zac Thornton – 5.0 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 3rd win, ERA at 2.52. I looked him up again on Friday, and the first article I saw was “Why Zac Thornton shouldn’t be an automatic for the 2027 Mets rotation”. Then my first thought was “Is anyone going to have a 2027 rotation?”

Carson Whisenhunt

Mitch Bratt – 7 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners (3 BBs), 9 Ks, ERA at 3.90. I wrote him up in last week’s Saturday roundup for Dan Pants and said he wouldn’t be in the Top 100 writeup. Then he went out and dealt a beauty again. That makes him a Stumper with upward motion.

Max Scherzer – 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 4 Ks. After the game, when asked about how he felt about moving past Walter Johnson and into 10th place on the all-time strikeouts list with 3516, Scherzer replied, “Tired. And my arm is sore.” 

J.T. Ginn – 6 IP, 3 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.51. Back from the IL. Game 2: 6 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks.

Andrew Painter – 4 IP, 1 ER, ERA at 6.48, then left with a tight hammy. When asked for comment, manager Don Mattingly said, “No, not Primanti’s. Those are tight sammies. And they’re in Pittsburgh”.

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).

Trey Yesavage – IL’ed with knee soreness. Oof.

Kris Bubic – Traded to LAD. He’s still hurt, but now he gets golden popsicles instead of the crummy line green ones he had in KC.

Max Meyer

Jack Flaherty

Quinn Mathews

Spencer Arrighetti 

Connolly Early 

Nick Lodolo

Joe Musgrove

Ben Brown

Ryne Nelson

Lucas Giolito

Michael Soroka

Edward Cabrera 

Justin Steele 

Robby Snelling 

Jeffrey Springs 

Jonah Tong

JR Ritchie

Spencer Strider

Jack Kochanowicz 

Lance McCullers Jr.

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

Thomas White

Ryan Pepiot

Jose Berrios 

Justin Verlander

Reese Olson

Mick Abel 

Didier Fuentes

Garrett Crochet – According to Chad Tracy last week, Crochet has “resumed throwing from 50-60 feet on flat ground”. My thoughts and prayers go out to those underappreciated grounds crew workers who will have to scrape out the mound for him every 5 days.

Tyler Glasnow

Steven Matz.

Kodai Senga 

Braxton Garrett – Traded to CHC. Another late deal that wasn’t done before I submitted last week. He was recalled this week, but it sounds like he’ll be a long-man out of the bullpen. 

Yusei Kikuchi

Mike Burrows 

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

Kyle Harrison

Patrick Sandoval

Brandon Pfaadt

Grant Holmes

Javier Assad

Blake Snell

Kyle Leahy

Randy Vasquez

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

Hunter Greene 

Shane McClanahan – Thank goodness for Keelin’s Ambulance Chasers reports. I almost missed this 15-day IL assignment again, but made sure to look through her piece on Saturday to make sure I was up to date. Thanks, Keelin!

Trey Yesavage – IL’ed with knee soreness. Which is not all that similar to my heart soreness for drafting him everywhere instead of taking Cam Schlittler.

Emmett Sheehan – Optioned to AAA. Oh boy. I held on to this dude for far longer than I should have, but it still makes me wonder. If the Tigers had pushed harder, would they have been able to get Sheehan instead of River Ryan? If the Dodgers were ready to send him down anyway, maybe the issue wasn’t an issue after all, and Detroit just preferred the other arm? *shrugs*.

Griffin Jax – 15-day IL with right elbow soreness. Ugh.

Noah Schultz – Optioned to AAA.

Brandon Sproat – Optioned to AAA. 

Mitch Keller – 60-day IL.

 

That’s all for this week! Or at least until the trade dust settles later this afternoon.

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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