Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!

We’re headed “Back To The Future” with some time travel from last week!

It’s a revisit of an old matchup from 2008 that y’all had likely seen referenced more than a few times leading up to the game last Friday night.

Fire up that Flux Capacitor and have a peep at this one. 

88 MPH? That’s it?

It’s a longer clip today, but I’m powerless when it comes to including commentary from Vin Scully.

As a quick side note, is there any better summer listening than sitting back and taking in a detailed story from “The Voice of the Dodgers”? 

If you have no time for videos and clips, this was the gist of it. The first ‘KerScherzer’ mashup was on September 7th, 2008, when two Hall of Famers…

Why don’t you make like a tree and get outta here?

…Had their pitching schedules shuffled and cleared the bump for a head-to-head matchup of two promising rookie starters.

Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth’s gravitational pull?

It’s fitting that we did a mashup here, since things usually need to be mashed up for most geriatric gentlemen. Strained peas with a side of Metamucil? Maybe we’re not quite there yet with KerScherzer, but these guys were certainly generating at least 1.21 jigawatts of juice on Friday night. Or is that gigawatts?

There must be a jif for that. Or maybe a GIF.

It felt right to listen to this one on the radio feed while I was outside building a bonfire for the kids. Not that we had a choice in the matter. Which reminds me to thank MLB TV yet again for the video feed blackout. Ugh.

Some notes that your internet pal, MarmosDad, and his pair of Marm-offspring gathered while these two old fogeys toed the rubber 17 years after their first matchup? It’s fair to say that neither one of our starting pitchers looked so old that they had to take their teeth out.

Max Scherzer (6 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks) was on point. He managed to strike out one guy per inning and was still throwing 94 MPH before he exited (his fastball topped out at 96 MPH). 

Scherzer finished up his 6 innings with 98 pitches, and ended up with a tough luck loss. His only real “whoops” was a Shohei Ohtani ground rule double followed by a Mookie Betts home run.

That line would have been tough to top, but when we’re talking about two future Hall of Famers, all bets are off.

Clayton Kershaw (6 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks) answered Scherzer’s strong start and secured his 6th win while throwing just 74 pitches.

Another interesting fact we learned from the Jays’ broadcast team was that Kershaw is one of just 59 players to have spent 18 or more years (their entire career) with the same team. Watching a guy who, at the age of 21, pitched to Vladimir Guerrero SENIOR, then pitched to JUNIOR 17 years later (at the ripe old age of 37)? That kind of storyline writes itself.

Sitting outside on a warm summer night and listening to Vin Scully should have been the coolest part of this blast from the past, time travel session. I mean, how can a baseball fan not appreciate being given a full rundown of heterochomia from a legendary baseball broadcaster? 

But, of course, all of that cool was topped by this even cooler photo from after the game.

The only two pitchers in MLB history to have started against each other as rookies and go on to reach 3,000 strikeouts (both).  Zoom in on the notes they added here, too. Legends.

I could dive into this stuff all day, but it was even more of a shocker to find out that with Kershaw’s W on Friday night, BOTH future Hall of Famers now sit at 218 career wins. Talk about a fitting way to end a legendary evening.

Are these two SPs worth starting as we blast off into the race for a Fantasy League title?

Which road do we need to take to find them in this week’s edition of the Top 100 Starting Pitchers list?

But 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. 

*Most notes do not include final results from Sunday games*

The Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2025

SP RANK	Name	Team	UP / DOWN	Notes
1	Tarik Skubal	DET		4.2 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 6 K. Oh no. Please don’t let him catch the PaddackMorton infection.
2	Garrett Crochet	BOS		6 straight wins, 183 strikeouts in 146 IP, and pristine ratios make it a lot easier to not worry about ranking him above Wheeler every week. He gets two starts this week, too. (at HOU, vs MIA).
3	Zack Wheeler	PHI		Shoulder stiffness pushed his Friday start back to yesterday. EDIT: 5 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks, his 10th win, and much ado about nothing as far as the injury scare was concerned.
4	Paul Skenes	PIT		6 IP, 0 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, ERA at 1.94. Ok. But did he get the win? (Spoiler: He did).
5	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD		5.2 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, and his 10th win yesterday. He’s been as solid as they come and should continue the strong run at LAA this week.
6	Jacob deGrom	TEX		6.2 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks. Lost at home to Jesus Luzardo and the Phillies.
7	Bryan Woo	SEA		7 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 9 Ks, ERA at 3.02. That’s a career high in strikeouts for Marmo’s boo, Woo. AND as a nice throwback to our lede, the broadcast crew announced that this was the first time since 2019 that a starter has thrown at least 6 innings in 23 consecutive starts. Guess who owns that distinction from 6 years ago!
8	Tyler Glasnow	LAD		3 innings of 2-hit ball yesterday with 3 BB and 4 Ks at the time of writing. To be honest, I was surprised he didn’t have 9 strikeouts by that point. EDIT: 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 8 Ks, and the no-decision.
9	Joe Ryan	MIN		5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 5 K, and his 11th win. ERA at 2.72. WHIP at 0.92. The march to justifying his War Room ranking way back in…uh…March is about as complete as it can get. He’s one who a lot of us could argue deserves a spot in the Top 10.
10	Cristopher Sanchez	PHI		6 IP, 0 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 6 K, and his 11th win. That’s 16 QS in 24 starts. Serious question: Which one of these is the toughest to believe? That he’s lost just twice in his last 18 starts, or that those losses were against PIT and CWS?
11	Freddy Peralta	MLW		5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.03. He pushed his win total up to lucky 13 after this one and is sitting in the Top 10 in NL Strikeouts (141). He gets the Pirates at home today.
12	Max Fried	NYY		Don’t stop me if you’ve heard this one before – 5 IP, 4 ER, 8 H on 90+ pitches – because it’s the same line as his start at TEX from last Monday. He had fewer walks and strikeouts yesterday, though, and took the loss (his 5th).
13	Logan Webb	SF		6 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 10 Ks, ERA at 3.24. Another beautifully spun Webb to catch a bunch of Ks.
14	Framber Valdez	HOU		5.2 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 4 BB, 1 K. That’s 9 ER in his last 2 starts (11.2 IP) as he got the not-so-hospitable welcome on his visit through the AL East. Getting roughed up at NYY and BOS isn’t uncommon, but it’s worth paying attention to this week’s start at home vs BAL.
15	Hunter Brown	HOU		5.1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K. I won’t get into the annoyance that was Friday night’s Apple TV (or FanDuel network) letdowns. I’m just glad BrownTown didn’t let us down…unless you were hoping for a win, because that hasn’t happened since July 2nd (winless in 6 GS).
16	Robbie Ray	SF		6 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, ERA at 2.85. Sure, this was his second consecutive no-decision, but it’s not his fault he didn’t get the run support. Throwing 100+ pitches and giving the Giants a quality start should be enough. He just keeps on cruising.
17	Logan Gilbert	SEA		5 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.35. He’s our second Logan in the Top 20!
18	Blake Snell	LAD		5 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 10 Ks. Uh oh. Snellzilla is back, and he’s revving up the second-half steamroller.
19	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX		More below.
20	Dylan Cease	SD		Every start, we could get a half dozen walks and earned runs or a dozen strikeouts. Does it matter who the matchup is? Who knows. Yesterday, at the time of writing, he had given up just one hit and 0 ER in 3.2 IP with 3 Ks vs BOS. EDIT: 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 5th win.
21	George Kirby	SEA		3 wins in a row and just 4 ER in his last 18 IP to go along with 24 Ks. If that’s not enough to get your blood pumping, he’s a two-start guy this week, too (at BAL and at NYM).
22	Spencer Strider	ATL		4.2 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 4.04. I said something a couple of weeks ago about “Would you rather have a random top 50-ish SP or Spencer Strider at 70% the rest of the way?” This didn’t even look like he was at 50%. Ugh.
23	Brandon Woodruff	MLW		7 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 K. If you’re trying to shake the habit of holding onto a broken starter for two years in a keeper league because you’re hoping for a bounce back to ace form…just don’t look at this guy.
24	Carlos Rodon	NYY		He’s finished 6+ innings in just one of his last seven starts, with just two wins to show in that span. The pitch count is hefty, too. I’m not sitting him this week at home vs MIN, but he needs to show up.
25	Shota Imanaga	CHC		6.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.12. Shot-a through the heart, and no one else is to blame if you’re not rostering him for ratio help.
26	Michael King	SD	N/R	2 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 K on 57 pitches in his first start since May 18th. It’s the same story as always with these first starts back – he threw a decent amount of pitches without having any major setbacks. He can build on his next start on my bench, though, as he heads to LAD this week.
27	Sonny Gray	STL		7 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks AT LAD last week? And he didn’t pick up a win? Come on, man!
28	Luis Castillo	SEA		A pretty solid 7-inning no-decision vs TB last week, and his 6th QS in his last 10 starts. He heads to BAL this week.
29	Trevor Rogers	BAL		6 IP, 1 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 1.44. I traded for him in the AL-Only and figured he was an auto start every time out, so I didn’t sit him…until I saw he had PHI last week. Oof. I’ll take Over-managing for $1000, Alex.
30	Ranger Suarez	PHI		6.1 IP, 5 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks. ERA at 2.94. See David Peterson’s note a bit further down here.
31	MacKenzie Gore	WSH		More below.
32	Nick Pivetta	SD		6 IP, 5 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 3 K. It was his first time allowing more than 2 ER in his last 8 GS, so let’s cut him some slack. Facing the surging Red Sox isn’t an easy task. He heads to SF this week.
33	Seth Lugo	KC		4 IP, 7 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, K. If KC had waited until after this start, they could’ve saved a few million on the contract extension.
34	Eury Perez	MIA		5.1 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 1 K. ERA at 3.25. He got Drake Baldwin-ed (2 HR, 5 RBI); the biggest Drake beef since Kendrick Lamar’s. I took a bit of flak last week for not having him higher, but this is why. He was great before this start (4 total ER in his last 6 GS), but the implosion threat feels like it could happen more often than it does with some of the others above him.
35	Matthew Boyd	CHC		He’s winless in three after a nice run of 5 wins in a row. This week’s trip to TOR is a dicey start, too.
36	Jesus Luzardo	PHI		6 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and his 11th win. ERA at 4.20. No burning bushes to report here!
37	Edward Cabrera	MIA		8 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 11 Ks. Forget UberEats and DoorDash because EdCab is delivering the goods!
38	Andrew Abbott	CIN		6.2 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.34. Just three wins in his last 10 GS, but the solid ratios wouldn’t let you believe it.
39	Chase Burns	CIN		6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 10 K. I caught a couple of innings of this one, and oh boy. Blasting high 99 MPH heaters through 5 innings makes me feel a lot better about dropping $237 on him in that late-June TGFBI FAAB run.
40	Noah Cameron	KC		5.2 IP, 0 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks. ERA at 2.52.  0, 4, 0, 4, 0, 2, 0, 5. Those are the earned run totals from his last 8 GS. The flip-flop king had another shutout start on Saturday night. He gets CWS at home this week, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can break the pattern.
41	Sean Manaea	N/R		4 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks. Neither Manaea nor Priester could slow down the bats in yesterday’s NYM/MLW game.
42	Hunter Greene	CIN		Slated to start this Wednesday vs PHI.
43	Jack Flaherty	DET		4.2 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 4.56. It’s ok. He’s just laying a rotten one down to make Chris Paddack and Charlie Morton more comfortable in their new digs.
44	Ryan Pepiot	TB		5.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks at LAA, and his 7th win. It’s been tough sledding for Pepiot, who has just 2 wins since the end of June.
45	Kodai Senga	NYM		4.1 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 2 K. It took him almost 80 pitches to get 13 outs. To throw it back to our lede, Senga’s start was almost as bad as the old Back To The Future III Genesis game.
46	Will Warren	NYY		3 ER in his last 16.2 innings is a big boost to those of us looking for ratio help. Now he needs to tally some wins. (Zero in his last 5 starts).
47	Lucas Giolito	BOS		4.2 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 6 BB, 1 K. The Padres took Gio for a Saturday afternoon stroll. Half a dozen walks aren’t good, but his ERA is still sitting at a respectable 3.77.
48	Brayan Bello	BOS		Hey-Oh! Last week’s lede didn’t disappoint with another shutout quality start on Monday. He was on his way to another strong showing at SD yesterday when I wrote this one up, too. EDIT: Well, I cursed him. He finished with 5.2 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 7 Ks, and his 6th loss. ERA at 3.25.
49	Jacob Misiorowski	MLW		I’ve removed most pitchers when they hit the IL, but I think the Miz’s ‘injury’ has as much to do with innings management as anything else. He’ll move down today because of the missed time, but stick here until he comes back at the end of this week. (He’s penciled in to start this Friday).
50	Merrill Kelly	TEX		4.1 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 5 BB, 4 K. Five walks and two homers allowed are almost as bad as needing 94 pitches to get 13 outs.
51	Quinn Priester	MLW		4.1 IP, 6 ER, 10 H, (2 HR), 1 BB, 2 Ks vs NYM yesterday. It’s fitting that the Priester gets blown up the same week that Jesus Luzardo comes back to life.
52	Drew Rasmussen	TB	N/R	More below.
53	Yusei Kikuchi	LAA		5 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 6th win. ERA at 3.37. Yu-see a sub-.500 pitcher, I see a starter who’s managed to keep his ERA in control despite throwing for a sub-.500 team. Shrug emoji.
54	David Peterson	NYM		6 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, ERA at 2.98. Nothing like giving up four earned runs and still sitting with an ERA under 3.00.
55	Kevin Gausman	TOR		The 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 K outing was a nice bounceback after his previous blowup vs KC. Sure, he was in COL for this one, but any step forward is a good one with the Goose.
56	Casey Mize	DET		Back-to-back wins after a nasty stretch of 8.2 IP, 11 ER to end July. He heads to MIN this week.
57	Gavin Williams	CLE		8.2 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 4 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.17. Gavin was havin’ himself a game – no-hitter through 8 2/3 – until Juan Soto had to ruin it with a solo HR. Aside from that stain, this is the start we’ve been waiting for with Williams. The walks were still there, but the swinging strike percentage was too. 44% of his 126 pitches were swinging strikes.
58	Max Scherzer	TOR		Moves up a smidge with that solid start at LAD. More above!
59	Yu Darvish	SD		It’s a Grey quote for this one this week: “4 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, ERA at 6.51. It’s nice that you want him to be better than he’s been, but unless your league is very deep, stop wanting and start looking elsewhere.”
60	Mitch Keller	PIT		He’d won 4 of his last 7 starts heading into Friday’s game and came within one out of recording his 16th QS (in 24 GS).
61	Shane Bieber	TOR		I wrote up Biebs last week when a friend went to watch his rehab start in Buffalo. I assumed he’d be up sooner rather than later, but it sounds like the Jays are going to play it safe and give him at least one or two more rehab starts in Buffalo before he heads up the QEW to Toronto for the stretch run. That pushes him down a bit this week.
62	Shane Baz	TB		4 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.92. He should capitalize all the letters in his last name since he’s been about as good as most of the guys in Arizona’s starting rotation.
63	Tanner Bibee	CLE		5.1 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 7 K. I’ve been watching LOST with my oldest, and every time I hear Claire talk about her kid, it reminds me of the CLE SP. It’s fitting, too, because you’d have to be just as bat-shizz crazy as she is to trust him on your active roster.
64	Clay Holmes	NYM		5 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.46. The half a dozen Ks were his most in nearly two months. At least he got through 5 innings. Maybe they’ll take his training wheels off next week, and he’ll get to 5 2/3.
65	Ryne Nelson	ARI		5.2 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, ERA at 3.20. I was all set to include an “Mmm, bop” reference until I remembered that was Hanson and not Nelson.
66	Emmett Sheehan	LAD		5 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.00. He’s as solid as it comes and is buried on that Dodgers depth chart. If you can sneak in and add him or trade for him (if your deadline hasn’t passed yet), get him now.
67	Jose Soriano	LAA		4 IP, 7 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks. ERA at 4.01. I traded for this guy in a home mixed league and immediately knew it was not a good idea. Does that make it better? No. The good news is he had four solid starts before this one. The bad news is this wasn’t his 5th solid start in a row.
68	Luis Gil	NYY	N/R	5.1 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and the no-decision. Taming the Astros lineup is more impressive than last week’s Marlin meltdown, but he gets a free pass on that one since it was his first start of the year. As always, it comes down to limiting walks with Gil. “He’ll” try to repeat at STL this week.
69	Jose Berrios	TOR		He’s won three of his last four starts, and even though it hasn’t been flashy, he’s been serviceable. The home runs allowed (and earned runs) are still there, though.
70	Cam Schlittler	NYY		5 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 3 K. I bet you thought The Man With The Golden Gun was just a James Bond movie. Well, the man with the 97.8 MPH fastball is checking in at the 94th percentile in velocity (overall).
71	Justin Verlander	SF		This Justin: Verlander was upset about not being added to the photo in our lede. 2 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 HR, 0 BB, 4 Ks (at the time of writing). As an added point of reference, while Scherzer and Kershaw are both sitting at an impressive 218 wins, Verlander leads active pitchers with 263. And he’s 1-9 this season.
72	Cade Horton	CHC		5.2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.18. Horton hears a few things, but apparently, how to give up an earned run isn’t one of them. He now has a scoreless streak of 23 1/3 innings.
73	Zack Littell	CIN		7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks, ERA at 3.46. I used to give a little, but a little wouldn’t do it, so the little got more and more.
74	Jacob Lopez	ATH		Grey’s lede from last Thursday morning. More below.
75	Shohei Ohtani	LAD		4 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, ERA at 2.37. Ramping up and giving great strikeout totals just in time for the head-to-head leaguers that held him all year as an SP Only. He’s like the Dos Equis guy. The most considerate man in baseball. “I don’t always dominate at the plate and on the mound, but when I do…hopefully, you have me active in a league where total points count!”
76	Michael Wacha	KC		6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.36. Wacha wacha wacha wacha … that’s Michael Pac-Man just cruising through lineups like they’re power pellet alleyways.
77	Clayton Kershaw	LAD		See the Scherzer note. More above!
78	Chris Bassitt	TOR		4.2 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and a bit of a ticker shock in the Jays’ 9-1 loss. Two homers allowed (Muncy and Ohtani) were the majority of the damage but, if you’re like me, you sat him for this one anyway.
79	Spencer Arrighetti	HOU	N/R	3.2 IP, 5 ER, 11 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks in his first start in 4 months. ERA at 7.43. On how many pitches? Because that’s the important part here. (A) Did he get through his outing without re-injuring anything? (B) Did he hit his pitch count and velocity checkpoints? (C) Ya, you know what C is(n’t).
80	Jose Quintana	MLW		6 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.57. There was a little more blood in the water this week, but Quint wasn’t entirely bested by Jaws. This was just a couple of chomps out of the boat.
81	Slade Cecconi	CLE		Yesterday was a tough ride for a lot of SPs. Cecconi had just finished 3 IP with 5 ER, 8 H, 2 HR, 1 BB, and 4 Ks when I wrote this up. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I then realized that he laid that rotten egg at CWS. Smh.
82	Brady Singer	CIN		3.2 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.53. Sad songs, they say so much. And this one said whatever the words to “Barf Emoji” are.
83	Colin Rea	CHC	N/R	6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and his 9th win. Is this guy for Rea-l? The 99 pitch outing was his first quality start in his last five games. You could do a lot worse than using Rea to round out a fantasy rotation.
84	Eric Lauer	TOR		Six straight starts allowing 2 ER or fewer, not including yesterday’s LAD start. He might have gotten crushed (2 HR in 0.2 IP at the time of writing), but I wouldn’t have started him in Dodgerland anyway. EDIT: The magic pixie dust didn’t work at LAD. 3 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 4 BB, 4 Ks. If there’s any positive here, it’s that he settled down a bit after that first inning, but the damage was already done.
85	Jeffrey Springs	ATH		More below.
86	Joe Boyle	TB		3.1 IP, 6 ER, 4 H, 5 BB, 5 Ks. Joe got into some hot water against Cal Raleigh and the Mariners on Saturday.
87	Jack Leiter	TEX		3.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.05. 68 pitches to get 10 outs? That Leiter wasn’t so fluid.
88	Adrian Houser	TB		At the time of writing yesterday,  he’d given up one home run, 3 H, 4 ER, and 1 BB. Oh, and he had zero strikeouts and hadn’t recorded an out yet in SEA. Oof. EDIT: 5 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks, and a loss to the Woo-bot.
89	Charlie Morton	DET		4.1 IP, 6 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 10 Ks, and his 10th loss. ERA at 5.48. “Oh, ya? But can Alex Cobb give us 10 strikeouts?” That’s Tigers fans searching for a silver lining.
90	Matthew Liberatore	STL		He hasn’t won in 6 starts and hasn’t finished 6 innings since June 29th. This guy is Freefalling more than Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
91	Bryce Miller	SEA		Started at AAA Tacoma last Thursday. 3.2 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks. His fastball hit 97.5 MPH, and he could be back this week if Seattle thinks he doesn’t need another rehab start.
92	Bailey Ober	MIN		6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks on 89 pitches, and a tough 2-0 loss to KC. I streamed him in Perts because he was all that was left that was worth the gamble, and it paid off. Hopefully, this is the start of him showing us he’s closer to the guy we hoped for way back in April.
93	Zac Gallen	ARI		6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 6 K. At least he didn’t give up 7 ER! This is where we are with Zac Gallen.
94	Zebby Matthews	MIN		5 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 5.17. He’s still too volatile for my liking, but he’s a good hold in keeper leagues. If you’re rostering him in redraft, I’d be checking the Streamonator every week just to be sure we’re not riding him into a buzz saw.
95	Nick Martinez	CIN		7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and his 10th win. ERA at 4.49. The ratios might not be ideal, but he’s tied for 15th (overall) with those 10 wins.
96	Sandy Alcantara	MIA		5 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 4 Ks, and his 11th loss. If you were going to take a guess, would you go with the over or under on a 6.50 ERA? (If you took the under, I have bad news for you).
97	Chris Paddack	DET		More below.
98	Brandon Pfaadt	ARI		5.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks, and his 11th win. 11 wins! So we’re trusting him to anchor our fantasy staffs, then, right? Ha! Pfaadt chance!
99	Janson Junk	MIA		5 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and his 6th win (9 GS). He heads to CLE this week, so be careful.
100	Andrew Heaney	PIT		4.2 IP, 1 ER, ERA at 4.77. If you’re not finishing at least 5 innings in a Pittsburgh start, are you even a real starter?

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

Nathan Eovaldi – 8 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 1.38. He’s 6-0 in his last six starts with a 0.47 ERA. These numbers are better than some of our Top 10 SPs. That’s the only point we need to justify moving him up to where he is this week, which one could argue is still too low.

Jacob Lopez – 7.2 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 10 Ks, ERA at 3.59. To quote our Fantasy Master Lothario from last week – “The top six on the Z-Contact: Skubal, Cease, Skenes, Wheeler, Joe Ryan, Cristopher Sanchez, then Lopez.” That’s a pretty impressive group!

Jeffrey Springs – 6 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.89. He’ll always be a guy I watch and go, “Huh. Not bad,” in his decent starts because I likely won’t ever roster him anywhere. He’s allowed just 4 ER in his last 18 IP (3 GS), with 17 strikeouts.

Drew Rasmussen – 6 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 4 Ks. 79 pitches and his third straight start with 5+ IP. I searched much longer for news about Rasmussen’s usage for the rest of the season than I care to admit. Do I think he’ll be ripping off quality starts every 5 days through October? No. But he’s averaged 78 pitches and posted a 16.1 IP, 2 ER, 12 H, 2 BB, 15 K line over his last 3 GS.

If you’re rostering him, make sure to have a backup plan when/if the Rays shut him down for good, but as long as he’s dealing like he has been, we can’t keep him out of the Top 50, let alone off the list. If he gets a full slate of starts, he’s a Top 25-30 arm at the very least. This ranking is a bit of that optimism with a splash of “looming shutdown” baked in.

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

MacKenzie Gore – 3 IP, 8 ER, 12 H, 1 BB, 0 Ks. ERA at 4.12. What a massacre. And the kid who was floating around the top of the strikeout leaderboard a few weeks ago had zero punch-outs? It hasn’t just been horrific, he’s been downright Gory.

Frankie Montas – 3 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 6.38. After giving up 12 ER in his previous two starts (8.1 IP), Montas followed Reed Garrett in this one. He doesn’t look like a Top 100 option as long as he’s not starting games and/or giving us 5+ innings.

JP Sears – Removed from the list as he was optioned to the minors following his trade. Oops! I guess there are no Sears safe from being shut down.

Chris Paddack – 4 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 0 Ks. ERA at 4.91. Zero walks? Yay! Zero strikeouts?! Nay! Someone start lining the walls with thick mats because Tigers fans are going to need a padded room to retreat to after Paddack drives them crazy.

Dustin May – 3.2 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks. ERA at 4.93. I almost dropped him, then saw that he was dealt to the Red Sox, so I put in a FAAB bid for him (as a 5th contingency behind others). After I won the bid, I started him because YOFUAFSO. Then, I explained to you all that the middle part of that acronym stands for “eff up a Fenway start”. Finally, I shook my head because I started him instead of Trevor Rogers.

And that’s my step-by-step recounting of The Meltdown of MayDay 2025. Buh bye, Dustin.

Andrew Painter – He was a last-minute add to the Dumpers this week. Painter isn’t on the list, so this is more of a “maybe it’s time to reconsider stashing him in redraft leagues”. For the record, I squirrelled away both Painter and Bubba Chandler weeks ago in our RCLs.

Whoa, Doc. This is Heavy.

The feeling of joy/satisfaction when I finally dropped Painter last night was comparable to that moment when Crispin Glover delivers an uppercut to Biff Tannen’s jaw in the first Back To The Future movie. Unfortunately, Andrew Painter has also looked about as athletic as Crispin Glover since July 1st (0-2, 31 IP, 34 H, 6 HR allowed, 26 Ks, ERA at 5.68).

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

Cal Quantrill

Nestor Cortes

Shane Smith

Troy Melton

Dean Kremer

Jake Irvin

Eduardo Rodriguez

Jameson Taillon

Tyler Anderson

Michael McGreevy – he almost made the cut this week. Sorry, Mike.

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

Landen Roupp

Griffin Canning

Zach Eflin

Reese Olson

Grayson Rodriguez

Nestor Cortes

Aaron Nola

Jackson Jobe

Bubba Chandler

Tyler Mahle

Pablo Lopez

Tylor Megill

Chris Sale 

Ryan Weathers

Cristian Javier – back this week.

Clarke Schmidt

Logan Henderson (was called up and is now back on the IL).

Corbin Burnes

Max Meyer

Roki Sasaki

WHEE! (New arrivals/returns to the list this week)

Michael King

Spencer Arrighetti

Colin Rea

Luis Gil

Drew Rasmussen

Nick Martinez

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

Nick Lodolo – IL (blister).

Taj Bradley – optioned to the minors and will likely stay there for at least another start or two.

Kumar Rocker – optioned to minors.

Frankie Montas – used as a follower last week.

JP Sears – optioned to minors.

Michael Soroka – IL (shoulder).

Dustin May (out of the 101 spot).

 

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!

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