Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!

I was all set to run with a lede for a certain Cleveland starting pitcher who flirted with a no-hitter last week, but Cade Smith’s attempt to lock down a clean save left Messick.

So, I pivoted to another starting pitcher who has left many of us feeling happy, healthy, and thankful that we used a late-round pick on him this draft season.

And before anyone gets all angry with me for using the AI (Co-Pilot) generated image, know that this mashup of “not” Fozzie Bear and “not” Black Panther is what you could have gotten instead…

 

Last Friday night, Michael Wacha kept doing his best superhero impression by rolling into Yankee Stadium and giving them a black panther claw swipe of his own. The 6 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks wasn’t enough to get him his third win of the year. Still, it was enough to tell me two things…

1. I don’t know why I’m still worried about starting a pitcher at Yankee Stadium. After 20 games, and after cherry-picking a stat that supports my confusion, the Yankees are ranked 27th in the league, with a .218 Team Batting Average. Oof.
2. Michael Wacha has 4 QS in his first four starts, a 1.00 ERA, a 0.778 WHIP, and a big vote of confidence from this fantasy manager.

While everyone is scrambling to add Noah Schultz, Spencer Arrighetti, and…uh…Randy Vasquez (more on him later), there are many less flashy starting pitchers doing much more impressive things with much less excitement on their resumes.

As I said last week, ‘boring’ might not get too many clicks on the TikTok posts, but it can sure put us in a good position to make a solid run at a fantasy baseball championship.

This is what I wrote up for him in my notes for this week: “I was fooled by the shadow that is the Jankee offensive curse. Starting Wacha at NYY was enough to make me hesitate. Now? Line up the Wacha-king against the rest of the Avengers and watch the Black Panther Royalty TCB.”

For good measure, I rolled out Sandwich Pick’s scatter plot generator that I used for last week’s World Of Ashcraft write-up, and lo and behold, guess who was in that special top-right quadrant of goodness?

Now, I know, Swinging Strike Rates and K-BB% aren’t the be-all and end-all of Top 100 Starting Pitcher analysis, but if your guy is limiting walks and fooling hitters, more often than not, he’s pulling off some serious success.

Where does Michael Wacha rank in today’s Top 100? Is he higher than last week’s Braxton Ashcraft? Did he kick Randy Vasquez in the shins on his way up (and past) the Padres pitcher this week?

Well, first, as always, it’s a bit of business. 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. Now let’s go see “Wacha-nda Forever.”

The Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2026

All news and notes were updated Sunday afternoon, while some games were still in progress. 

MARMO RANK	Name	Team	Notes
1	Tarik Skubal	DET	Saturday night is alright for a Fenway start after all. 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 10 Ks, and one “best pitcher in baseball”.
2	Paul Skenes	PIT	6 IP, 1 ER, 1 hit, 1 walk, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.00. Great. Another random Pirates starter is trying to level up and steal the spotlight from the World of Ashcraft.
3	Garrett Crochet	BOS	Game 1: 1 2/3 IP, 10 ER, ERA at 7.58. Ahhhhhh!!!!! Could we have a new Top 3 next week? Nah…but…nah
4	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD	7 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 2.10. Nothing to warrant a shuffle in the Top 5 this week.
5	Cristopher Sanchez	PHI	6 IP, 2 ER, 9 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 2.01. Someone’s staff Cy Young pick is off to a good start!!!
6	Bryan Woo	SEA	7 IP, 3 ER, 9 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.16. Grey lists baserunners instead of breaking up hits and walks, so I always try to guess how many of the baserunners in Woo’s recap are hits (if I miss a start). Hint: it was fewer than two. Unfortunately, so is his win total.
7	Chris Sale	ATL	7 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and his 4th win on 101 pitches. He’s up above Fried today, but I can’t push Woo out…yet.
8	Jacob deGrom	TEX	4.0 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K. On how many pitches?! (It was 88).
9	Logan Gilbert	SEA	5.1 IP, 7 hits, 2 ER, BB, 7 K. Yessir. Another day, another Mariner ace puts up a solid start (even if it wasn’t a QS or from a guy named Castillo).
10	Shohei Ohtani	LAD	6 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 0.50. So this is what happens when we don’t have to worry about him doing that pesky “homering and stealing” silliness?
11	Max Fried	NYY	5 1/3 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 2.97. Greasy. DOWN today.
12	Cole Ragans	KC	6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners (4 BBs), 1 K, ERA at 3.78. Um, I’m sorry, what? ONE strikeout? Time to charge up that ray-gun again.
13	Joe Ryan	MIN	6.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, 6 K. A crummy luck loss for JR. Nothing to knock the big white cowboy hat off, though.
14	George Kirby	SEA	7 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 8 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.25. Ok, so maybe you can spell “ace” without ‘George Kirby’, but you can’t spell bigger, bore, broke, and gorge without him. As in “you could have drafted a bigger starting pitcher who would be less of a bore, but give you peripherals that are much less ‘gorge’ than what Kirby will give us.” Oh, and Kobe. Because George doesn’t need Shaq either.
15	Logan Webb	SF	Another “meh” start mirrored last week’s. 6 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and his second win.
16	Tyler Glasnow	LAD	7.0 IP, 2 hits, ER, 2 BB, 7 K. This is the guy we want to see when he’s healthy. Ride until the wheels fall off. UP!
17	Dylan Cease	TOR	6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 1.74. It shouldn’t cease to amaze us all that this guy and Gausman are the only healthy arms producing in the Jays’ rotation.
18	Kevin Gausman	TOR	5 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks on 97 pitches. That was Game 1 (he threw the afternoon game yesterday). It’s unrealistic to expect Gausman and Cease to be perfect each time out. That team needs their injured arms back as soon as possible. DOWN.
19	Framber Valdez	DET	7 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 1 K, ERA at 3.75. He and Cole Ragans must’ve had the under on strikeouts in each start.
20	Freddy Peralta	NYM	5.2 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks. He looked better than the final line and matched Taillon until the 6th. Freddy walked two to start the inning, was pulled at 93 pitches, then watched the bullpen let his guys score.
21	Nolan McLean	NYM	7 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 2.28. I resisted adding another video of this guy because, of course, there was another clip of him doing some absolutely filthy things on the mound again last week. It’s crazy what he can do with a baseball, and the Top 20 spot is overdue.
22	Cam Schlittler	NYY	6.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, ERA at 1.95. Thank goodness I got a share. Why? Because Schlitt happens.
23	Jacob Misiorowski	MLW	Jumper! More below. EDIT: A bit of ticker shock at the time of edit yesterday. 4 IP, 3 R (1 ER), 3 H, 3 BB, 8 Ks, and he was still in the game.
24	Brandon Woodruff	MLW	Woody is back in the win column after another QS on Saturday. 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks is about as good as it gets. He gets PIT at home this weekend. UP.
25	Kyle Bradish	BAL	6 IP, 4 ER, 9 baserunners (1 BB), 4 Ks, ERA at 5.49. It’s not bad, but it’s not the line we want to see from a Top 15-20ish arm.
26	Robbie Ray	SF	5 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.42. He gets MIA at home this week.
27	Sonny Gray	BOS	4 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 4.43. BAM! He was due for a Fenway flop sooner or later. *checks notes and sees this one was in Minnesota* Yes, like I said, later than sooner.
28	Trevor Rogers	BAL	He couldn’t finish 5 innings on Tuesday (4.2 IP) and gave up 4 ER on 10 baserunners. Was slated to throw at CLE yesterday vs Joey Cantillo. EDIT: Both he and Cantillo got hit a bit through 4 innings. 4 Ks and 1 BB for Rogers after 4 IP as of the edit.
29	Sandy Alcantara	MIA	5 IP, 3 ER, 5 H doesn’t look all that bad until we see he walked 6 and struck out just one. After winning his first two starts, Sandy has allowed 12 ER in 19.1 innings with 10 BBs and 11 Ks. Ugh. DOWN.
30	Eury Perez	MIA	4 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 5.40. That Cy Young breakout is coming. Any day now. Yep. Almost here. Jokes! Please don’t throw your computer monitor through the window. EDIT: Much better outing yesterday at the time of edit – 4.1 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks.
31	Edward Cabrera	CHC	6.0 IP, 8 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. W. He gets PHI at home on Wednesday.
32	Shota Imanaga	CHC	6 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 11 Ks, ERA at 2.45. I wanna Imanaga. UP!
33	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX	7 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 5.40. He’s probably too low here, and, seriously, go make a trade offer for him if you don’t roster him. I bet you can get him on the cheap.
34	Michael King	SD	6 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.278. Maybe it’s because he’s a West Coast guy, maybe it’s because he’s with the Padres, but does King feel like he’s underrated this year? I haven’t heard much fanfare, but the numbers are solid nonetheless.
35	Mackenzie Gore	TEX	4 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 9 baserunners (6 BBs), 5 Ks, ERA at 3.00. I saw a few folks cutting bait on Gore this week, and all I can say is you are much less patient than I am. (That’s not necessarily a bad thing!)
36	Chase Burns	CIN	6 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 1 walk, 4 Ks, ERA at 2.42. Only three baserunners? Someone is heating up. This one wasn’t anything more than some 4th-degree burns, but it’s a step in the right direction. UP a bit today.
37	Bubba Chandler	PIT	6.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, BB, 3 K. One walk, one win. That’s a good formula. But maybe abandon it once we get to a half dozen.
38	Ranger Suarez	BOS	8.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, BB, 4 K. I sure do hope you didn’t drop him for Martin Perez or Joe Boyle two weeks ago.
39	Gavin Williams	CLE	7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 11 Ks, and his 3rd win. All impressive numbers, but the most impressive was the walk total. After issuing 14 BBs in his forest 3 GS, Williams walked two last week and just one on Saturday. UP.
40	Jose Soriano	LAA	5.2 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, ERA at 0.28. Ok, serious question. Had we known then what we know now about Jose Soriano, where would you have drafted him in February? Top 20? Top 10? WAY UP again today.
41	Parker Messick	CLE	8 IP, 2 ER, 4 baserunners, 9 Ks, ERA at 1.05. I watched the 7th through to the end of the game. He might not be a superstar, but he’s a damn good pitcher. And I’m glad I got in on it early.
42	Emmet Sheehan	LAD	5 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks. Back-to-back 77 pitch outings in his last two starts, and some less-than-impressive ratios mean he slides just a bit today. DOWN.
43	Jesus Luzardo	PHI	Dumper. More below.
44	Kris Bubic	KC	4 2/3 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.97. There’s a “fool me once” pun in there for the Boob-itch, but I feel like it’s a trap, so let’s leave it alone. DOWN.
45	Drew Rasmussen	TB	3.2 IP, 4 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks on 64 pitches. He must’ve blown all that saved-up energy on the 6-inning gem last week. Why does it feel like this guy couldn’t have three consecutive quality starts to save his life? DOWN.
46	Seth Lugo	KC	6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 hits, zero walks, 7 Ks, ERA at 1.48. You go. We go. He go. Lugo. UP!
47	Zac Gallen	ARI	5.2 IP, 2 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and a no-decision. He gets SD at home this weekend.
48	Shane McClanahan	TB	5 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners (4 BBs), 4 Ks, ERA at 3.95. The walks are blech, but the 83 pitches were a season high. He’s only three starts in, but building up stamina is the name of the game now. He threw yesterday at PIT.  Hopefully, he can go 6 innings vs MIN this week. EDIT: Well, so much for that. McClanahan was already out at the time of the edit yesterday. 4.1 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks.
49	Braxton Ashcraft	PIT	Jumper. (By a bit). More below.
50	Tanner Bibee	CLE	6.0 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K. He gets HOU at home this week, and if we erase the start at ATL (Apr. 12), his ratios would be MUCH cleaner.
51	Trey Yesavage	TOR	4.1 IP, 3 R, 7 H, BB, 5 Ks last week in a Buffalo rehab start. He gets one more game with the Bisons, then is slated to start next Monday at home (BOS).
52	Shane Baz	BAL	6 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks. Winless in 4 GS, and I could see dropping him if you have to look elsewhere in a shallow league.
53	Luis Castillo	SEA	5 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 10 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 5.40. To paraphrase Grey’s Friday roundup here, Castillo looked worse than his opponent, Walker Buehler. Uh…that’s not a good sign. DOWN.
54	Noah Cameron	KC	4 IP, 7 R, 7 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks, and 3 HR allowed. Um…remember what I said above about not being afraid to start a guy at NYY? Can I amend that to say only if the pitcher doesn’t have two first names? Beware, Joe Ryan!
55	Mitch Keller	PIT	4 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 2.86. Great. First, it was steady Sonny Gray, and now Mister Quality Start falls on his face, too. EDIT: He was well on his way to yet another quality start yesterday at the time of the edit. 5 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and still in the game.
56	Ryan Weathers	NYY	5 IP, 5 ER, 7 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 4.29. Oh! Look at those strikeouts! (But what about the earned runs?) I said LOOK AT THOSE STRIKEOUTS!
57	Jack Leiter	TEX	5.2 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks. 105 pitches. He feels like the kind of arm that tons of people are going to drop, then pretend they didn’t roster him when something clicks on June 1st, and he turns it around.
58	Joey Cantillo	CLE	6 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 2.61. All I know is that Can of Tillo is not making Messick one bit! I don’t know what that means, but CLE SPs are looking *fire emoji*. EDIT: Both he and Trevor Rogers got hit a bit through 5 innings. 6 Ks and 2 BB for Cantillo after 4.2 IP as of the edit.
59	Casey Mize	DET	6.2 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, BB, 7 K. This Mize. Oh, I’ve cried! This Mize has seen a lot of hate, but he’ll never see another load of hate from somebody like youuuuuuu. (If you’re a Tigers or Marmos fan). UP!
60	Taj Bradley	MIN	6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BBs, 5 Ks on 99 pitches. He would’ve had his 4th win if the bullpen didn’t blow it for him. He feels a bit like Gavin Williams – if he keeps the walks in check, he’s going to have a breakout year.
61	Emerson Hancock	SEA	6 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.28. Grey said it last week, and it bears repeating. Each quality start means this kid is looking more and more like a breakout arm this year.
62	Michael Wacha	KC	WACHA-NDA FOREVER! More above.
63	Zack Wheeler	PHI	“Sounded like he had a better rehab start, 9 Ks, and (only) three earned in 5 2/3 IP, but most importantly, his velocity was supposedly better.” And that’s me quoting Grey.
64	Jack Flaherty	DET	6 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 4.05. I’m pretty sure he looks at the list every once in a while and gets mad, then goes out and throws a beauty like this one. UP!
65	Will Warren	NYY	7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 11 Ks(!), and his 2nd win. AND someone just dropped him in Perts. Geez. Tough league. UP!
66	Connelly Early	BOS	6 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.29. It might not be flashy, but I really like Early.
67	Clay Holmes	NYM	5 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, BB, 4 Ks. Back-to-back losses when you give you a total of 3 ER in 10.1 IP? Must be the Mets.
68	Andrew Abbott	CIN	A few of these guys took it on the chin on Saturday night, and Abbott was no exception. 4.2 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks. Another guy who needs to limit walks if he’s going to have success.
69	Michael Soroka	ARI	7.0 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 5 K, 4th win, ERA at 2.78. Dan Pants mentioned on Saturday that the Regression Fairies might be swirling around in the sky over Soroka, but all is good for now. Proceed with caution.
70	Grant Holmes	ATL	4 IP, 3 ER, ERA at 3.32. When the D said, “That’s levitation, Holmes”, they weren’t referencing your ERA.
71	Reid Detmers	ANA	7 IP, 0 ER, 4 hits, zero walks, 9 Ks, ERA at 3.18. It’s probably a bit late to be quoting K-Pop Demon Hunters, but “We’re going up, up up!”
72	Andrew Painter	PHI	5 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks, and the no-decision last week vs ARI. He was lined up to host ATL in the “late” game last night. I’ll admit part of why I wouldn’t be too upset to see a guy like Aaron Nola fall apart is because I don’t want Painter to lose his spot when Wheeler returns from the IL.
73	Aaron Nola	PHI	The strikeouts are there (24 in 22.1 IP), and the walks are limited (6 BB in 4 GS). I just can’t get behind it. Maybe the wheels don’t completely fall off, but expecting an SP2 season still seems far-fetched.
74	Ryne Nelson	ARI	5 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.54. I have a weird mental block that mixes this guy up with the Detroit pitcher (Reese Olson). And that’s not easy to do because one of those guys is out for the year.
75	Merrill Kelly	ARI	He’s back! 5 1/3, 2 ER, 9 baserunners, 3 Ks. He’s also well on his way to being Wacha-Lugo Lite.
76	Landen Roupp	SF	6 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 2 walks, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.38. Ruh Roh. Someone let the Roupp Dogg out the cage!!! *aggressively barks*
77	Jeffrey Springs	ATH	6 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 1.46. That’s enough to bounce him up a few spots this week.
78	Spencer Arrighetti	HOU	Jumper/Wee! More below.
79	Max Scherzer	TOR	6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, BB, K, and the no-decision because the Blue Jays still think giving the ball to Jeff Hoffman is a good idea. Smh.
80	Noah Schultz	CWS	4 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 7 baserunners (4 BBs), 4 Ks. I wanted to write him up last week after I added him to a few leagues, but then I entirely forgot. He’s in here now just because I’d gamble on the add in most leagues (if he’s still available).
81	Nick Lodolo	CIN	Come on. How long does a blister keep you on the sidelines? Someone call Al Leiter. DOWN.
82	Kyle Harrison	MLW	The wrist/knee isn’t some weird Isle of Doctor Moreau creation; it’s the Kyle Harrison injury report. He’s slated to return tomorrow at DET.
83	Randy Vasquez	SD	Dumper. More below.
84	Mike Burrows	HOU	Dumper. More below. (With video!)
85	Brandon Sproat	MLW	6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks. Good thing I cut him in my mixed league. Ah-boo. It feels like a trap, but he’s UP today.
86	Mick Abel	MIN	7 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 10 Ks, ERA at 3.98. Oh, Mick-A, you’re so fine! You’re so fine when you don’t walk nine, hey Mick A! UP!
87	Matthew Boyd	CHC	Dumper. More below.
88	Eric Lauer	TOR	12.1 IP, 12 ER, 13 H, 9 BB, 7 Ks in his last three “games”. Two were starts, but last week he threw behind an opener and was pretty vocal about not liking that. Hey, Eric. Maybe pitch better, and it won’t be an issue.
89	Rhett Lowder	CIN	6 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.52. Lowder is quietly building a decent resume in that Reds rotation. He’s the one arm in the 90s here that warrants a boost.
90	Bailey Ober	MIN	6 IP, 4 ER, 8 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 5.49. So I have a few friends who are diehard Red Sox fans. I felt obligated to remind them that when a starter has a night as rough as Garrett Crochet did, it’s even worse when it makes Bailey Ober look good. I’ll take the win, literally and figuratively, in my patchwork TGFBI add from last week, but it still doesn’t feel great. I guess we should be glad that the 1.2 IP, 11 R outing wasn’t Ober’s line, though. EDIT: 3 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks at time of edit yesterday.
91	Max Meyer	MIA	5 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, BB, 5 Ks. Each of his four starts has been under 90 pitches, and he hasn’t seen the 6th inning yet. The ‘baby gloves’ treatment should be good for the long term, but not necessarily for anyone looking for a breakout in the first half of this year.
92	Yusei Kikuchi	LAA	6 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks! That should be good enough for his first win of the year, right? RIGHT? (Spoiler: it wasn’t).
93	Roki Sasaki	LAD	As if the 4 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 5 BB, 6 Ks last week and another loss weren’t bad enough, he was scheduled to pitch AT COL yesterday. Uh oh.
94	Chad Patrick	MLW	Dumper. More below.
95	Matthew Liberatore	STL	His 5 IP, 4 ER game last week was nearly identical to his start from the week before. Steamonator had him slotted for the SEA start today ($-4.4), but it looked like he was throwing at HOU yesterday morning. Either way, he needs a strong start to hang on here for next week.
96	Brayan Bello	BOS	4 IP, 4 ER, 5 ER, 3 BB, 4 Ks. Oh, we’re still doing this?
97	Luis Severino	ATL	5.1 IP, 5 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 2 HR allowed, 3 Ks (hosting CWS). Oh boy. That’s 5 GS with no wins for Severino, and the 6.20 ERA is two runs higher than he should be for a day like today. Eek.
98	David Peterson	NYM	He got knocked around last week by The Avengers, so the announcement that he would be following an opener yesterday wasn’t too surprising. He stays here for now, but if he’s lost his starting gig, then he’ll be gone next week.
99	Kodai Senga	NYM	Dumper. More below.
100	Reynaldo Lopez	ATL	We needed another arm to round things out, so off to the Stumpers we go! Here’s the note I had written up for ReyLo in there today: “ 5 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.18. In other news, he’s also warming up to “All-Star” by Smashmouth. And he’s not a Shrek fan.”

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

Jacob Misiorowski – 5 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB!, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.32. Ok, so he’s not a huge “Jumper” today, but a handful of Ks and zero walks is encouraging. Also, more importantly, how cool is this? If you said “Not at all”, show your kid…or grandkid.

Braxton Ashcraft – 5 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 2.38. No, he doesn’t necessarily deserve a slot in the Top 50…yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be excited about the progress and the clip of Joey Bart doing something pretty cool last week, too.

Spencer Arrighetti – 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 10 Ks, and his first win. Between this guy and Noah Schultz, there was some serious rubber being burned on the road to FAAB pickups last week. WAY BACK in pre-season 2024, I wrote Arrighetti up in my deep dive from the Player Rater, titled “The Last Of Us”. I had him, and a few other names that will be familiar, in little snippets of what could come to fruition if all broke well. If you’re not into the clicking stuff, here’s the quote…

“Another young arm that was a ‘buzzy’ kind of name during spring training. Arrighetti is Houston’s #3 (overall) prospect and their top pitching arm of the future. He has three years of minor league experience and posted an 11.0+ K% in each stop until he reached AAA at the end of the year (8.72 K% in 64 AAA innings to finish 2023). He’s a four-pitch starter that should get a shot at some point this summer.”

It’s fitting that Arrighetti’s start last week mirrored the high strikeout upside, but also the control hiccups. He was like Bubba Chandler before Bubba Chandler was Bubba Chandler. Lolz.

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

Jesus Luzardo – 5 1/3 IP, 8 ER, ERA at 7.94. Remember last week when I posited whether or not this guy was going to be a banana tailpipe guy all year? Well, this banana was big enough to fill up Donkey Kong for two weeks. Remember when he was our SP37 last week? Ya, he’s not seeing that number for a while. 

Mike Burrows – 6 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 6.55. If he keeps up those 666 numbers, the 420 smoke won’t be the only thing burning at the end of his burrows. I saw a clip of Nick Pollack breaking down Burrows’ pitching to Josh Naylor. Nick spelled it out intelligently (as he often does), and Burrows did EXACTLY the opposite of what made sense. 

He was slated to start yesterday vs STL. (Burrows, not Nick).

Randy Vasquez – 4 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 2.49. This Randy looked less like Johnson and more like BoBandy last week. Woof.

It was a rough week to get stung by the regression fairies after debuting on the list. Here’s hoping it’s just a blip on the radar and he bounces back strong.

Chad Patrick – 6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 0.95. Grey mentioned last Thursday that he hates Patrick’s peripherals, so I looked them up. I didn’t look at them too long, though, because I saw the 4.2 K/9 and had to go grab the paper towels to clean up all the barf that shot out of my mouth and onto my computer screen.

Matthew Boyd – No joke, he’s been out since April 1st. He’s supposed to be back to start on Wednesday (vs PHI). I’d be sitting him this week if I had other options, to see how it goes and whether his bicep injury is fully healed.

Kodai Senga – 3.1 IP, 6 hits, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. Nope gif. The strikeout potential is nice, but why keep going back into the sewers to find it? Pass.

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

Jameson Taillon

Dean Kremer

Sean Burke 

Tyler Mahle 

Anthony Kay

Zach Eflin

Slade Cecconi

Jacob Lopez

Cade Cavalli – 1 1/3 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.60. Is there a projectile barf emoji? 

Lance McCullers Jr.

Brandon Pfaadt 

Brady Singer 

Chris Bassitt

Bryce Elder

Michael McGreevy

Eduardo Rodriguez – 5 IP, 4 ER, 10 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 1.96. Nah.

Chris Paddack

Luis Gil – 5 IP, 4 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 7.00. Similar to what I said about Bryan Woo above, but the opposite. I saw the total baserunners here and immediately thought, “4 BB or more?” Can you guess? (It was ‘only’ two).

Steven Matz –  5 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.80. A Stumper? Really? Maybe we need to create another section called “Pumpers” as in “Pump the brakes on these guys because they’re not worth racing to go pick up off waivers”. Then again, maybe you don’t want to read another section and make these weeks even closer to 8000 words. 

Dustin May

Janson Junk

Carmen Mlodzinski – 6 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 1.77. This Stumper list is getting so long, I might as well make it the whole piece a Top 200. 

Bryce Elder – 5 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 0.77. Every guy like this makes me think of why he’s not on the list instead of Bello. 

Davis Martin – 7.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, 2 BB, 4 K. The Rat Pack Love Child is making a case for inclusion on the list. You know what they say: “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You”. That is, unless the lady is a tramp. 

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).

Shane Bieber

Bryce Miller

Joe Musgrove

Justin Steele

Cristian Javier

Joe Boyle

Hunter Brown

Hunter Greene

Blake Snell

Cody Ponce

Cade Horton

Shane Smith

Robert Gasser

River Ryan

Corbin Burnes

Jared Jones

Gerrit Cole

Pablo Lopez

Tatsyua Imai

Kade Anderson

Robby Snelling

Thomas White

Justin Verlander

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

Spencer Arrighetti

Noah Schultz

Reynaldo Lopez

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

Tatsuya Imai – He hit the IL with the old zombie wing, aka “dead arm”, but imaging came back clean. The official interview translation was that he had a tough time adjusting to life in the USA. Apparently, someone forgot to tell Imai to start hammering Baconators and Coors in December so he’d be ready for American baseball.

Ryan Pepiot – Ah, come on. Not even a day after I said that I was keeping Yesavage and Pepiot in the list because they were due to return “sooner than later”, the Rays moved Pepiot to the 60-day IL.

Nick Pivetta – It was a steep slide last week for Pivetta, and I had a bad feeling it was going to be an even greasier end to the week for our Padres pitcher. He’s off the list today afterCraig Stammen said that the big Canadian is likely out for “weeks, maybe months”. Ouch. 

 

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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