Starting Pitcher (Part 1): Updated March Rankings and Tiers

7 years ago by Nick Mariano

We rolled out our final update on 2017 rankings this past weekend. While there haven’t been seismic shifts, some players have naturally seen their stocks rise or fall since our initial valuations were made in December. We’re gathered here today to look at part one of our outfield rankings, tiers, and auction values, which have certainly seen some movement. Part one of this SP look will check in with three risers and three fallers within the top five tiers.

As before, this round of rankings features picks from myself -- Nick Mariano, as well as Kyle Bishop, Bill Dubiel, Brad Johnson, Harris Yudin and Jeff Kahntroff.

Check out all of our updated rankings. Adjust your league size, and export your rankings. Tiers, auction values, prospects, news and more. It's all free.

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2017 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Starting Pitcher

Ranking	Tier	Player	Position	Brad	Kyle	Nick	Bill	Harris	Jeff	Auction $
1	1	Clayton Kershaw	SP	4	6	7	7	11	3	43
2	1	Max Scherzer	SP	20	16	14	12	19	14	35
3	1	Madison Bumgarner	SP	32	19	22	14	22	33	31
4	1	Chris Sale	SP	23	26	25	20	23	29	30
5	1	Noah Syndergaard	SP	26	15	27	31	32	25	30
6	1	Corey Kluber	SP	41	25	31	23	33	44	26
7	2	Yu Darvish	SP	39	49	32	54	41	32	24
8	2	Justin Verlander	SP	59	55	38	55	43	38	23
9	2	Jake Arrieta	SP	52	51	57	33	34	73	22
10	2	Jon Lester	SP	65	46	47	41	42	62	22
11	2	Stephen Strasburg	SP	50	50	45	42	59	66	22
12	2	Johnny Cueto	SP	62	47	46	61	44	68	21
13	3	Carlos Carrasco	SP	72	61	59	56	53	72	19
14	3	Jacob deGrom	SP	95	65	70	44	54	46	19
15	3	Chris Archer	SP	82	57	51	75	52	74	18
16	3	Kyle Hendricks	SP	76	100	66	81	87	71	17
17	3	Carlos Martinez	SP	107	98	74	80	69	99	17
18	3	David Price	SP	81	80	111	73	60	133	17
19	3	Masahiro Tanaka	SP	87	91	71	78	106	122	16
20	4	Gerrit Cole	SP	102	79	95	83	104	125	16
21	4	Cole Hamels	SP	112	89	99	100	70	123	15
22	4	Zack Greinke	SP	115	92	91	79	71	148	15
23	4	Aaron Sanchez	SP	73	139	93	106	85	108	15
24	4	Jose Quintana	SP	98	112	87	89	101	121	15
25	4	Rich Hill	SP	105	104	92	121	112	85	14
26	4	Danny Duffy	SP	164	95	110	110	86	97	13
27	4	Kenta Maeda	SP	139	94	96	101	130	151	12
28	5	Michael Fulmer	SP	121	129	108	132	113	119	12
29	5	Rick Porcello	SP	114	125	132	102	114	146	11
30	5	Danny Salazar	SP	134	137	124	111	103	149	11
31	5	Julio Teheran	SP	155	155	137	105	102	153	10
32	5	Marcus Stroman	SP	117	156	106	149	119	163	10
33	5	Lance McCullers	SP	137	174	105	131	129	137	10
34	5	Matt Harvey	SP	149	140	128	113	105	218	10
35	5	Jonathan Gray	SP	128	135	135	156	131	187	9
36	5	John Lackey	SP	173	148	129	136	156	143	9
37	6	Aaron Nola	SP	159	126	134	159	148	161	9
38	6	Julio Urias	SP	145	145	136	196	149	120	9
39	6	Dallas Keuchel	SP	189	163	180	116	120	131	9
40	6	Felix Hernandez	SP	118	160	151	107	118	266	9
41	6	Steven Matz	SP	204	152	142	150	145	138	9
42	6	James Paxton	SP	156	185	145	168	165	159	9
43	6	Kevin Gausman	SP	197	188	158	141	146	154	9
44	6	Tanner Roark	SP	191	149	139	152	154	216	8
45	6	Sean Manaea	SP	192	159	146	174	168	188	8

Starting Pitcher (Part One) Rankings Analysis: March Risers and Fallers

Rankings Risers

Kenta Maeda, Dodgers

Maeda impressed us all by striking out 179 in his first Major League season, surpassing a strikeout per inning in his 175 2/3 frames last season alongside the plus ratios. His 3.58 FIP, 3.70 xFIP and 3.69 SIERA give credence to that 3.48 ERA and his status as an above-average arm. This is a guy who does well to deliver the ball where he wants to with very infrequent mistakes, with it also helping to have Yasmani Grandal receiving his pitches, but that does lead to some floor issues should he ever lose that edge (think Sonny Gray). We’ve bumped him up a couple spots in our rankings, which elevated him from Tier Five into Tier Four.

Lance McCullers, Astros

McCullers’ rise may be entirely on me, as I bumped him up 30 slots since last time -- from No. 135 to No. 105. Let me put it to you this way, the longer he doesn’t get hurt, the more I love him. This isn’t breaking news, of course, as we know durability is the major concern here, but boy howdy that stuff is electric. Houston’s young arm is slated to start their second game of the season and has posted a lovely 18-to-2 K:BB ratio in 12 spring innings thus far. While he has allowed too many hits (15) alongside that, what I mostly look for is control and velocity in ST. This is an arm that could rack up 200 strikeouts, so he deserves to sniff the top 100.

Julio Urias, Dodgers

Here’s another guy who jumped tiers, as he goes from Tier Six to Tier Five on the heels of a bump from No. 38 to No. 34 in the SP ranks. It appears that most of us kept him rather static in our rankings aside from Bill, who shot him up roughly 60 slots. While Urias’ stock will likely see a short-term drop due to his starting the season in extended spring training, that LA rotation has a ton of arms that are tattooed with the big red FRAGILE stamp. It won’t be long before we see the 20-year-old in the MLB again, and his 140 innings should be mighty productive.

Dallas Keuchel, Astros

He goes from No. 45 to No. 39, as it seems Bill and Jeff really warmed up to him after pessimistic rankings around the 180-190 range in February. While Brad and I still have Keuchel up there, it appears that we as a collective staff have come around on the notion that he could regain much of his effectiveness in inducing whiffs and weak contact. If he can deliver a low-to-mid threes ERA, then this strong Houston lineup could allow for him to challenge the 20-win mark again – but that’s his ceiling, of course.

Rankings Fallers

Stephen Strasburg, Nationals

Strasburg is already flashing those warning signs as to why we’ve feared for his health over the years, as he’s admitted to cutting back on his slider usage because it led to injury last season. While that revelation does lead to the possibility of improved durability in 2017, it also raises questions about his effectiveness if he feels as though he can’t utilize his full arsenal – or at least the one we’re accustomed to see him roll out. Going from SP9 to SP11 isn’t huge, but dropping out of the top 10 is notable.

Aaron Sanchez, Blue Jays

Sanchez dropped from the end of Tier Three (SP18) to the middle of Tier Four (SP23) here, which may be one part worrying about his ability to replicate last season’s strong metrics (.267 BABIP, 54.4% groundball rate) and another part worrying about his awful spring thus far (10 ER, 9-to-8 K:BB ratio in 10 2/3 innings). Perhaps that’s not what my cohorts were thinking, but that’s what I was thinking. He still has plenty of potential here, but I scaled him back over a full round in my March update.

Tanner Roark, Nationals

Roark is one of those guys that can be easy to bump down in lieu of another exciting arm due to his uninspiring strikeout stuff, and here he has slipped from our SP40 to SP44. It isn’t a huge drop, but it’s still rather noticeable when putting the February and March tables up against one another. At least Roark has looked good this spring, allowing only one run on seven hits and zero walks against 12 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings of work. For what it’s worth, I’m the high man on him at No. 139 overall.