Updated Starting Pitcher Rankings for Fantasy Baseball: The Top 101 Baller Ranks

Welcome to July! Despite a delayed start to the season, we've made it to the season's halfway mark and another updated edition of my top-101 starting pitcher rankings for rest-of-season values. With April and May several chapters in the rearview mirror now, be sure you're analyzing recent data. I'm here for you with ranks, tiers, trends, and notes with the top-101 in a table with other fun things like earned value via Fangraphs. It's time for another edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks!

This google sheet accompanies the table below and adds relevant 5x5 stats, K%, BB%, BABIP, FIP, xFIP, SIERA, ERA-FIP, and CSW% from the last 30 days. I highly encourage you to click the sheet.

As is tradition, these fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings are geared toward traditional 5x5 leagues. Injured players are at the end of the top-101 table with notes regarding their rehab and a rank of where they'd slot in when healthy. Skipping notes on healthy arms for this edition for time's sake. Let's move along with my top-101 SP for the rest of 2022!

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Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis

-Max Scherzer didn’t look rusty on Tuesday, tossing six shutout innings with 11 strikeouts and just two baserunners allowed. He regularly sat around 95 MPH and even hit 97 in his return, so we can safely plug him right back into the top tier. I know, it was Cincinnati, but this is Scherzer and he doesn’t have to prove nearly as much upon returning to action. Nick Lodolo also looked solid, going 4 ⅔ IP with eight strikeouts and no runs allowed.

-Brandon Woodruff owns a crispy 18/0 K/BB in 11 innings since returning from the injured list on June 28. It sure appears that the right-hander is over his sprained right ankle and the Raynaud’s syndrome finger numbness. It helps that he faced Pittsburgh most recently, but guess what? He is scheduled for another go-around with the Pirates next on July 9. Keep the good times rolling, sir.

-Kevin Gausman exited his last start after taking a comebacker to the lower right leg and is still having trouble pushing off the pitcher rubber at 100%. The X-rays did come back negative but hopefully we don’t run into a lingering problem here. Apparently, he couldn’t throw off of a mound on Tuesday and worked on the side instead, which isn’t a great sign.

-Frankie Montas underwent an MRI on Monday to see if anything is underlying in connection to the right shoulder tightness that ended his July 3rd start after just one inning. This hurts on many levels for Montas, who I’d imagine wants to showcase his talents and health for a trade out of Oakland to a contender.

-Shane Baz since that first rusty start off of the injured list: 22 ⅓ IP, 3 ER, 26 K, 6 BB, 50% groundball rate. He’s taken on the Yankees and Blue Jays in that span so don’t think he’s picking on cheap lineups. The 23-year-old boasts immense upside as Tampa looks to build a terrifying one-two punch at the top of their rotation. After throwing ~75 pitches in his second and third starts of the season, he’s gone up to ~95 pitches in his last two. It appears the guard rails are gone and the stash is paying off!

-Charlie Morton has struck out nine or more hitters in four of his last five starts, fueling a fantastic run with a 47/6 K/BB ratio in 32 ⅔ IP with only eight earned runs allowed. Except he has zero wins in that window to show for it. This is rude. That is usually unjustly reflected in most fantasy ranks on platform sites but you know better, as Morton is deserving of our respect after a slow start. Who’d have thought that rehabbing a broken leg might result in some rust?

-Jose Berrios ripped off three quality starts in a row against the Twins, Tigers, and Orioles in early June, but has now thrown three consecutive clunkers. Yes, he got the win over Tampa Bay but a 2.00 WHIP over five frames is hardly a fantasy victory. And that came after surrendering 14 runs in his previous two starts, so he’s on thin ice once again for a premium matchup at Oakland on July 6th.

-Spencer Strider remains a beast with the sort of upside many can only pray to find on the waiver wire, so kudos to those who made the add!

-Carlos Carrasco was done in by matchups against Houston but still has a 3.24 SIERA and 3.31 xFIP over the last 30 days. Compare that to his 6.53 ERA in that timeframe and you have a quiet buy-low opportunity on your hands.

-Jose Urquidy got smacked around twice by Seattle just over a month ago, but outside of those two games, the right-hander has posted six quality starts of late. This includes four straight QS with strong showings against the Mets, Yankees, and Angels. Urquidy struck out eight Halos in his last turn, posting a 32% CSW rate with strong fastball command. He gets a favorable spot against the A’s next on July 8th.

-Brayan Bello is making his MLB debut on July 6th and while pitching at Fenway in the AL East is tricky, you should still be very excited. The 23-year-old leans on a stellar fastball and changeup alongside a reliable slider, giving him a viable three-pitch mix to work through the order multiple times. Not only does he boast strikeout potential (114 in 85 minor-league IP this year), but he also sports a groundball rate north of 60%.

-Keegan Thompson introduced a sweeping slider ahead of his June 17th start versus Atlanta and while his command is shaky at best with the new pitch, he struck out nine Bravos over six scoreless innings. He’d then toy with Pittsburgh and Cincinnati in the final weeks of June, giving him 24 strikeouts in 18 ⅓ IP in that three-start window. However, he walked three and struck out three over four gritty innings against the Red Sox on July 3rd. This pitch isn’t a magic wand but he’s clearly still ironing things out, and the threat of it alone seems to make his cutter more effective.

 

Top-101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball

These are rest-of-season fantasy baseball rankings for starting pitchers.

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