Weekly Pitcher Rankings: Don't Overlook Solid Single-Start Options

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Updated on April 16, 2023 11:51PM EST

Earlier in the week, I posted this tweet:

A popular misconception about pitcher streaming.
Floating in two-start guys is for wins and whiffs. Solid ratios is a bonus.
Ratio control is done via one-start guys in sweet spots with clever (and lucky) deployment of dominant non-closing relievers.
— Todd Zola (@ToddZola) April 11, 2023

My sense is there are some who are too aggressive with two-start pitchers, and some who are too hesitant. To be honest, I fall into the former category and often end up crushing my ratios. The question one needs to pose when setting a pitching lineup is, "Does this two-start guy have a good chance of wins and strikeouts?"

If I had practiced what I just preached, I would have avoided some disasters, since the answer (too often) would have been "NO!". I was looking to add strikeouts, hoping wins will follow. The thing is, if the wins weren't likely to dovetail, the ratios were likely poor. Intrinsic to the notion of a potential win is reasonable ratios.

As the tweet mentions, in lieu of a risky double-dipper, single-start guys or middle relievers can buffer ratios and, who knows, maybe fall into a win now and again. The ratio support should make it safer to be more reckless in August and September when the standings dictate chasing wins.

Here is your weekly reminder that I pull the schedule from the Probable Pitching grid, so please direct rotation questions in that direction. As always, I'm happy to

Earlier in the week, I posted this tweet:

A popular misconception about pitcher streaming.
Floating in two-start guys is for wins and whiffs. Solid ratios is a bonus.
Ratio control is done via one-start guys in sweet spots with clever (and lucky) deployment of dominant non-closing relievers.
— Todd Zola (@ToddZola) April 11, 2023

Here is your weekly reminder that I pull the schedule from the Probable Pitching grid, so please direct rotation questions in that direction. As always, I'm happy to address specific rankings below.

Please visit again Sunday night for the weekly refresh.

UPDATED: Sunday April 15, 11:50 PM ET

Week of April 17 - 23

Mixed

Rank	Pitcher	TM	OPP	Comments	MIX12	MIX15
1	Jacob deGrom	TEX	@KC, OAK	Doesn't get much better
2	Corbin Burnes	MIL	@SEA, BOS	Still worried?
3	Shohei Ohtani	LAA	@BOS, KC	First start is the 11 AM Patriots Day game
4	Kevin Gausman	TOR	@HOU, @NYY
5	Zack Wheeler	PHI	@CWS, COL
6	Jesus Luzardo	MIA	SF, @CLE	Knocking at the fantasy ace door
7	Clayton Kershaw	LAD	NYM, @CHC
8	Nick Lodolo	CIN	TB, @PIT
9	Dylan Cease	CWS	@TB
10	Julio Urias	LAD	@CHC
11	Spencer Strider	ATL	@SD	Averaging only 5.1 IP per start
12	Sonny Gray	MIN	@BOS, WAS	Looks like strikeouts are back
13	Pablo Lopez	MIN	WAS	Buy high if he's available
14	Shane Bieber	CLE	MIA
15	Gerrit Cole	NYY	TOR
16	Luis Castillo	SEA	STL
17	Shane McClanahan	TB	CWS
18	Justin Steele	CHC	@OAK
19	Aaron Nola	PHI	COL	May take a bit, but ratios should drop to usual levels
20	Lance Lynn	CWS	PHI, @TB	6 HR in 16 IP
21	Max Fried	ATL	@SD, HOU
22	Zac Gallen	ARI	SD
23	Andrew Heaney	TEX	OAK
24	Logan Webb	SF	@MIA, NYM	4 HR in 17 IP a concern
25	Alex Wood	SF	@MIA, NYM		44%
26	Chris Sale	BOS	MIN, @MIL	Likely happenstance, but having first inning issues
27	Marcus Stroman	CHC	@OAK, LAD	Early strikeouts encouraging, but history says don't get used to it
28	Freddy Peralta	MIL	BOS
29	Cristian Javier	HOU	TOR, @ATL	Tough pair
30	Jordan Montgomery	STL	ARI
31	Sandy Alcantara	MIA	@CLE	Not a great spot to rebound
32	Alek Manoah	TOR	@NYY	I'm not nervous. Maybe I'm a little bit concerned, but that's not the same thing.
33	Yu Darvish	SD	@ARI
34	Jon Gray	TEX	OAK
35	Max Scherzer	NYM	@LAD
36	Dustin May	LAD	NYM, @CHC
37	Michael Kopech	CWS	@TB
38	Kenta Maeda	MIN	WAS
39	Framber Valdez	HOU	@ATL
40	Logan Gilbert	SEA	MIL
41	Joe Musgrove	SD	@ARI
42	Tyler Anderson	LAA	KC
43	Nestor Cortes	NYY	LAA
44	Garrett Whitlock	BOS	@MIL
45	Hunter Greene	CIN	TB, @PIT
46	Alex Cobb	SF	@MIA
47	Reid Detmers	LAA	KC
48	Charlie Morton	ATL	@SD
49	Eric Lauer	MIL	@SEA
50	Jack Flaherty	STL	ARI, @SEA	Walks already coming down
51	Drew Rasmussen	TB	@CIN
52	George Kirby	SEA	STL
53	Patrick Sandoval	LAA	@NYY
54	Brady Singer	KC	TEX
55	Kodai Senga	NYM	@SF
56	Tyler Wells	BAL	DET		1%
57	Merrill Kelly	ARI	@STL, SD
58	Zach Eflin	TB	CWS
59	Lucas Giolito	CWS	PHI
60	Trevor Rogers	MIA	SF
61	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX	@KC
62	Kyle Bradish	BAL	@WAS
63	Grayson Rodriguez	BAL	DET
64	Cal Quantrill	CLE	@DET		48%
65	Blake Snell	SD	ATL
66	Anthony DeSclafani	SF	NYM
67	Eduardo Rodriguez	DET	CLE
68	Edward Cabrera	MIA	SF
69	Matthew Boyd	DET	CLE, @BAL
70	Sean Manaea	SF	NYM
71	Mix 12 Reliever
72	Joe Ryan	MIN	@BOS
73	Brayan Bello	BOS	LAA, @MIL	Tough to start right away, but defensible in deeper formats	36%
74	David Peterson	NYM	@LAD, @SF
75	Martin Perez	TEX	@KC
76	Taijuan Walker	PHI	@CWS
77	Chris Bassitt	TOR	@HOU
78	Matt Strahm	PHI	COL		13%
79	Corey Kluber	BOS	MIN		17%
80	Domingo German	NYY	TOR
81	Mix 15 Reliever
82	Mitch Keller	PIT	CIN
83	Luis Garcia	HOU	TOR
84	Steven Matz	STL	@SEA
85	Kyle Freeland	COL	PIT, @PHI		8%	34%
86	Kyle Wright	ATL	HOU
87	Tyler Mahle	MIN	@BOS
88	Hayden Wesneski	CHC	@OAK, LAD
89	Kyle Gibson	BAL	DET
90	Jameson Taillon	CHC	LAD
91	Seth Lugo	SD	@ARI
92	Tylor Megill	NYM	@LAD, @SF	Tough road pair, but deserves a chance to prove worthy
93	Miles Mikolas	STL	@SEA
94	Colin Rea	MIL	@SEA		0%	0%
95	Jose Berrios	TOR	@HOU
96	Carlos Carrasco	NYM	@SF
97	Jose Urquidy	HOU	TOR
98	Nick Pivetta	BOS	MIN		18%
99	Spencer Turnbull	DET	CLE		3%	26%
100	Wade Miley	MIL	BOS		7%
101	Hunter Brown	HOU	@ATL
102	Trevor Williams	WAS	@MIN		1%	6%
103	Jhony Brito	NYY	LAA
104	Zack Greinke	KC	@LAA		4%	36%
105	Zach Plesac	CLE	MIA		0%	43%
106	Roansy Contreras	PIT	CIN
107	Mike Clevinger	CWS	PHI
108	Noah Syndergaard	LAD	NYM
109	Jalen Beeks	TB	@CIN		0%	0%
110	Griffin Canning	LAA	@NYY		0%	2%
111	Dean Kremer	BAL	@WAS		4%
112	Austin Gomber	COL	PIT		0%	0%
113	Michael Lorenzen	DET	@BAL		0%	0%
114	Bryce Elder	ATL	HOU
115	Graham Ashcraft	CIN	@PIT
116	Michael Wacha	SD	@ARI
117	Marco Gonzales	SEA	MIL		3%	34%
118	Luis Cessa	CIN	@PIT		0%	4%
119	Ken Waldichuk	OAK	CHC		2%	13%
120	Brad Keller	KC	TEX		2%	36%
121	Bailey Falter	PHI	@CWS, COL		15%
122	Nick Martinez	SD	ATL		44%
123	Braxton Garrett	MIA	@CLE		16%
124	Hunter Gaddis	CLE	@DET, MIA		10%
125	Ryan Feltner	COL	@PHI		0%	0%
126	Michael Grove	LAD	@CHC		6%	21%
127	Josh Fleming	TB	CWS		1%	15%
128	Peyton Battenfield	CLE	@DET		0%	0%
129	Joey Wentz	DET	@BAL		0%	0%
130	Luke Weaver	CIN	TB		0%	0%
131	Jose Suarez	LAA	@NYY		38%
132	Josiah Gray	WAS	BAL		38%
133	Drey Jameson	ARI	@STL, SD	Fantasy favorite, but needs to prove he's worthy of the hype
134	James Kaprielian	OAK	CHC		0%	2%
135	MacKenzie Gore	WAS	BAL
136	Clarke Schmidt	NYY	LAA, TOR
137	Noah Davis	COL	@PHI		0%	0%
138	Rich Hill	PIT	@COL, CIN		0%	0%
139	Chris Flexen	SEA	MIL, STL		4%
140	Kyle Muller	OAK	CHC, @TEX		13%
141	Jordan Lyles	KC	TEX, @LAA		1%	4%
142	Chad Kuhl	WAS	@MIN		0%	0%
143	Jose Urena	COL	PIT, @PHI		0%	0%
144	Yusei Kikuchi	TOR	@NYY		33%
145	Shintaro Fujinami	OAK	@TEX		4%	15%
146	Cooper Criswell	TB	@CIN		0%	0%
147	Madison Bumgarner	ARI	@STL		0%	0%
148	Drew Smyly	CHC	LAD		2%
149	Ryne Nelson	ARI	SD		22%
150	Jake Woodford	STL	ARI		1%	15%
151	JP Sears	OAK	@TEX		0%	15%
152	Vince Velasquez	PIT	@COL, CIN		0%	0%
153	Max Castillo	KC	@LAA		0%	0%
154	Patrick Corbin	WAS	@MIN		0%	0%
155	Ryan Weathers	SD	ATL		0%	6%
156	Johan Oviedo	PIT	@COL		5%

American League

Rank	Pitcher	TM	OPP	Comment
1	Jacob deGrom	TEX	@KC, OAK	Doesn't get much better
2	Shohei Ohtani	LAA	@BOS, KC	First start is the 11 AM Patriots Day game
3	Kevin Gausman	TOR	@HOU, @NYY
4	Dylan Cease	CWS	@TB
5	Sonny Gray	MIN	@BOS, WAS	Looks like strikeouts are back
6	Pablo Lopez	MIN	WAS	Buy high if he's available
7	Shane Bieber	CLE	MIA
8	Gerrit Cole	NYY	TOR
9	Luis Castillo	SEA	STL
10	Shane McClanahan	TB	CWS
11	Lance Lynn	CWS	PHI, @TB	6 HR in 16 IP
12	Andrew Heaney	TEX	OAK
13	Chris Sale	BOS	MIN, @MIL	Likely happenstance, but having first inning issues
14	Cristian Javier	HOU	TOR, @ATL	Tough pair
15	Alek Manoah	TOR	@NYY	I'm not nervous. Maybe I'm a little bit concerned, but that's not the same thing.
16	Jon Gray	TEX	OAK
17	Michael Kopech	CWS	@TB
18	Kenta Maeda	MIN	WAS
19	Framber Valdez	HOU	@ATL
20	Logan Gilbert	SEA	MIL
21	Tyler Anderson	LAA	KC
22	Nestor Cortes	NYY	LAA
23	Garrett Whitlock	BOS	@MIL
24	Reid Detmers	LAA	KC
25	Drew Rasmussen	TB	@CIN
26	George Kirby	SEA	STL
27	Patrick Sandoval	LAA	@NYY
28	Brady Singer	KC	TEX
29	Tyler Wells	BAL	DET
30	Zach Eflin	TB	CWS
31	Lucas Giolito	CWS	PHI
32	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX	@KC
33	Kyle Bradish	BAL	@WAS
34	Grayson Rodriguez	BAL	DET
35	Cal Quantrill	CLE	@DET
36	Eduardo Rodriguez	DET	CLE
37	Matthew Boyd	DET	CLE, @BAL
38	Joe Ryan	MIN	@BOS
39	Brayan Bello	BOS	LAA, @MIL	Tough to start right away, but defensible in deeper formats
40	Martin Perez	TEX	@KC
41	Chris Bassitt	TOR	@HOU
42	Corey Kluber	BOS	MIN
43	Domingo German	NYY	TOR
44	Luis Garcia	HOU	TOR
45	Tyler Mahle	MIN	@BOS
46	Kyle Gibson	BAL	DET
47	Jose Berrios	TOR	@HOU
48	Jose Urquidy	HOU	TOR
49	Nick Pivetta	BOS	MIN
50	Spencer Turnbull	DET	CLE
51	Hunter Brown	HOU	@ATL
52	AL Reliever
53	Jhony Brito	NYY	LAA
54	Zack Greinke	KC	@LAA
55	Zach Plesac	CLE	MIA
56	Mike Clevinger	CWS	PHI
57	Jalen Beeks	TB	@CIN
58	Griffin Canning	LAA	@NYY
59	Dean Kremer	BAL	@WAS
60	Michael Lorenzen	DET	@BAL
61	Marco Gonzales	SEA	MIL
62	Ken Waldichuk	OAK	CHC
63	Brad Keller	KC	TEX
64	Hunter Gaddis	CLE	@DET, MIA
65	Josh Fleming	TB	CWS
66	Peyton Battenfield	CLE	@DET
67	Joey Wentz	DET	@BAL
68	Jose Suarez	LAA	@NYY
69	James Kaprielian	OAK	CHC
70	Clarke Schmidt	NYY	LAA, TOR
71	Chris Flexen	SEA	MIL, STL
72	Kyle Muller	OAK	CHC, @TEX
73	Jordan Lyles	KC	TEX, @LAA
74	Yusei Kikuchi	TOR	@NYY
75	Shintaro Fujinami	OAK	@TEX
76	Cooper Criswell	TB	@CIN
77	JP Sears	OAK	@TEX
78	Max Castillo	KC	@LAA

National League

Rank	Pitcher	TM	OPP	Comment
1	Corbin Burnes	MIL	@SEA, BOS	Still worried?
2	Zack Wheeler	PHI	@CWS, COL
3	Jesus Luzardo	MIA	SF, @CLE	Knocking at the fantasy ace door
4	Clayton Kershaw	LAD	NYM, @CHC
5	Nick Lodolo	CIN	TB, @PIT
6	Julio Urias	LAD	@CHC
7	Spencer Strider	ATL	@SD	Averaging only 5.1 IP per start
8	Justin Steele	CHC	@OAK
9	Aaron Nola	PHI	COL	May take a bit, but ratios should drop to usual levels
10	Max Fried	ATL	@SD, HOU
11	Zac Gallen	ARI	SD
12	Logan Webb	SF	@MIA, NYM	4 HR in 17 IP a concern
13	Alex Wood	SF	@MIA, NYM
14	Marcus Stroman	CHC	@OAK, LAD	Early strikeouts encouraging, but history says don't get used to it
15	Freddy Peralta	MIL	BOS
16	Jordan Montgomery	STL	ARI
17	Sandy Alcantara	MIA	@CLE	Not a great spot to rebound
18	Yu Darvish	SD	@ARI
19	Max Scherzer	NYM	@LAD
20	Dustin May	LAD	NYM, @CHC
21	Joe Musgrove	SD	@ARI
22	Hunter Greene	CIN	TB, @PIT
23	Alex Cobb	SF	@MIA
24	Charlie Morton	ATL	@SD
25	Eric Lauer	MIL	@SEA
26	Jack Flaherty	STL	ARI, @SEA	Walks already coming down
27	Kodai Senga	NYM	@SF
28	Merrill Kelly	ARI	@STL, SD
29	Trevor Rogers	MIA	SF
30	Blake Snell	SD	ATL
31	Anthony DeSclafani	SF	NYM
32	Edward Cabrera	MIA	SF
33	Sean Manaea	SF	NYM
34	David Peterson	NYM	@LAD, @SF
35	Taijuan Walker	PHI	@CWS
36	Matt Strahm	PHI	COL
37	Mitch Keller	PIT	CIN
38	Steven Matz	STL	@SEA
39	Kyle Freeland	COL	PIT, @PHI
40	Kyle Wright	ATL	HOU
41	Hayden Wesneski	CHC	@OAK, LAD
42	Jameson Taillon	CHC	LAD
43	Seth Lugo	SD	@ARI
44	Tylor Megill	NYM	@LAD, @SF	Tough road pair, but deserves a chance to prove worthy
45	Miles Mikolas	STL	@SEA
46	Colin Rea	MIL	@SEA
47	Carlos Carrasco	NYM	@SF
48	Wade Miley	MIL	BOS
49	NL Reliever
50	Trevor Williams	WAS	@MIN
51	Roansy Contreras	PIT	CIN
52	Noah Syndergaard	LAD	NYM
53	Austin Gomber	COL	PIT
54	Bryce Elder	ATL	HOU
55	Graham Ashcraft	CIN	@PIT
56	Michael Wacha	SD	@ARI
57	Luis Cessa	CIN	@PIT
58	Bailey Falter	PHI	@CWS, COL
59	Nick Martinez	SD	ATL
60	Braxton Garrett	MIA	@CLE
61	Ryan Feltner	COL	@PHI
62	Michael Grove	LAD	@CHC
63	Luke Weaver	CIN	TB
64	Josiah Gray	WAS	BAL
65	Drey Jameson	ARI	@STL, SD	Fantasy favorite, but needs to prove he's worthy of the hype
66	MacKenzie Gore	WAS	BAL
67	Noah Davis	COL	@PHI
68	Rich Hill	PIT	@COL, CIN
69	Chad Kuhl	WAS	@MIN
70	Jose Urena	COL	PIT, @PHI
71	Madison Bumgarner	ARI	@STL
72	Drew Smyly	CHC	LAD
73	Ryne Nelson	ARI	SD
74	Jake Woodford	STL	ARI
75	Vince Velasquez	PIT	@COL, CIN
76	Patrick Corbin	WAS	@MIN
77	Ryan Weathers	SD	ATL
78	Johan Oviedo	PIT	@COL