Top 25 Starting Pitchers Going Forward

The Fake Pigskin fantasy baseball team is back to rank the top 25 starting pitchers going forward. The top of the ranks are basically the same as they have been all season. The gap between Clayton Kershaw and the rest of the list is a very sizable one. He is in the discussion for the top overall player in fantasy.

I have made some serious adjustments to middle section of my rankings. Both Stephen Strasburg and Jose Fernandez are solidly in the top 10 and are pushing for top 5. The injury concerns are still there but the numbers are too eye popping to ignore. The San Francisco Giants Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija have made serious leaps in my ranks. They are pitching very well and it is incredibly legit.

The Bottom of my ranks are much like last month in that they are home to struggling pitchers that had high expectations to the season. Hopefully Matt Harvey, Dallas Keuchel, and Felix Hernandez don’t follow in footsteps of guys like Adam Wainwright in my rankings. I have to keep them in at this point because of the upside but there are serious concerns about their production thus far.

	Ben	Damian	Ron	Kyle
1	Clayton Kershaw	Clayton Kershaw	Clayton Kershaw	Clayton Kershaw
2	Chris Sale	Chris Sale	Jake Arrieta	Jake Arrieta
3	Jake Arrieta	Max Scherzer	Chris Sale	Chris Sale
4	Madison Bumgarner	Jake Arrieta	Noah Syndergaard	Max Scherzer
5	Max Scherzer	Madison Bumgarner	Stephen Strasburg	Madison Bumgarner
6	Noah Syndergaard	Noah Syndergaard	Madison Bumgarner	Noah Syndergaard
7	Stephen Strasburg	Stephen Strasburg	Max Scherzer	Jose Fernandez
8	Jose Fernandez	Jose Fernandez	Jose Fernandez	Stephen Strasburg
9	Corey Kluber	David Price	Johnny Cueto	Johnny Cueto
10	David Price	Corey Kluber	David Price	Jon Lester
11	Gerrit Cole	Jacob deGrom	Cory Kluber	David Price
12	Jacob DeGrom	Gerrit Cole	Jacob deGrom	Jacob deGrom
13	Jon Lester	Jon Lester	Gerrit Cole	Gerrit Cole
14	Zack Greinke	Johnny Cueto	Jon Lester	Jeff Samardzjia
15	Johnny Cueto	Danny Salazar	Cole Hamels	Cole Hamels
16	Carlos Carrasco	Zack Greinke	Zack Greinke	Carlos Corrasco
17	Cole Hamels	Chris Archer	Jose Quintana	Zack Greinke
18	Steven Matz	Matt Harvey	Matt Harvey	Jose Quintana
19	Danny Salazar	Jose Quintana	Danny Salazar	Chris Archer
20	Jose Quintana	Felix Hernandez	Felix Hernandez	Aaron Nola
21	Chris Archer	Cole Hamels	Dallas Keuchel	Matt Harvey
22	Matt Harvey	Steven Matz	Steven Matz	Steven Matz
23	Jordan Zimmerman	Jeff Samardzija	Taijuan Walker	Dallas Keuchel
24	Felix Hernandez	Taijuan Walker	Carlos Carrasco	Danny Salazar
25	Lance McCullers	Aaron Nola	Chris Archer	Felix Hernandez

Ben Rolfe on Lance McCullers

I think he is a really good pitcher who is going to have more than a strikeout per innings. The walks concern me but I think he is still relatively fresh in the season having come off the DL and I think he can get his command under control and be a really good pitcher going forward

Damian Dabrowski on Chris Sale over Jake Arrieta

Placing Chris Sale ahead of Jake Arrieta in my rest of season starting pitcher ranks was not an easy decision, and one that I can certainly see the counter-argument for. That said, I do believe that the changes we’ve seen from Sale this year will enable him to have the best fantasy season of his young career. For starters, this is a pitcher that we already viewed as a top 5-7 option despite the fact that he’s averaged only 12 wins and less than 200 innings over the past three seasons. Now with a new approach designed to enable him to pitch more efficiently and deeper into games, I’m fully expecting Sale to set new highs in each of those categories. In fact, we’ve already seen the impact of these adjustments as Sale is currently tied for the Major League lead in both wins and complete games. So to be clear, while I don’t expect Arrieta to significantly regress in any particular area, I believe increased volume will make his cross-town rival the more valuable fantasy asset for the remainder of 2016.

For more starting pitcher conversation and fantasy baseball talk, check out Fake Pigskin’s 60 Feet 6 Inches podcast on iTunes and Stitcher

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