FakeTeams: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
New Blog: Along The Olentangy for Ohio State Fans!

Fantasy Baseball: Midseason Starting Pitcher Rankings

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Roy Halladay throws a pitch in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Florida Marlins, Saturday, May 29, 2010 in Miami. Halladay threw a perfect game as the Phillies defeated the Marlins 1-0. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

More photos » Wilfredo Lee - AP

3 months ago: Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Roy Halladay throws a pitch in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Florida Marlins, Saturday, May 29, 2010 in Miami. Halladay threw a perfect game as the Phillies defeated the Marlins 1-0. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

After much stat crunching, a lot of thinking and a decent amount of math, the starting pitcher rankings are finished. The four of us ranked what we believed to be our top 70 pitchers, though 80 pitchers were ranked overall. 

I felt that if you looked at the rankings as a whole, there were effectively three broad tiers of players. Inside the tiers we tended to disagree, but at the macro level I got the sense that there was a certain amount of consensus. I think as you go through the individual rankings you may notice the same thing. 

As always I will point out that these rankings reflect what we believe these players will do from this point onward. Actually, since each of us actually created our own rankings over a week ago, you ought to take them as "from a week ago onward." In the same vein, keep in mind that the rankings were done before a number of injuries, such as the ones to Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte and A.J. Burnett and the rankings do not reflect the players' status post-injury.

Because of the scale of the chart, I will not put it on the front page, just click on the jump to find it.

Star-divide

Rank Player Ray Jason Brian Seth Average
1 Roy Halladay 2 1 2 1 1.5
2 Adam Wainwright 3 3 4 2 2.75
3 Josh Johnson 1 4 3 4 3
4 Tim Lincecum 5 2 6 5 4.5
T-5 Cliff Lee 4 5 9 3 5.25
T-5 Ubaldo Jimenez 8 6 1 6 5.25
7 Felix Hernandez 10 7 5 8 7.5
8 Jon Lester 11 8 7 7 8.25
9 C.C. Sabathia 9 9 10 9 9.25
10 David Price 6 12 11 13 10.5
11 Jered Weaver 12 10 12 10 11
12 Justin Verlander 13 11 8 14 11.5
13 Clayton Kershaw 7 20 13 18 14.5
14 Yovani Gallardo 23 14 16 20 18.25
15 Chris Carpenter 32 13 17 12 18.5
16 Dan Haren 29 16 18 15 19.5
17 Roy Oswalt 17 23 15 16 17.75
18 Zack Greinke 24 17 27 17 21.25
19 Tommy Hanson 26 15 31 19 22.75
20 Phil Hughes 20 22 14 24 20
T-21 Stephen Strasburg 14 18 29 21 20.5
T-21 Johan Santana 15 19 23 25 20.5
T-23 Francisco Liriano 30 27 25 11 23.25
T-23 Clay Buchholz 16 24 20 33 23.25
25 Matt Cain 19 25 26 26 24
26 Mat Latos 25 21 36 22 26
27 John Danks 37 26 19 23 26.25
28 Andy Pettitte 18 41 24 36 29.75
29 Tim Hudson 28 38 30 37 33.25
30 Matt Garza 34 34 21 47 34
31 Chad Billingsley 42 35 22 38 34.25
32 Colby Lewis 36 33 39 31 34.75
33 Ryan Dempster 43 29 41 29 35.5
34 Trevor Cahill 22 40 28 54 36
T-35 Jeff Niemann 35 30 38 45 37
T-35 Javier Vazquez 27 32 35 46 37
37 Ricky Romero 57 28 37 28 37.5
38 James Shields 33 39 34 48 38.5
T-39 Josh Beckett 41 31 54 40 41.5
T-39 Cole Hamels 60 44 32 30 41.5
41 Jaime Garcia 54 37 49 27 41.75
T-42 Max Scherzer 40 36 52 41 42.25
T-42 Ervin Santana 31 46 40 42 42.25
44 Johnny Cueto 47 47 33 49 44
45 Ricky Nolasco 21 52 62 44 44.75
46 Jonathan Sanchez 52 51 45 39 46.75
47 Hiroki Kuroda 42 48 66 34 47.5
48 Gavin Floyd 45 45 51 53 48.5
49 Shaun Marcum 44 59 NR 32 51.5
T-50 Carl Pavano 62 56 44 50 53
T-50 Ted Lilly 61 61 55 35 53
T-50 Brett Anderson 49 49 NR 43 53
T-50 Jair Jurrjens 48 54 42 68 53
54 C.J. Wilson 63 43 56 57 54.75
55 Edinson Volquez 47 58 58 59 55.5
56 Wandy Rodriguez NR 42 48 64 56.25
57 Clayton Richard 64 55 43 66 57
58 Bronson Arroyo 39 66 53 NR 57.25
59 Scott Baker NR 63 46 51 57.75
60 Mike Pelfrey 50 57 69 56 58
61 John Lackey NR 50 47 NR 59.75
62 Jason Hammel 55 62 70 58 61.25
63 Jorge De La Rosa 58 68 59 61 61.5
64 Carlos Silva NR 65 60 55 62.75
65 Joel Pineiro 51 NR 61 NR 63.5
T-66 Kris Medlen 67 64 64 62 64.25
T-66 A.J. Burnett NR NR 63 52 64.25
68 Barry Zito 66 NR 50 NR 64.5
T-69 Brandon Morrow NR 53 NR NR 66.5
T-69 Vicente Padilla 53 NR NR NR 66.5
71 Gio Gonzalez NR 60 65 NR 66.75
72 Edwin Jackson 69 NR 57 NR 67
T-73 Ian Kennedy 59 NR NR NR 68
T-73 Fausto Carmona 65 NR NR 65 68
75 Anibal Sanchez NR NR NR 60 68.25
76 Madison Bumgarner 68 67 68 NR 68.5
77 Jonathan Niese NR NR NR 63 69
78 Mike Leake 70 70 67 70 69.25
T-79 Brian Matusz NR NR NR 67 70
T-79 Brett Myers NR 69 NR 69 70

Not bad, right? 

My three "general" tiers would be 1-27 (Halladay to Danks), 28-49 (Pettitte to Marcum), 50-80 (Pavano to Myers). Obviously they can be broken down more than that, and while there was a little crossover, I think those tiers are reasonably accurate reflection of the rankings.

A couple of names that stuck out to me as players that we were split on: Clay Buchholz, Jaime Garcia, Matt Garza, Ricky Nolasco, Shaun Marcum and John Lackey. I'll be interested to see what the commenters have to say about those. 

As always, feel free to address each of us individually about some of decisions--such is the beauty of rankings!

I would like to add that the majority of the math was done in bed with a semi-questionable calculator. Apologies in advance if there are any mathematical errors. 

0 recs  |  Comment 8 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Around SB Nation

Braves Fall In Series Finale 4-2

Sep 2010 from Talking Chop - 6 comments

Appreciating Hughes

Sep 2010 from Pinstripe Alley - 32 comments

What To Do With James Loney

Sep 2010 from True Blue LA - 285 comments

Comments

Display:

Seth

thanks for doing ALL of the rankings. The fact that you calculated all of these using a calculator is amazing.

Looking at my rankings, I was right about Kershaw….I am higher than others on him….not a shock. But, what was I thinking about Hamels at 60?

raygu
www.faketeams.com
www.sbnation.com

by Ray Guilfoyle on Jul 19, 2010 10:44 PM EDT reply actions  

Lackey

Is a thankless sort to rank this year.

Either you’re right to be down on him, and he’s not even a 60 (I myself dropped him in my 12 teamer and most teams have 6-9 SP)

OR

He rebounds a bit, and he clears 60 easily.

Thankless sort to rank. The upshot is that I think you guys collectively nailed it. It’s not so low that we all should automatically give up on him (as I did), but it recalls his upside, too.

by Johnny Tuttle on Jul 20, 2010 10:34 AM EDT reply actions  

Latos, Strasburg, Hughes

It looks like I was a lot lower on Latos and Strasburg than the others – I don’t like the probability of inning caps (forcing guys to miss a turn in the rotation or go on the DL to limit their innings will really mess with the rhythm)…

For some reason I didn’t feel the same about Hughes when ranking the pitchers. I think the Yankees saw (at least I hope they saw) how it really messed with Joba’s flow and he never could get in a groove – I am sure there is plenty to debate whether Joba actually has the ability to get in a groove – but regardless, baseball players are creatures of habit, and if your schedule gets tinkered with it can throw just about anyone off…

I expect the Yankees not to limit Hughes as much as Latos and Strasburg will be for the rest of the season.

by Bluethunder33 on Jul 20, 2010 1:52 PM EDT reply actions  

Kershaw??

How does Ray rank Kershaw ahead of the likes of Ubaldo, CC, King Felix, Lester and Hughes is beyond me??? Must be the Dodger Blue running….

by robg62 on Jul 20, 2010 3:35 PM EDT reply actions  

because

he had one of the best second halves in 2009 and before his last start, he had a 48-8 K/BB rate in his last 5-6 starts.

raygu
www.faketeams.com
www.sbnation.com

by Ray Guilfoyle on Jul 20, 2010 11:37 PM EDT up reply actions  

Then where is Johan?

If your reason for rating Kershaw is due to his second half in 2009, then why did you not grade Johan Santana as high or higher than Kershaw? Santana is notorious for having excellent second halfs. And he has more of a track record than Kershaw.

MIke Leake and Jaime Garcia ranked behind Kershaw?

by RickHoneycutt on Jul 21, 2010 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions  

Johan

is a different case. I didn’t rank Kershaw that high, but Johan even admitted he has been pitching hurt. I just don’t think you can count on his typically terrific second half.

As far as Leake/Garcia behind Kershaw—that seems obvious. Leake is having control issues and Garcia is good…but not that good.

by Seth Walder on Jul 21, 2010 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions  

RE: Johan

Rick Honeycutt knows his stuff!

Santana (8-5) allowed one run and five hits, struck out four and walked one. The left-hander has allowed no more than one run while pitching at least seven innings in any of his last five starts.

by RickHoneycutt on Jul 24, 2010 8:39 AM EDT reply actions  

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Welcome to the SB Nation blog about Fantasy Sports.
Start posting on FakeTeams »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

Connect_with_facebook

SBNation.com Recent Stories

Colorado Rockies' Carlos Gonzalez, left, and Ubaldo Jimenez, right, celebrate in the dugout after Gonzalez hits his second home run of the game in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants at Coors Field in Denver on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010. The Rockies won 6-1. (AP Photo/Chris Schneider)

Five Numbers: Carlos Gonzalez's Home Dominance, Baseball's Wave Of Flamethrowers, And More

Philadelphia Phillies' Chase Utley, right, celebrates his grand slam against the Colorado Rockies with teammates, from left, Ben Francisco, Jimmy Rollins and Brian Schneider in the seventh inning of a baseball game in Denver on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. The Phillies won 12-11. (AP Photo/Barry Gutierrez)

Phillies Post Nine-Run Seventh Inning, Hold On In Narrow Defeat Of Rockies

Detroit Tigers' Don Kelly (32) is congratulated in the Tigers' dugout after hitting a solo home run off Minnesota Twins pitcher Scott Baker during the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid)

Tigers, Twins Blow Series Of Opportunities, Gerald Laird Wins It In 13th

More from SBNation.com >


Managers

Img00031_1__small Ray Guilfoyle

Authors

Banksy_pie_small ILLZ

Jason_logo_small Jason Hunt

Small Bluethunder33

4312_1109962521830_1609860291_30470763_3161810_n_small Seth Walder

Img_1509_small dukeallstar

Small eklevine

Ice_hockey_monkey_small jackweiland