Fantasy Baseball 2011: AL/NL-Only Starting Pitcher Rankings

I published my starting pitcher rankings here and here, while Ross wrote an article finding value in some AL East hurlers, and Jeremy documented his breakout starting pitchers for 2011.

Here are my NL-Only rankings:

Roy Halladay, PHI

Adam Wainwright, STL

Tim Lincecum, SFG

Clayton Kershaw, LAD

Josh Johnson, FLA

Cliff Lee, PHI

Ubaldo Jimenez, COL

Cole Hamels, PHI

Mat Latos, SD

Chad Billingsley, LAD

Zack Greinke, MIL

Yovani Gallardo, MIL

AL-Only rankings and commentary after the jump:

AL-Only Rankings

Felix Hernandez, SEA

Jon Lester., BOS

Justin Verlander, DET

CC Sabathia, NYY

Jered Weaver, LAA

Dan Haren, LAA

Francisco Liriano, MIN

Brett Anderson, OAK

Max Scherzer, DET

David Price, TB

Ricky Romero, TOR

C.J. Wilson, TEX

I have to admit that I have concerns about Tim Lincecum in 2011, as he could be the Cole Hamels circa 2009 after winning the World Series in 2008. Lincecum threw 249+ innings in 2010, about a 25 inning increase over the 225 innings he pitched in 2009, and his K/BB dropped from 3.84 to 3.04, and his HR/9 increased from 0.4 to 0.8.

Again, the NL starting pitchers rankings is loaded with talent as compared to the AL pitchers. I could throw in Tommy Hanson, Shaun Marcum, Roy Oswalt and Chris Carpenter as pitchers I would take over the bottom half of the AL list. I guess it boils down to the fact that it is tougher to pitch in the AL than the NL.

It will be very easy for many to predict Roy Halladay and Felix Hernandez to win the Cy Young award in 2011 again, but a couple guys who have real shots at winning the award are Jon Lester and Justin Verlander in the AL and Clayton Kershaw and Josh Johnson in the NL.

Some of these pitchers have questions mark including Johnson, Cliff Lee, Francisco Liriano and Brett Anderson who have injury questions heading into spring training, and Ubaldo Jimenez, Mat Latos, Felix Hernandez and C.J. Wilson who will be hard-pressed to duplicate their performances in 2010.