Intro to Weekly SP Rankings

Every Sunday afternoon during the regular season I will be releasing a new post, which will rank all SPs slated to start in the following week. The rankings will be strictly for the following week, so it will depend heavily on matchups, ballparks, and whether the starter is getting one or two starts. The idea is for those managers employing a streaming approach to their rotation, as well as those in points leagues can have a ranking system that balances the multiple variables that get ignored by some in-season rankings. This could also be useful for those in roto leagues with a low innings limit. You want to make every start count and can't afford to waste innings on pitchers who could be headed for a bad start.

The rankings will be roughly 150 players long (30 teams x 5 SPs per week = 150) and will include a sort of Mendoza line (suggestions for the title are welcome). This line will indicate the break-even point for pitchers in a 12-team league. Or put in other words, the players above the line should return positive value while those below the line I would expect to return negative value. Those in deeper leagues can move the line down a bit in order to infer the same information for their league. There will also be a recap of last week's projections at the end of each post in order to keep myself accountable and to identify any trends in my rankings.

To kick off these rankings, I will be releasing my pre-season Top 150 SP's on Wednesday evening. This will hopefully give you an idea of how I rank pitchers and the variables I find important when valuing a starter. These rankings will be updated weekly as we move through Spring Training. They won't fluctuate much based on ST results, but injuries and transactions could affect a player's position in the rankings.

If there are any specific items you would like to see covered in the rankings, please reply in the comments and I will see what I can do.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter (@BrianCreagh) for additional advice/answers!