Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!
Yes, I know what you’re thinking.
Dearest MarmosDad, how can you be bringing something back when it is extremely doubtful that it was gone to begin with? Your ‘silver fox’ good looks are second only to your razor-sharp wit and plentiful, perfectly presented puns!
If I had a dollar for every time I had to clarify that I am not, in fact, Justin Timberlake…well, I would still be broke. But you get the gist.
Forget about bringing sexy back…I’m Bringin’ Schwellenbach.
Is this guy the second sexiest Spencer on Atlanta’s 40-man roster? P-to-the-erhaps.
Does he have 15 wins and a 250-strikeout season pace in 2024?
Well, no. But this guy has been in sync since his third big league start way back on June 12th.
Schwellenbach has been figuratively twerking through national league offenses like…
Wait, I don’t think I want to do a GIF search for that one. Let’s just say he’s been pretty awesome.
I mean, just Look at that WHIP…It makes me smile.
Last week I wrote that I wanted to run Schwelly as our lede but was swayed by Bowden Francis’ run at greatness.
Cool beans, MarmosDad, now tell us a story.
Well, Spencer Schwellenbach was drafted in the second round (59th overall) by the Braves in the 2021 MLB draft.
The fact that he has arrived in Atlanta already is pretty amazing, but even more so when you consider that he had Tommy John surgery immediately after the Braves drafted him 3 years ago.
I wanted to dive deeper into Scwellenbach’s resume, but the recency of his draft year, combined with that arm surgery, meant that this Spencer had thrown just 65 pro innings in total before spring training 2024.
Without getting into all of the nitty and the gritty, let’s just say that this kid has shown he belongs in professional baseball, and can thrive in a major league rotation.
Through 15 starts in Atlanta, Schwellenbach has allowed fewer hits than innings pitched, (which is always a good sign), and allowed just 10 home runs in 87 innings.
The 10.55 K/9 would put him in 8th place in the Top 10 of qualified pitchers smack dab in the middle with Michael King and Freddy Peralta on either side.
His 1.86 BB/9? Well, you won’t believe this.
If he had enough innings to qualify, he’d rank 8th in this one too, between noted control artists Nestor Cortes and Pablo Lopez.
The Debbie Downers will point out the 87 innings and say that it’s not a big enough sample size to run a true analysis.
But if Justin Timberlake was looking through his fantasy baseball keeper league waiver wire and his eyes fell on the 6’1” 24-year-old SP, I assume he’d say something like…
“’Cause you’re burnin’ up, I gotta get it fast”.
All I know is…I can’t stop the feeling…that this Spencer might be another receiver of an offseason sleeper post from our resident Fantasy Master Lothario (don’t abbreviate it).
Clearly, anyone in a keeper league should be targeting Sir Schwellenbach for a 2025 protected list if you have off-season trading to look forward to, but where should Spencer Schwellenbach rank in our Top 100 right now? Where do we slot in a rookie who has struck out 61 big leaguers over his last 42.1 innings pitched?
Well, as always, before we get to the list, I need to plug a couple of things for y’all first. If you want to check the spot I usually have open when flipping through my information on Sunday afternoons, you’re looking for that Player Rater leaderboard. This is always a great resource to use if you’re doing research. A bit of this, and a splash of that goes into the prep work for our weekly Top 100 Starting Pitchers list.
Of course, if you’re one of those doubting-your-own-gut-instinct fantasy managers, or simply want to use a great resource that will point you in the right direction every week, The Streamonator is here to help you answer those burning questions.
If you haven’t signed up for it, this should be your go-to reference for the entire season. It will save you a lot of time researching and often includes those “Oh, I never thought about that” solutions. The Razzball subscriptions are well worth the price of admission. If you’re serious about improving throughout the season, check the link, yo.
| RANK
(LAST WEEK) |
Name | TEAM | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tarik Skubal | Tigers | 8 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, and 8 Ks as Detroit honored the 1984 World Series winners. Skubal did his best Jack Morris impression…without the stellar lip foliage. |
| 2 | Zack Wheeler | Phillies | It’s him and Skubal ahead of the rest of the pack and outside of maybe Chris Sale it isn’t all that close. 7-inning 4-hitter with 7 Ks and 0 BBs at home vs ATL. |
| 3 | Chris Sale | Braves | Sale’s above Wheeler on the Player Rater and honestly it’s probably a three-horse race here for the top spot at the end of the year. |
| 4 | Dylan Cease | Padres | He’s the only other SP with an above 11.0 K/9 (Sale). |
| 5 | Paul Skenes | Pirates | More below. |
| 6 | Jack Flaherty | Dodgers | He’s given up a handful of earned runs over the last 4 starts, but he’s still a Top 10 arm. |
| 7 (9) | George Kirby | Mariners | The Player Rater disagrees, and I get that his win/loss record isn’t exactly eye-popping, but it’s tough to slot a league leader in BB/9 outside of the Top 10. |
| 8 | Blake Snell | Giants | He tripped up and broke his streak of quality starts last week, but bounced back nicely with 7 innings of 4-hit ball against Miami (1 ER). |
| 9 (12) | Gerrit Cole | Yankees | 5 IP, 3 ER, 7 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.86. It’s nothing eye-popping, but he’s charging up for the playoffs. 5th on ROS Player Rater. |
| 10 (14) | Logan Gilbert | Mariners | More below. |
| 11 (10) | Cole Ragans | Royals | Ragans recorded a bunch of strikeouts (10), but the Astros made the most of their 4 hits and 2 BBs. He also gave up 5 ER in the loss. |
| 12 (13) | Shoto Imanaga | Cubs | Two wins in a row with 11 Ks in 13 IP runs his record to 11-3. Not too shabby for his first MLB season. |
| 13 (18) | Pablo Lopez | Twins | I could’ve flipped him and Cole based on Pablo’s recent success. He hasn’t given up a run in 3 starts (20.2 innings). |
| 14 (10) | Michael King | Padres | 4 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 10 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.05. If you said Michael King’s name and gave me the numbers 10 and 3, I’d have guessed it was Ks and baserunners…not the other way around. |
| 15 (16) | Corbin Burnes | Orioles | 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 hits, zero walks, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.23. Acceptable. Not awesome. |
| 16 (15) | Luis Castillo | Mariners | Is he the Mariners’ ace? Their #3? #5? Let’s discuss that more next week! |
| 17 (8) | Tyler Glasnow | Dodgers | Mid-September is the most recent news. But the ‘best-case scenario’ doesn’t sound too promising. The Dodgers will want him to get some innings in before the playoffs, but they’ll be cautious too. |
| 18 (20) | Framber Valdez | Astros | 7 scoreless innings of no-hit ball vs KC Friday night. 7 Ks. Two upcoming home starts vs ARI and OAK look pretty good too. |
| 19 (14) | Bailey Ober | Twins | Atlanta demolished him for 9 ER in 2 IPs last week, but he shook it off with a strong start against the Jays yesterday. He’s at CIN next. |
| 20 (21) | Aaron Nola | Phillies | More below. |
| 21 (26) | Freddy Peralta | Brewers | 6 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 3.70. I know it happens every year but why does it feel like this year, particularly, has been the year of yo-yo starter? Up and down. Repeat. |
| 22 | Zach Eflin | Rays | He picked up Sunday right where he left off when he hit the IL. 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 9 Ks. Oh, and of course just the one walk. |
| 23 (25) | Tanner Houck | Red Sox | Another Friday night bounceback. 6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 Ks at DET. |
| 24 (23) | Logan Webb | Giants | 12 ER in his last 19 IPs? Not a good string of 3 starts. |
| 25 (19) | Ranger Suarez | Phillies | A lot of earned runs litter his last half-dozen starts. His 128 innings are the second-highest of his career (155 IP in 2022). |
| 26 (27) | Reynaldo Lopez | Braves | 3 ER in his last 4 GS spanning a total of 20 innings. Ya, I don’t think he’s fizzling out anytime soon. He gets COL at home and WSH on the road for his next two starts. Noice. |
| 27 (24) | Zac Gallen | Diamondbacks | He’s given up either one or zero earned runs…in every other start through his last nine. I guess the good news is he got crushed last week so if he follows the pattern he’ll be good at SF on Wednesday…but I wouldn’t bet on that. |
| 28 | Bryce Miller | Mariners | I was ready to move him up this week after a 10 K outing vs TB, but he had a bit of a flub yesterday. That rotation is like the Miss Universe pageant though. Fifth place is still pretty damn good. |
| 29 (35) | Jose Berrios | Blue Jays | All jokes aside, (almost), Jose has been bery bery good for the bluebirds this year. 6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 5 Ks was good enough for his 14th W of the season. |
| 30 (31) | Ronel Blanco | Astros | Beat KC at home yesterday with 5 shutout innings. 3 hits and strikeouts were nice. The 4 walks? Well, it wasn’t perfect. |
| 31 (33) | Max Fried | Braves | He was outpitched by Wheeler in PHI. The 4 BBs came back to bite him. |
| 32 (39) | Justin Steele | Cubs | 5 IP, 2 ER, 8 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.09. Yep. He’s serviceable with flashes of really good and a face-first speed bump dump every once in a while. That’s better than we can expect from a lot of other SPs. |
| 33 (36) | Sonny Gray | Cardinals | 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 hits, zero walks, 4 Ks. Eh? What’s that ya say, Sonny? I can’t hear ya from way down here! |
| 34 (30) | Tanner Bibee | Guardians | 5 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.65. Are he and Gavin Williams just finished already? Williams is just over 100 innings (minors/major total), and Bibee’s 147 innings is almost past his career high of 157 IP (2023). |
| 35 (32) | Luis Gil | Yankees | Gil was scheduled to make a minor league rehab start yesterday. He could be back on September 6. Monitor for now. |
| 36 (40) | Bryan Woo | Mariners | 6.1 IP is nice to see. The 3 HR isn’t. But…if two of the home runs were surrendered to my preseason Bold Prediction target Jo Adell, is that what they refer to as net zero? (And, no, I don’t mean Adell’s batting average from May and June). |
| 37 (42) | Spencer Schwellenbach | Braves | Oh, what to do with an open spot at #37…hmm… |
| 38 (48) | Seth Lugo | Royals | Ok, ok. 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 Ks at HOU is a solid outing worth a 10-spot boost for this week. The 14-8 record is helping your wins category too. |
| 39 (41) | Kevin Gausman | Blue Jays | You know what? I’m putting him back in the 39 spot this week. Do you know why? He’s won three of his last five starts. He’s allowed 20 hits in 32.2 IP. And he has 26 Ks over that span. Sure, the 3.03 BB/9 over that stretch isn’t great, but he’s not been as terrible as some think. |
| 40 (29) | Grayson Rodriguez | Orioles | The only news is that he threw from flat ground last week. That’s encouraging but without a timeline or rehab plan he drops even lower (for now). |
| 41 (37) | Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | Kersh was sent to the IL with a bone spur? Sounds more like a Draft Dodger than a Los Angeles one. Boom! |
| 42 (34) | Justin Verlander | Astros | Speaking of Justins, this one has not brought any sexy back lately. Last week’s outing at BOS was the third time he’s allowed 4 ER in his last 4 starts since he returned from the IL. Each start has been 5 innings, too. |
| 43 | Nick Pivetta | Red Sox | 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 Ks. A strong game that would have netted him his 6th victory against DET if the Red Sox could have figured out Skubal. They didn’t. |
| 44 | Robbie Ray | Giants | Hit the IL with a hamstring injury. I would assume the official diagnosis is ‘hamstring strangulation’. (yes, that’s another tight pants joke) |
| 45 (51) | Christopher Sanchez | Phillies | 5 2/3 IP, 2 ER (2 more unearned), 8 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 3.49. The run support from his team and the peripherals point to a must-start nearly every time he gets the ball. Even the meh games aren’t that harmful. |
| 46 | Jared Jones | Pirates | 4 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 3.88. Come on. He pitches outdoors in the Iron City and you didn’t expect some rust? |
| 47 (55) | Spencer Arrighetti | Astros | More below. |
| 48 (38) | Garrett Crochet | White Sox | More below. |
| 49 (56) | Nathan Eovaldi | Rangers | 7 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 2 walks, 10 Ks, ERA at 3.60. Another one that causes us balding fantasy baseballers to rip out the remaining tufts that surround the island of exposed scalp. At least this time it wasn’t out of frustration…unless…Sonofabench! |
| 50 (70) | Bowden Francis | Blue Jays | More below. (Of course). |
| 51 (68) | Sean Manaea | Mets | More below. |
| 52 (45) | Gavin Stone | Dodgers | 5 IP, 5 H, 5 ER. Ok. But did he have 5 Ks? No, only 4. Oof. (And no, I didn’t have the heart, or the numerology obsession, to drop him to 55). |
| 53 (47) | Mitch Keller | Pirates | He got knocked around at CLE for 11 hits and 3 HR but somehow only allowed 3 ER. Zero walks and 7 strikeouts keep him afloat for now. |
| 54 (53) | Shane Baz | Rays | 5 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 Ks. Baz gave up two singles to a strong Padres lineup and picked up his second win of the year Saturday afternoon. |
| 55 (54) | Nestor Cortes | Yankees | See Carlos Rodon. |
| 56 (59) | Yusei Kikuchi | Astros | Man was this 50s section tough to rank! 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 12 Ks. Someone is tacking into that Houston pitcher magic! Wait, did I say tacking? Tapping! I meant tapping! |
| 57 (52) | Carlos Rodon | Yankees | 5 2/3 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 4.31. This one is like Nestor Craptes. When they throw well, it bugs me. When they don’t, it gives me some weird sense of confirmation bias. |
| 58 (63) | Hunter Brown | Astros | 6.2 IP, 0 ER, 4 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 3.55. That’s 5 straight starts with 2 or fewer earned runs allowed. He’s been shaving points off that ERA for weeks. |
| 59 (66) | Brady Singer | Royals | 6 IP, 2 ER, 5 hits, 1 walk, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.36. Steady Brady not-so-shady. |
| 60 (67) | Colin Rea | Brewers | If the Player Rater had hands, (with really long arms attached to them), it would slap me for having him 22 spots too low. |
| 61 (50) | Hunter Greene | Reds | At least he’s throwing again. He won’t move up any further until he has a timetable for return or rehab starts. |
| 62 (71) | Brayan Bello | Red Sox | 8 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 9 Ks, ERA at 4.66. He must not have liked the Beetlejuice reference last week. Sorry, Brayan, I’ll put you back where you were two weeks ago. |
| 63 (74) | Tobias Myers | Brewers | He’s been a lot better than this ranking gives him credit for, and he hasn’t given up more than 3 ER in his last 8 starts. He gets COL at home next too, so I’d look to see if he’s available to stream. |
| 64 (60) | Brandon Pfaadt | Diamondbacks | It’s unfair to point out the complete meltdown of Taj Bradley (below) and his generous gifting of earned runs and ignore the same thing from Brandon Pfaadt. This Pfaadt boy has dished out 29 ER in his last 40 IP, but unlike Taj Bradley, his walk rate and K/9 have been much more palatable. |
| 65 (69) | Michael Wacha | Royals | It was between Wacha and Pepiot for this spot and the Player Rater agrees with me. |
| 66 (64) | Gavin Williams | Guardians | 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.99. One of my preseason darlings isn’t wowing many fantasy managers, but I can see him being a sneaky late arm to target in 2025 drafts a la Bryan Woo. |
| 67 (77) | Joe Musgrove | Padres | I did say I’d move him back up when he could prove he was healthy again. More below. |
| 68 (74) | Jeffrey Springs | Rays | 5 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 9 Ks, ERA at 3.67. “Hope Springs Eternal”. That’s the welcome mat outside the door that leads to three-inning starts. |
| 69 (57) | Erick Fedde | Cardinals | He’s 8-8 and he got torched for 4 ER in 5.1 IP at NYY. 8 Ks though so maybe that’s why the Player Rater likes him so much, (#45). Then again his K/9 is 7.97 so what do I know? |
| 70 (45) | Nick Lodolo | Reds | More like Nick Lod-IL. (Nailed It!) |
| 71 (62) | Luis Severino | Mets | The 9 Ks is nice. The ER per inning isn’t (4.2 IP, 4 ER). |
| 72 (68) | Ryan Pepiot | Rays | He needed 89 pitches to get through 3 innings vs SD yesterday. 4 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 Ks? Not good, Ryan. Not good. |
| 73 | Eduardo Rodriguez | Diamondbacks | 5 1/3 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 5.06. Oh my. Anyone high-fiving about Ed-Rod’s return was not ready for these low-fives. |
| 74 (82) | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | Dodgers | Uh oh. Yoshi is rehabbing and aiming to power up in mid-September. Eligible to return next Friday (Sept. 13). |
| 75 (49) | Taj Bradley | Rays | More below. |
| 76 (96) | Albert Suarez | Orioles | It feels silly to say that someone is probably boosted too much…and then he lands in the bottom 25, but here we are. Suarez is filling in pretty admirably for Grayson Rodriguez and has allowed just 4 ER total in his last 5 starts. (30.1 IP). |
| 77 (78) | Kutter Crawford | Red Sox | 6 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 8 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.12. A nice start for a guy on the waiver wire…unless…no, don’t tell me he’s still on your roster. |
| 78 (79) | Walker Buehler | Dodgers | 4 2/3 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 5.88. You know what they say about baby steps…you’ve got to Walker before you run..ner? |
| 79 (84) | JP Sears | Athletics | J.P. rolled into Texas and took it to the Rangers for his 11th win of the season. 7 IP, 1 ER, and 2 BBs almost offset the lack of strikeouts (4). |
| 80 (65) | Ryne Nelson | Arizona | More below. Bullpen reassignment means a big drop here. |
| 81 (NR) | Matthew Boyd | Guardians | 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 Ks. What’s cookin’ in the kitchen? It’s Chef Boyd-ah-wheeeee! |
| 82 (75) | Max Scherzer | Rangers | This a classic case of a 40-year-old saying, “I’m fine” and the boss saying, “No you’re not. You need to rest”. Max says all is good and he feels no pain, but I think Bruce Bochy will push to keep him out for at least another week or two to rest up. |
| 83 (90) | Chris Bassitt | Blue Jays | 6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 9 Ks. Paraphrasing Grey – “This was almost identical to Bello’s start. Wtf. Be normal, please.” The Jays offense has woken up over the past few weeks, so at least he should get some support. |
| 84 (81) | MacKenzie Gore | Nationals | 6 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.45. To be honest, he could probably throw back-to-back no-hitters and I’d still keep him in the 80s. That’s how much of a Charlie-Brown-football-kick he’s been this season. |
| 85 (89) | Andrew Heaney | Rangers | 5 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 3.95. I’m not much of a Heaney fan, but as long as he’s not getting crushed, I’m happy to roll him out on my mixed-keeper league team. |
| 86 | Charlie Morton | Braves | 5 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 9 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 4.26. “And for my next astounding feat, I will walk this tightrope with a lit firecracker in my mouth.” Ha! The joke’s on you! Morton is so old that his teeth fell out three years ago! |
| 87 (89) | Jake Irvin | Nationals | Ok, Player Rater! Stop yelling at me! I know you have him at #54! |
| 88 (94) | Osvaldo Bido | Athletics | 6 IP, 2 ER, 3 hits, zero walks, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.21. Even if you only stream this guy for good matchups, he still deserves a spot in the Top 100 over a handful of other messier arms. |
| 89 (83) | Ben Lively | Guardians | Another 6-run implosion, this time vs PIT. 4.1 IP, 9 H, 1 BB, and just 3 Ks means I’d look elsewhere for a streamer this week. He’s at KC on Thursday but gets CWS the following week. |
| 90 (NR) | Cody Bradford | Rangers | Ya? Meh? I know the Player Rater looooooved him a few weeks ago. After I ranked him here, I checked again and it has him at 93. Noice. 7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 Ks. Yes, it was Oakland, but still. |
| 91 (87) | Jose Soriano | Angels | Placed on the 15-day IL on August 15th with arm fatigue and eligible to return on September 15th? I know school doesn’t start up here until tomorrow, but that’s the first time I’ve seen 15 days counted as 30. |
| 92 (93) | Clarke Schmidt | Yankees | There’s some talk that he may not need a rehab start and he could be back as a starter as soon as this Friday. That’s the good news. The bad news is he might get squeezed out of the rotation when all the Yankee starters are healthy. |
| 93 (91) | Edward Cabrera | Marlins | EdCab was not bad but not good. And I finally dropped him in TGFBI. The logical part of my brain says he should be gone. The illogical one is distracted and listening to Supertramp. |
| 94 (NR) | Caden Dana | Angels | Much more below. |
| 95 (76) | Yariel Rodriguez | Blue Jays | I wanted to believe in the breakout. I really did. But when a guy throws as few innings as Yariel has over the past few years…let’s just say the increase has caught up to him. |
| 96 (NR) | David Peterson | Mets | I had to find someone to slot in here and the Player Rater didn’t disappoint. Peterson should have been on the list a few weeks ago. 6 strong starts in a row put him here for now and likely move him up quickly if he keeps it going. |
| 97 (90) | David Festa | Twins | 6 IP, 2 ER, 3 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 4.89. A 10.84 K/9 over his first 9 MLB starts? I smell a Grey 2025 sleeper. Emphasis on smelling the sleeper part, not the Grey…nevermind. |
| 98 (NR) | Bobby Miller | Dodgers | I flipped through the rest-of-season Player Rater for this one. Which guy was the highest-ranked one who wasn’t on the list yet? Well, that was Merrill Kelly but eff that noise. The next one? Here he is. And I can’t really argue much with it. But be aware that he’s got a knee issue. He faces LAA on the road this week. |
| 99 (NR) | Jack Leiter | Rangers | It was a bunch of names here and I landed on Leiter. Could it have been Kumar Rocker? Sure. Yu Darvish? He is throwing again. Andrew Abbott? I guess. But I assume Texas brings Leiter back sooner rather than later. |
| 100 | Jacob deGrom | Rangers | Threw two innings in a rehab start. That’s the second infinity stone! Two more before he fills the IL-finite gauntlet and returns … for two starts. |
BIGGEST JUMPERS: Who’s got hops? These are some of the biggest jumpers in value this week.
Logan Gilbert – 6 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 0 BBs, 10 Ks, 3.09 ERA. I nearly made Logan the lede this week. Don’t worry. It’s coming before the end of the season hits, especially if he keeps these strikeout numbers up. Oh, and the walks? Let’s just say Logan Gilbert and I both walked the same amount of batters in MLB last week. The only question here is does Seattle have one ace or a few? I think we know the answer there already, but I’ll put some more words on it later.
Aaron Nola – 7 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.30.
You watch him in a game down in old Phil-ly
Where he carves up hitters. E.R.A. shows threes…
Aaron Nola…N-O-L-A Nola.
Spencer Arrighetti – 7 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 4 walks, 11 Ks, ERA at 4.63. Two weeks in the jumpers section? Wowie! Arrighetti looks like he’s not “arreter”ing anytime soon. Apologies for the French pun, but one can only provide so many pasta plays on words. Speaking of words! As I said last week, I wrote Arrighetti up in a deep dive article in March. Give me the kudos. I hoard them in the corner of my ice hut in the off-season.
Bowden Francis – 7 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 0 walks, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.66. Oh yes. Our lede from last week was no big deal. He just posted the second-best monthly WHIP…EVER!
Lowest WHIP – Single Month
MLB History (Min 4 starts)Bowden Francis (Aug 2024) 0.41
Jack Taylor (Sep 1902) 0.47
Jacob deGrom (Jun 2021) 0.48 pic.twitter.com/XGJpaS2RCl— Chris Black (@DownToBlack) August 30, 2024
AND he nearly ripped off the second no-hitter in Blue Jays history in the process?
Is he a Top 50 SP overall? Probably not. But is he a Top 50 SP the rest of the way? Well, watch this clip and let me know the 50 names that are better than him right now.
Bowden Francis, K’ing the Side in the 1st. pic.twitter.com/sQyJsuIXUH
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 18, 2024
Sean Manaea – 6.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 11 Ks, ERA at 3.51. Here’s a fun ratio to check out: Manaea is striking out one batter for each strand of his luxurious, Troy Polamalu-esque head lettuce. Yes, maybe a bit hyperbolic, but Manaea is up over a strikeout an inning now with this late-season surge. And speaking of Troy Polamalu…I don’t even know if I could name 10 NFL players, but you know who can? YOU! If you get Rudy’s NFL draft guide and subscription HERE! (Good Lord, I nailed it again!)
Caden Dana 95 (NR) – This was my note for Caden Dana this week: Check the start. Link the second half write-up that I forgot to tag the kids in. Feel shame. Tell you to take a flier on Dana in both keeper and ROS leagues. Quickly reference “the key master and gatekeeper”. Nod my head that one person may get the Ghostbusters reference. Shrug that that person will likely not be Sigourney Weaver. For the record, Dana had a very solid debut against Seattle yesterday. 6 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 4 BBs, 4 Ks. The really surprising part? Anaheim let Dana throw 95 pitches. Even more surprising? His arm did not fall off…yet.
But perhaps the MOST surprising thing was watching this clip from the MLB Network with Greg Amsinger and Buck Showalter talking about which pitcher Caden Dana looked like. Watch this one, then click on the link from my second-half write-up to see which name I mentioned a month ago. Ha!
I assumed he would say Jered Weaver…but he didn’t! (sorry for the crummy audio quality too).
BIGGEST DUMPERS: With apologies to Cal Raleigh, these are some of the biggest dumpers (in value, not pants size).
Paul Skenes – 5 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.23. Please, before you get out the pitchforks and torches, hear me out. Paul Skenes is still a Top 10 Starting Pitcher and will be for the rest of the year. I wouldn’t say Mr. Livvy Dunn is slowing down, but I would say to not bet your 401K on him throwing another complete game shutout this year. Blame that nasty ‘innings management’ monster if you want to go out hunting at midnight.
Garrett Crochet – I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall in that White Sox clubhouse. 3.1 innings was enough of a stretch to hang a loss on Crochet yesterday. The atrocious line from that start? 3.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 HR, 0 BB, 8 Ks. Yep. That’s right. Crochet struck out 8 of the 10 batters he retired and STILL TOOK THE LOSS in a 2-0 start vs NYM. I’m sorry WhiteSox fans because I’m late to the party here but at what point did it shift from comical to sad or vice versa? Another 57-pitch outing means we probably shouldn’t count on many wins the rest of the way…but we already knew that.
Joe Musgrove – 6 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.44. Musgrove isn’t necessarily a dumper. Depending on what your starting rotation looks like, he may be a jumper. The Padres’ SP was probably never available on your waiver wire, especially since there are likely players in your league who think he’s still an ace. If you play in a league with IL spots, he’s not available either. But he’s looking pretty decent since his return from injury and is more than just a streamer as long as the Dads keep steaming through people.
Taj Bradley – I jokingly referred to this Ray as ‘Tumblefish’ last week as a nod to S.E. Hinton’s 1975 novel, and Taj ran out another rotten fish head of a start last week to tumble even further down our rankings. There aren’t many rays of hope left when you’ve allowed 31 earned runs in 28.1 innings and have fully imploded in each start since July 31st. If you haven’t benched him or dropped him yet, you’d better do it fast before he gets stabbed by Johnny in the park. This Outsider went from gold to garbage pretty quickly.
Ryne Nelson – 6 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 8 hits, zero walks, 4 Ks, ERA at 4.22. If you’re a Nelson truther, I’m sorry. But I think you knew this was coming. Getting replaced in the rotation by Jordan Montgomery is like trading in your nice, good-looking partner for Baba Yaga (I honestly don’t know why that reference popped into my head, but here we are). That change is not a MmmmBop. (And three minutes after I typed this note on the phone, that song came on in the car on our 5-hour drive back from the boy’s Provincial Championships. The Gods of Nelson are watching…always.)
DJ Herz NR (90) – 4.2 IP, 4 ER, 2 BBs, 5 Ks. Someone jammed up this DJ’s turntable with peanut butter and poop emojis.
Zebby Matthews NR (92) – 2 IP, 10 H, 9 ER, 1 BB, 5 Ks. We watched some of this one in the hotel lobby on Saturday night with parents from my son’s travel baseball team. When casual fans are commenting on how surprised they are with the number of runs the Jays scored early, you know it’s not a good thing for the opposing pitcher.
WHEE! – The following players zoomed on to the list this week!
Matthew Boyd
Cody Bradford
Caden Dana
David Peterson
Bobby Miller
Jack Leiter
OOF! – The following players dropped off the list this week!
DJ Herz
Zebby Matthews
Jameson Taillon
Vicente Bellozo
Tyler Mahle
Michael Lorenzen
That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed it! Next week, I’ll post the Top 100 Starting Pitchers with some write-ups on some of the arms that I think need a bit more attention than others or cherry-picking names to highlight as we progress through the last couple of months of the season.
Drop some comments in the chat if you’re feeling extra fired up about some of the names I do (or don’t) have here. Have a great week!
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