Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!
We’re BACK on a lovely Monday afternoon in July, and all is right in the world. The All-Star festivities are fading in the rearview mirror and we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we have a full slate of baseball ahead of us this week!
I hope you enjoyed the half-dozen young arms to watch in the last installment. I’m glad to report that for this session, we’ll be returning to the old format of giving you the DUMPERS and JUMPERS after the list, along with anyone who has slid off our weekly announcement or made a new appearance over the past couple of write-ups.
Each week there’s a good, long list of names to peruse and I’m sure that there are more than a couple of spots that leave your guy open for criticism here.
“Cole Ragans isn’t a Top 10 arm? Come on. Chris Sale is Top 5? What? How is Justin Steele lower than the Top 15? What is this guy doing?”
Yes, I get it, my over-the-internet friends. But it’s tough to rank 25 great arms in just 10 spots, that’s for sure.
At the risk of alienating anyone without a West Coast bias, let’s have a peek at someone who can curb your enthusiasm for some of those aforementioned names.
Or should I say…Kirby Enthusiasm?
Ok, Larry. Here goes.
George Kirby has popped in and out of our Top 10 Starting Pitchers list all year. A couple of rough outings early-season had me a bit worried that we had him ranked too highly. After a tough start in April, he seemed to settle in, then posted back-to-back 5 ER starts at Baltimore and Washington. Ew.
That doesn’t sound like the kind of Top 100 Starting Pitcher who should have been featured in the Wayne Gretzky section of the July 1st article.
BUT…what if I told you that, since May 29th, in his last ten games, George Kirby has recorded 9 Quality Starts and has popped off a two-month line of…
10 GS, 61.1 IP, 50 H, 14 ER, 7 BB, 65 K, 2.05 ERA?
Yes, Larry. Yes I am.
Now Kirby has never been a ‘blow-the-doors-off’ kind of strikeout guy, so the 9.54 K% over that span isn’t eye-popping, but it is pretty impressive. The 0.29 HR/9 over that period is equally notable as Kirby allowed just 2 HR over those 61.1 innings.
And, of course, there’s the one thing that the Seattle Mariners’ pitching staff has figured out this year. Out of the starting rotation, not one of the regular arms has a BB/9 rate higher than Luis Castillo’s 2.53 (sorry, Luis).
As for George Kirby? He’s walked just 13 batters in 123.2 innings. Yep. That’s good for a league-leading 0.95 BB/9.
Pretty good.
It would be nice if the Mariners could give Kirby some more run support. That 7-7 record isn’t helping you if you’re in a league that heavily weighs wins over quality starts, but the other numbers are *chef’s kiss*.
Is George Kirby a Top 10 arm for the rest of the season? I’m pretty, pretty sure you can guess the answer to that one. But, where does he land in the update this week?
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.
This week, I have quite a bit of notes to edit for our list but for the guys who haven’t pitched yet in the ‘post-All-Star break’ games, I’m going to leave last week’s notes in there as nothing has changed since the last update. I’ll keep it easy to read for y’all, though, and make sure to bold the updated notes.
| RANK
(LAST WEEK) |
Name | TEAM | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zack Wheeler | Phillies | He got a bit of extra time to rest his back injury over the break and is slated to start tomorrow at MIN. Still our top dog. |
| 2 | Tarik Skubal | Tigers | I wrote him up in the Rizz-o-Meter article and in the July 1st Top 100 SP piece. If you drafted him as your SP2, you’ve been pretty happy. |
| 3 | Corbin Burnes | Orioles | 6 innings of 2-hit baseball with just one earned run at TEX isn’t enough to move him down…even with the 4 BBs and 6 Ks. |
| 4 | Chris Sale | Braves | He’s a Top 20 SP in the ROS rankings and he should finish even higher if he can keep that 35-year-old body from breaking down. The numbers are the best he’s posted since 2018. |
| 5 | George Kirby | Mariners | Another QS on Saturday vs HOU. Zero walks and 6 Ks. See above. |
| 6 | Paul Skenes | Pirates | One scoreless inning as the NL All-Star starter with 1 BB and 0 Ks. He gets a bit of extra rest before throwing tomorrow VS STL. |
| 7 | Grayson Rodriguez | Orioles | 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, and 8 Ks were enough to net him his 12th win of the season at TEX on Saturday. He might still be too high here, but the numbers support it. |
| 8 | Logan Gilbert | Mariners | I’m stuck on the elite walk numbers with this guy. He threw a 7-inning 2-hit shutout last time with 9 Ks and … guess how many BBs. |
| 9 (10) | Tyler Glasnow | Dodgers | He’s set to start at home vs SFG on Wednesday. Hopefully, the back issues are behind him (both literally and figuratively). |
| 10 (11) | Cole Ragans | Royals | It was between him and Houck for this spot. It goes to Ragans based on the strikeout numbers alone (116.2 IP, 141 Ks). |
| 11 (12) | Tanner Houck | Red Sox | See above. 117 IP, 112 Ks. |
| 12 (13) | Garrett Crochet | White Sox | One hit and one strikeout in one inning in the All-Star game. Will he pitch well at TEX on Tuesday? “How many starts will he have for the White Sox in the second half?” may be the bigger question. |
| 13 (9) | Aaron Nola | Phillies | A bit of a dip here for Nola after giving up 4 ER in 5 IPs at PIT on Friday night. The 4 Ks were his lowest total in his last 7 starts. |
| 14 | Shoto Imanaga | Cubs | He hosted ARI yesterday, so I’ll have to edit later with the results. Edit: Imaaga threw a beauty with just 2 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, and 10 Ks over 7 innings…and got the no-decision in a 2-1 Cubs loss. |
| 15 | Gerrit Cole | Yankees | Friday night he led NYY right out of the break with a 6-inning, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K performance that was almost identical to his previous start. Another vintage Cole game like this on Wednesday will move him into the Top 10 next week. |
| 16 (18) | Joe Ryan | Twins | See the Sonny Gray blurb above. We could make a case that Ryan should be just outside the Top 10. ROS Player Rater has him slotted in as the SP7. |
| 17 | Luis Castillo | Mariners | I don’t like to zig when Grey zags, especially when it comes to pitchers, so this is probably still too lofty of an expectation for Luis. Grey is expecting some poor results from the M’s SP. The QS on Friday night was encouraging, but the 3 Ks leave something to be desired for sure. I’ll be monitoring closely to see if he needs to move up or down over the next couple of weeks. |
| 18 (19) | Pablo Lopez | Twins | 7 innings with 4 H, 1ER, 0 BB, and 7 Ks on Saturday was a nice confirmation of his high ROS Player Rater ranking (up to 2nd ROS). |
| 19 (16) | Sonny Gray | Cardinals | The good news is he picked up his 10th win of the year at ATL on Saturday. The not-so-good news is the 5 ER on 4 HR. BUT! Let’s make this a Good/Bad/Good sandwich by pointing out the 0 BB and 10 Ks in that start too. |
| 20 (28) | Dylan Cease | Padres | More below. |
| 21 (20) | Ranger Suarez | Phillies | Scheduled to pitch today at MIN. |
| 22 (27) | Freddy Peralta | Brewers | 6 shutout innings, 2 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks puts him just ahead of Tanner Bibee this week. |
| 23 (29) | Tanner Bibee | Guardians | No QS on Friday, but 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 3 Ks moves him up a bit in front of a few others in this section. |
| 24 (23) | Zac Gallen | Diamondbacks | The 5 shutout innings with just 3 hits on Saturday were nice, but it’s tough to understand how he wiggled around 6 BBs with just 4 strikeouts. |
| 25 | Seth Lugo | Royals | Before you argue it, (Lu)Go check out his ROS Player Rater ranking and tell me you expect a repeat of his first half numbers. ROS SP ranking: 62. |
| 26 (22) | Max Scherzer | Rangers | In his two starts since returning from the IL, his totals are: 6 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 7 Ks. With pitch counts of 71 and 53, it looks like he’s still working on getting back to his old self. Monitoring this for the next couple of weeks before making any drastic changes. |
| 27 (30) | Jack Flaherty | Tigers | He threw 98 pitches in TOR on Friday night and gave up just 2 ER in 5.2 IP with one BB. The 8 Ks means that the painkiller shots to the back must be working. He’s a Top 25 arm (at least) if he can show that the injury concerns are behind him. |
| 28 (36) | Michael King | Padres | He’s allowed one earned run in each of his last three starts. 20 Ks in 17.1 innings through that stretch. Edit: King had a no-hitter going into the 7th inning yesterday. |
| 29 (40) | Taj Bradley | Rays | More below. |
| 30 (21) | Max Fried | Braves | More below. |
| 31 | Logan Webb | Giants | I wanted to move him up this week, but the Saturday start wasn’t great and he’s now given up 11 ER in his last 11 IP (2 GS). |
| 32 (26) | Luis Gil | Yankees | First of all, he’s been GREAT. Let’s get that out of the way…before we look at the 4.31 BB/9 and the fact that his highest innings total was 29.1 in 2021. He’s at 102.1 P now and it’ll be interesting to see how the Yankees manage his time so he’s good to go in the playoffs. |
| 33 (35) | Ronel Blanco | Astros | He was set to start yesterday. Solid ratios and BAA (.169) before Sunday’s game. |
| 34 (32) | Mitch Keller | Pirates | I’ve said it before, but this guy has been sliding between the shadows of Skenes and Jones all year. He might get that same ‘workload management’ that his rotation-mates will see, but I’m here for the great starts until that happens. |
| 35 (34) | Bailey Ober | Twins | 5 straight QS move him back up here. Here’s hoping he continues to build off of that at the start of the second half. |
| 36 (34) | Nick Lodolo | Reds | Another 8 strikeouts on Friday night, but also allowed 4 ER and 7 baserunners. |
| 37 | Reynaldo Lopez | Braves | The ratios are pristine. But the ROS Player Rater doesn’t believe that he’ll keep this up (72nd) … and I kind of don’t believe it either. |
| 38 | Blake Snell | Giants | More below. |
| 39 (24) | Kevin Gausman | Blue Jays | More below. |
| 40 (39) | Hunter Greene | Reds | So…he took the loss in the All-Star game and gave up 2 ER on the HR to Jarren Duran in the 5th inning. He’ll stay here until Kershaw and Springs return and likely bump him down into the lower 40s. |
| 41 | Gavin Stone | Dodgers | Out of the next three guys, Stone was the one to NOT give up 5 ER in his last start. |
| 42 (43) | Justin Steele | Cubs | See Stone above. |
| 43 (42) | Jose Berrios | Blue Jays | If we’re looking at his most recent starts as the indicator of future success, he should be ranked in the 70s. ROS Player Rater has him as the SP34 between Mitch Keller and Yamamoto. |
| 44 | Bryce Miller | Mariners | I wanted to slot him in higher, but when I looked at the numbers from his first half they weren’t exactly eye-popping. Still a great SP the rest of the way. |
| 45 | Framber Valdez | Astros | He got the win in Saturday night’s 4-2 battle against George Kirby and the Mariners, but the 5.2 innings and 4 BBs make that more about Seattle’s aforementioned lack of run support for Kirby than anything else. |
| 46 (47) | Justin Verlander | Astros | On Sunday the report was that he threw 40 pitches and felt good. Would you want to bet against a healthy Verlander on a contending team? I sure wouldn’t. |
| 47 (NR) | Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | More below. |
| 48 (54) | Kutter Crawford | Red Sox | I wanted to push him up even higher but ran out of spots. Here’s the total from his last 4 starts: 21.1 IP, 9 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 17 Ks. If only someone had called him a sleeper for 2024. (Google that shizz). |
| 49 (57) | Nick Pivetta | Red Sox | Needed someone to push into the 49 spot ahead of Springs and Pivetta’s 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, and 8 Ks AT LAD was enough to justify this move. |
| 50 (NR) | Jeffrey Springs | Rays | More below. |
| 51 (49) | Zach Eflin | Rays | Just when I was ready to move him up even more, he gave up another handful of earned runs. It’s been a flip-flop of runs every other start with Eflin (4,1,5,0,4 over his last five GS) but we can usually count on no walks. He gave up 4 BBs in his Friday start after allowing only 9 all year. |
| 52 (46) | Nathan Eovaldi | Rangers | 6 earned runs and 3 HRs allowed hosting Baltimore last Friday kicks him down a bit. Just 2 Ks in that start. |
| 53 (50) | Matt Waldron | Padres | His start Friday at CLE was solid – 6 innings, 6 hits, zero walks or earned runs allowed and 5 strikeouts…but I couldn’t find someone above him to bounce out of his way. |
| 54 (51) | Jared Jones | Pirates | The bad news is he’s been shut down for two weeks with a lat strain. The good news is he’s eligible for activation on July 19th. That’s the first day back after the ASB. Prayer circle time! |
| 55 (48) | Nestor Cortes | Yankees | More below. |
| 56 | Christopher Sanchez | Phillies | Not a bad start on Saturday night at PIT. 5.2 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, and 2 Ks. |
| 57 (55) | Shane Baz | Rays | Started yesterday, so this might change before my final edit. Edit: 3.1 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 K, 5 BBs. Baby steps. |
| 58 (52) | Erick Fedde | White Sox | Back-to-back wins, 11 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 8 Ks. The 5 BB (total) aren’t great, and the ROS expects a lot of regression. |
| 59 (53) | Chris Bassitt | Blue Jays | This is strictly a Player Rater call. Ranked 29th ROS. He got rocked by Detroit at home on Friday night too. |
| 60 (62) | Brandon Pfaadt | Diamondbacks | 6 shutout innings in his last start. If he keeps this up, he’ll be “Crushin’” a Pfaadt Boys lede in the not-so-distant future. ***Started yesterday*** |
| 61 | Carlos Rodon | Yankees | A VERY gracious ROS ranking keeps him in the 60s here. He added two more HR allowed to his total BUT now ranks second on that list. (Good work, Jose Berrios *smh*) |
| 62 (63) | MacKenzie Gore | Nationals | 67 pitches in 2 innings against WSH on Saturday. 2 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 Ks, one WOOF. |
| 63 (64) | Brady Singer | Royals | 7 scoreless innings on Saturday with 5 hits, 2 BBs, and 7 Ks. “But it was against the White Sox!” Hey, that’s not very nice! |
| 64 (68) | Brayan Bello | Red Sox | A QS at LAD should warrant a move further up the list, but he’s the victim of wanting to slot others ahead of him this week. |
| 65 (59) | Bryan Woo | Mariners | Woo’s sub-6 K/9 is underwhelming, and with the pitch count management he likely won’t cruise to 10 wins in the second half. I’m a year ahead of the Woo hype here, but I’d be looking to lock him in if you’re in a keeper league. Hopefully he blows the training wheels off in Spring Training next year. |
| 66 (65) | Hunter Brown | Astros | Friday night’s start was a good one. 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 Ks. |
| 67 (66) | Jon Gray | Rangers | The good news is he gave up zero runs and zero walks in Friday night’s game. The bad news is Texas brought him in to pitch the 9th inning. Maybe it was just to get him some work right after the break. |
| 68 (58) | Ryan Pepiot | Rays | IL’ed with a right knee infection? Did he trip and fall into a sewer or something? At least it isn’t an arm injury. |
| 69 (60) | Jake Irvin | Nationals | More below. |
| 70 (71) | Kodai Senga | Mets | Eligible to return this Friday. Rehab results weren’t great if you look at the numbers, but he said he’s feeling great. |
| 71 (72) | Gavin Williams | Guardians | A pre-season pick of mine. I outlined him in the Rizz-o-Meter article on Monday. |
| 72 | Yariel Rodriguez | Blue Jays | I could see myself calling him ‘Ackbar’ soon because after DET, his next two starts line up against TB and TEX. “It’s a trap!” |
| 73 (74) | Michael Wacha | Royals | Threw a 7-inning scoreless beauty on Friday with just 5 baserunners and 7 Ks… against the White Sox. |
| 74 (67) | Ben Lively | Guardians | He started yesterday’s game against the Padres and was at 5 baserunners and one strikeout through 3 innings. 2 ER so far (at the time of writing) could end up giving us an even uglier final linescore. Edit: The line wasn’t bad, but when you have to face Michael King chucking a no-no through 6 complete… |
| 75 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | Dodgers | Was officially placed on the 60 day IL on Monday. Now officially won’t be back until the end of August at the earliest. |
| 76 | Clarke Schmidt | Yankees | Comes in right behind Baz on the ROS list (99th). He’s throwing again and due back mid-August. |
| 77 (69) | Yusei Kikuchi | Blue Jays | More below. |
| 78 | Luis Severino | Mets | 6 scoreless innings with just 5 baserunners and 7 strikeouts at MIA on Saturday. Being this low is an injustice, but he should get dealt to a contender soon and will certainly move up with more games like this. |
| 79 (77) | Andrew Abbott | Reds | A better start yesterday through 4 innings (4 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K), but the game wasn’t finished yet at time of writing and he was already at 61 pitches. |
| 80 | James Paxton | Dodgers | 119th on the ROS Player Rater? Maybe disregard what I said about experience influencing the ROS rankings. |
| 81 (79) | Charlie Morton | Braves | He threw well Saturday vs STL. 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 Ks. |
| 82 | Jameson Taillon | Cubs | Three wins in a row with respectable ratios is OK. Getting 27 runs of support from your offense certainly helps a mediocre pitcher look good, though. |
| 83 | Edward Cabrera | Marlins | My optimism and hope that I could move him up at least 10 spots got wiped out pretty quickly after he gave up 5 walks in 4.2 innings vs NYM. The single strikeout adds insult to ineffective. Ick. |
| 84 (95) | Marcus Stroman | Yankees | He got some low scores on the Rizz-O-Meter, but he was off to a good start yesterday at the time of writing – 3.2 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks. He had already allowed 2 HR though too, so… |
| 85 (73) | Reese Olson | Tigers | Yanked from his Saturday start after 2 IP and placed on the 15-day IL with a right shoulder strain. |
| 86 (83) | Dean Kremer | Orioles | He’s thrown well since returning from the IL. Started yesterday at TEX, so let’s wait to see how that goes before we boost him. |
| 87 (88) | Jose Soriano | Angels | More of the same from Soriano last week. 6 innings, 1 ER, 5 Ks, but 4 BBs. |
| 88 | Christian Scott | Mets | Another one who was pitching while I was writing this up. He’d given up 5 hits through 3 scoreless with 2 BBs and 3 Ks when I got to his name. Hold here for now. Edit: 4 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 Ks. |
| 89 (86) | Aaron Civale | Brewers | Honestly, it feels like there are 50 pitchers throwing while I write this every Sunday afternoon. Civale was 4 innings into his start against the Marlins when I got to him in our list. Unfortunately for MLW fans, I wasn’t the only one who had gotten to him at that point. 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB 1 HR. |
| 90 (91) | Tyler Anderson | Angels | Can you think of an arm that is more likely to get dealt at the deadline? I think not. |
| 91 (87) | Mitchell Parker | Nationals | The regression fairies are dragging him…hard. |
| 92 (89) | Zack Littell | Rays | It was between Littell, Hicks, and Lorenzen for this spot. Littell was closest to 100 according to ROS ranks (109th). |
| 93 (91) | Javier Assad | Cubs | A rough return from the IL last week. Clinging to a Top 100 spot by his fingernails. |
| 94 (NR) | Andrew Heaney | Rangers | Full disclosure, I messed up my numbers and had to fit one more new name into a slot. Well, after dropping every down one position I came to accept that Heaney is worth at least a 94 this week. He’s 3-10 on the year, but his numbers don’t support the rough record.98 IP, 94 H, 28 BB, 99 Ks puts him ahead of the final six names here. |
| 95 (92) | Miles Mikolas | Cardinals | Yesterday’s start wasn’t bad by any means. I just don’t trust him to be consistently good…or even consistenty half-decent…the rest of the way. |
| 96 (93) | Kyle Gibson | Cardinals | See Mikolas above. |
| 97 (90) | Jordan Hicks | Giants | Scratched from his scheduled start. Innings management is my guess either way. The question is will he start relieving again or will he stay in the rotation for the second half? |
| 99 (97) | Jose Quintana | Mets | Worst start of the year last week, but he was ranked in the Top 10 SPs on the last 30-day Player Rater. |
| 100 (99) | Ben Brown | Cubs | “Lingering neck discomfort” and a cool 200 ranking for the ROS sends Ben Brown down. |
THE DUMPERS AND JUMPERS ARE BACK!
BIGGEST DUMPERS: With apologies to Cal Raleigh, these are some of the biggest dumpers (in value, not pants size).
Max Fried 30 (21) – This wasn’t a dump that Max could control. Yesterday, he was placed on the 15-day IL with left elbow neuritis. I’m no doctor, (shocking, I know), but that doesn’t sound like something that will sort itself out in two weeks.
Kevin Gausman 39 (24) – Here’s what I wrote about him last week: “It doesn’t look good. The double digit strikeout games and track record keep him this high, but he’s given up more hits than Taylor Swift. 75th on the Player Rater for the first half…BUT, 9th on the ROS one.” True story alert! Shortly after dropping Gausman yesterday, I DMed the other writers to announce that Gausman would likely rip off a CG shutout with double-digit strikeouts because of the dump. Shortly thereafter he gave up a grand slam to Justyn-Henry Malloy. And, yes, I had to spellcheck that name 3X. Oof.
Nestor Cortes 55 (48) – At home vs TB last week felt like the right call to start him, (sorry Martin!). It’s difficult to recommend a guy who has the potential to dominate a team one night, albeit without a lot of strikeouts, and then fully collapse in a follow-up start. 11 ER in his last 8.2 IP with 4 homer allowed means he slides out of the Top 50.
Jake Irvin 69 (60) – Two 6 ER blowups in a row and a less than encouraging 115th SP ROS ranking. He had already given up one HR and 2 hits in 3 innings at the time of writing yesterday but did have 5 strikeouts.
Yusei Kikuchi 77 (69) – Kikuchi got ‘popped’ for 4 ER in 5 IP on Saturday vs DET. Jays fans (AKA Me) are hoping he can throw a couple of scoreless games with high strikeout totals to increase his trade value before the end of the month.
BIGGEST JUMPERS: Who’s got hops? These are some of the biggest jumpers in value this week.
Dylan Cease 20 (28) – 22 Ks in his last two starts with just 2 hits allowed and 0 ER. The 4 walks are encouraging too. I know that Cease may make you pre-maturely balding people yank at your few remaining scalp follicles…but when he’s on, he’s on. Will he finish the second half with elite numbers? Maybe not. But the upside and strikeout potential is pretty high despite the potential for an occasional BB meltdown.
Taj Bradley 29 (40) – Ho hum. Just another stellar outing, this time at NYY on Saturday. He’s given up more than one earned run in just one of his last 9 starts. Even this move feels like it’s not enough, and that’s after I flipped him and Gausman from my original update.
Blake Snell (38) – Slid off the list with an injury, then jumped back on two weeks ago. He vaulted into the Top 40 last week with a boost from the ROS Player Rater. I’m sure I’m not the only one who hopes that he repeats his strong second half from last year. Back-to-back shutout starts with just 2 total hits and 11 Ks in 12 innings qualifies as a strong return.
Clayton Kershaw 47 (NR) – He was supposed to start on Wednesday but the LAD issued a retraction for that news. He’s lined up to throw against the SFG at home on Thursday. Be careful starting him if you’re looking for a win though, as he’ll likely be on a pitch count. Right around the 50 spot felt right for him and the next guy as both are top tier arms returning from lengthy IL stints and have been declared “healthy”.
Jeffrey Springs 50 (NR) – 3 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 Ks in Saturday’s rehab start for Durham. On the surface, he doesn’t deserve to be ranked ahead of the 15-20 guys below him in the list, but if he comes back healthy this week he should move up soon. This is just saving us from pushing him through that 50-75 pocket (for now).
OOF – Which players slipped out of our Top 100 this week?
Bailey Falter (96) – He was headed down anyway and the tendinitis trip to the IL made it official.
Joe Musgrove (97) – The “platelet-rich injections” report sealed his fate.
DJ Herz (98) – The AAA assignment keeps him down, and off our list, for at least two weeks.
Bobby Miller (100) – Similarly to Herz, the Miller demotion takes him out of consideration for the Top 100 for now.
WHEE! Which Players vaulted into our Top 100 this week?
Blake Snell (38)
Clayton Kershaw (47)
Jeffrey Springs (50)
Edward Cabrera (83) – I wanted to add him a couple of weeks back, but left him off until he showed that he was healthy enough to return.
Aaron Civale (86) – The trade to MLW gives him a new lease…maybe.
Andrew Heaney (94)
Jose Quintana (97)
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. Then, I’ll try to keep cherry-picking names to highlight throughout the list as we progress through 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!
Follow me @marmosdad on Twitter/X and Bluesky @marmosdad.bsky.social
