The match ups and data you see below were pulled Saturday morning. The data is for the 2015 season. Please be aware the match ups are subject to change. If you have any questions about the rankings hit me up Twitter @MattCommins
These are rankings for the entire week so I give the edge to a lot of fantasy pitchers who pitch twice. Also, the rankings are based on traditional 5×5 categories. I also provide write-ups for a few pitchers. My hope is after you read them you have a better understanding of why I ranked them.
If you remove Mat Latos’ first start of the year (his blowup start) he has a 2.94 ERA and 1.277 WHIP. With a WHIP that high his ERA is a mirage, but he’s still a pitcher who has a good opportunity to provide a quality start and with Steven Cishek probably no longer closing games, if Latos has a lead he may actually get a win.
I wrote about Noah Syndergaard’s first start here. Needless to say I believe he’s going to stay in the majors and he’s going to be good enough to be a must start in 12-team mixed leagues.
A lot of fantasy owners are hyping Miguel Gonzalez, but I’ve never bought him as a consistent fantasy starting pitcher option. Gonzalez falls into the class of a Trevor Bauer and C.J. Wilson in that you don’t know what type of results you’re going to get from start to start irregardless of the matchup. The greatest example of this is Gonzalez’s last two starts. In his last start against the Blue Jays he went seven scoreless innings but in the start prior he gave up five earned runs in four innings (at Yankee Stadium). My approach to these types of pitchers is I’ll keep them in my lineup the entire year knowing I have a really good chance of getting the numbers I projected at the end of the year.
I wrote a little more than a week ago I wrote about why I would sell Chris Sale. The biggest reason why I made the recommendation was the big decrease in the usage of the slider. In his next start after I wrote that piece he proceeded to strikeout 11 in eight innings. Since he had so many strikeouts you would assume he threw his slider a lot more, but he did not. Seven of the 11 strikeouts came on the fastball so the worries I had about sale are still there.
Shane Greene has had a very up and down year, but this week he faces the very right handed heavy Brewers lineup. Greene’s problems has always been lefties, but if he’s a lineup primarily against righties he has a great chance to have a big day. Needless to say he’s going to be in my DFS (daily fantasy sports) lineup.
If you haven’t noticed Brett Anderson is still healthy and he’s been pitching pretty well. This week he’s going to be a streamers delight as he’s facing the Giants in San Francisco. Anderson no longer has immense upside, but when I’m streaming pitchers I lean more towards pitchers who limit walks (which is why I rated him one spot higher than Julio Teheran).
