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SP RANK Name Team UP / DOWN Notes 1 Paul Skenes PIT 5 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 4 BB,  2 Ks, ERA at 2.74. “Um, I’m sorry, sir, it’s Skenes with One K, not Two”. One could argue that it’s time to knock Skenes from his perch here. It won’t happen yet, but the top of this ladder is starting to wobble. 2 Tarik Skubal DET 19 Ks in his last 2 GS with just one earned run allowed. Guess who’s shaking the ladder. 3 Garrett Crochet BOS 7 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks. Garrett needled the Jays pretty badly in this one. EDIT: It really seems like half of these pitchers throw every Sunday while I’m writing. Crochet was back at it yesterday with 6 Ks and a solo homer allowed through 5 IP vs MIN. 4 Yoshinobu Yamamoto LAD 40 IP, 4 BB. That should be all we need to see, but the 13 BBs are respectable, and the 49 Ks are pretty solid too. Wow. 5 Cole Ragans KC Had his start last week skipped because of a sore lightsaber (groin strain). Scheduled to go today vs CWS. 6 Max Fried NYY 7 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks. 6th win! It doesn’t matter if you (read: I) think the health will fail at some point, Fried is a must-start in every matchup and is well on his way to proving the Yankees weren’t wrong to dish out $200+ million for him last winter. 7 Michael King SD He threw a complete game shutout a month ago but hasn’t pitched 6 innings in any of his other six starts. In other news, do you want to see my nit collection? I picked them myself. 8 Zack Wheeler PHI 6.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, BB, 7 Ks and a no-decision against WSH last week. See MacKenzie Gore below. 9 Hunter Greene CIN 6 IP, ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 12 Ks! Hunter with the 12-gauge buckshot! A Dirty Dozen indeed. 10 Shota Imanaga CHC He left last week’s start in the 5th inning because of leg cramps after holding PIT scoreless. Looked good through 4 scoreless innings at MLW yesterday too. More Ks is the only wish here. EDIT: He took the loss after giving up 2 ER in 5.2 IP. 11 MacKenzie Gore WSH 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, and 6 Ks. My note here was to cover the names and try to guess which one was Gore and which one was Wheeler. Gore allowed 2 HR, but that almost makes the 3 ER more impressive on the road against a tough PHI team. 12 Hunter Brown  HOU UP Is there anything this kid CAN’T do? What’s that? Pitch poorly? Touché. Another 9 Ks from last week’s lede, and we have two Hunters in the Top 12. 13 Pablo Lopez MIN A double dip this week for Pab-Lo. He gets BAL and SF, both at home. 14 Jacob deGrom TEX I caught the Nick Kurtz obsession bug, so I watched this game (vs ATH). deGrom shut the A’s down for 6 innings (0 ER) and allowed just 4 hits. The zero walks and 7 Ks were great too. He made it look easy in this one. EDIT: It was much of the same yesterday vs SEA. 5 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks. 15 Joe Ryan MIN 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks. The War Room was all over Ryan this spring, and Ryan’s looking like he wants to prove the robot right. 16 Sonny Gray STL 10 ER in his last 14 IP. Winless in three starts. I wouldn’t start sounding the alarm just yet. He gets PIT at home this week. 17 Logan Webb SF 5 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 2.83. Ugggggh. He got a big boost last week. This knocks him down a bit. 18 Dylan Cease SD The ratios are gross, and he’s sitting with a 1-2 record in 7 GS.  19 Bryan Woo SEA More above! 20 Nick Pivetta SD 5.1 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks. The native of Victoria, BC won his 4th straight start last week and cruises into the Top 20 today. 21 Freddy Peralta MLW I watched a bit of his start against CWS last Tuesday. Other than the HR allowed to Benintendi and LouBob, he was solid. EDIT: Freddy was lifted from the game yesterday after 6 innings with groin soreness. The report says it was a ‘cautionary move’. 22 Kodai Senga NYM Senga got into trouble with the pitch count last week (4 IP, 87 pitches), but the ratios are still elite, and the Ks are there. 23 Bailey Ober MIN More below. 24 Jesus Luzardo PHI 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 9 H, BB, 6 Ks. How this guy has just 3 wins in 7 GS is a mystery. He’s been great. A modest boost this week. 25 Framber Valdez HOU After winning his first start of the year, he’s gone 0-4 with a 5.29 ERA in 34 IP. The walks are still down, and the strikeouts are still there, but this isn’t the ace you were hoping for when you drafted him. 26 Logan Gilbert SEA More below. 27 Spencer Schwellenbach ATL Winless in his last five starts and another 6 ER game, this time against LAD (last was at TOR). The walks are still down and the strikeouts are still up, but he’s been getting hit. 28 Robbie Ray SFG Finally picked up his 4th win of the year last week after a couple of tough luck no-decisions. 7 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks is as solid as it gets. 29 Carlos Rodon NYY Three wins in a row and 24 Ks in his last 19 IP. He gets SD at home today, which is a tough matchup, but heads to ATH next Sunday. Can he keep it up?! 30 Cristopher Sanchez PHI 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and his 3rd win. The biggest news is that he isn’t seriously hurt after the sore forearm scare. 31 Chris Sale ATL More below. 32 Drew Rasmussen TB 5 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.64. Ya, he’s fine. And the walks allowed are elite. I still don’t think he passes 120 IP, though. 35 Brady Singer CIN 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks, and somehow stuck with his first loss of the year. He starts at ATL today. 36 Jack Flaherty DET The two-start week for Flaherty was not one for the ages. In 10.2 IP, he gave up 8 ER and 14 H. The good news is he only walked three and struck out 12 (total). He gets the Rangers at home this week. 37 Shane Baz TB 5.2 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 3.86. I’d say this was a bit of a hiccup, but it was more of a Jabba the Hutt belch. 38 Corbin Burnes ARI 6 IP, ER, 4 H, (5 BBs), 3 Ks. A good start (if your eyes can’t read anything in parentheses). Shoulder fatigue means he misses his scheduled start today, and I’d bench him this week at least until we get some more news. 39 Luis Castillo SEA All of this Woo’ing going on while Luis Castillo is quietly posting quality starts. He’s won two of his last three games allowing just one earned run in 12 innings. 40 Tyler Mahle CIN Heading to the boss for today’s Mahle quote: “6 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA 1.19. You were right in March, a Rangers starter is unhittable this year. Only it’s Mahle, not deGrom.” 41 Casey Mize DET 7 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, ERA at 2.70. I mentioned in the Kikuchi note below that I watched this game, and both pitchers struggled to command their pitches. Mize still managed to post his 5th win (and third in a row). 42 Nathan Eovaldi TEX 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, ERA at 2.11. He went pitch for pitch with Luis Severino in last week’s edition of “Who’s more underrated?” 43 Brandon Pfaadt ARI Pfaadt was on a heater of his own, posting 5 wins in a row. I felt guilty about not moving him up this week…until I saw that he got blown up on Saturday in Philly. 44 Zac Gallen ARI 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 8 Ks, ERA at 4.93. This is good! But he’s gonna have to put up more of these to get his fantasy managers to buy back in. 45 Tylor Megill NYM 19 Ks in his last 11.2 IP means Megill moves up a bit this week.  46 Dustin May LAD I nearly dropped him yesterday in the Perts League ahead of his ATL start. For the record, I have too many SPs there, but 10 ER in his last 10.2 IP with a half dozen walks isn’t great, and I wouldn’t fault you for dropping him if you needed an RP or bat to replace an injured player. EDIT: 5.2 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks may not buy May much more time this May. 47 Seth Lugo KC Two starts this week! Both at home vs CWS, then BOS. 48 David Peterson NYM 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks, ERA at 3.06. Grey mentioned the GB rate, and that’s likely what has been keeping the ratios down. His 2.51 BB/9  leads Mets starters. 49 Aaron Nola PHI Back to back strong starts move Nola out of the bottom 50.  50 Kevin Gausman TOR A nice one-hit, 6-inning shutout from Gausman on Saturday with one walk and 9 Ks. More of these and less of the previous two road starts (at NYY and HOU) will go a long way if he wants to stay in the Top 50.  51 Kris Bubic KC If we covered his name up and showed the line, people would ask why he’s not a Top 30 starter. To be honest, I boosted him twice when I wrote this up yesterday and he should probably be even higher than he is here. 52 Bryce Miller SEA More below. 53 Spencer Strider ATL The good news is it’s a hamstring injury. The bad news is he hasn’t been on a mound in two weeks and it sounds like the best case scenario is a return at the end of May. 54 Ryan Pepiot TB A tough luck loss last week in NYY, Pepiot needed 88 pitches to get through 4.1 innings. He kept the walks down (2) but unfortunately he kept the Ks down too (1). 55 Tanner Bibee CLE 7 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks, and, more importantly, his second strong start IN A ROW! He took on the Jays yesterday, so I know what my guess would be as to what the outcome should be. I’ll give you a hint – I didn’t expect him to put up back-to-back good starts in his last two. EDIT: 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks. That’s decent solid starts in a row. 56 Jackson Jobe DET Um…not to point out the negatives, but a popular “preseason sleeper” has yet to pitch into the 7th inning this year. He’s also posted a 14:18 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 24 IP. 57 Clay Holmes NYM Two straight wins with zero walks in 11 IP. The 5 Ks (toital) isn’t great, but the good news is he’s recorded a quality start in two of his last three games.  58 Reese Olson DET Tough luck in his last two starts cost him a shot at a couple of wins. 15 Ks in his last 11.1 IP would be a lot nicer if it didn’t come with a half dozen walks. 59 Roki Sasaki LAD Roki recorded his first MLB victory last week…in his 7th start. He hasn’t been terrible by any means, but a lot of people have been disappointed by the ROI so far. 60 Taj Bradley TB 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 2 Ks last week. A solid start. I said it a few weeks ago. Taj will be a great SP at some point in the future. Everything is there, it’s just not harnessed yet. And, for the record, I typed that up fully expecting him to go out and strike out 15 in his next start like it came out of some cosmic spite cloud. EDIT Taj won his third of the year yesterday at NYY, but the trademark strikeouts were not there (1). 61 Griffin Canning NYM 5 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, and 5 Ks. There have been a few pleasant surprises in the league after the first 30-ish games. If you had Griffin Canning sitting at 4-1 after six starts, I’d like to ask you if I could borrow your time machine. The only knock is he’s only pitched 6 innings in one start. 62 Max Meyer MIA ‘Member when I asked if he was breaking out? ‘Member when 14 of his 18 outs two weeks ago were strikeouts? Ya, I don’t remember that either. Back-to-back 5 ER stinkers with ZERO Ks in his start last week will make people forget that 14 K day pretty quickly. 63 Tyler Anderson LAA 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.67. I can’t help but feel like he’s a stick of dynamite just waiting to blow up, but he’s proven me wrong for over a year, so … I guess it has a very long fuse. 64 Luis Severino ATH 5 IP, 1 ER, 8 H, 1 BBs, ERA at 3.30. He went pitch for pitch with Nathan Eovaldi in last week’s edition of “Who’s more underrated?” 65 Hayden Wesneski HOU Skipped last week as he “rested an injury”. He should pitch at MLW this week. 66 Andrew Abbott CIN Abbott’s start got shortened because of rain last week. 9 walks in his last two starts (total) isn’t ideal. 67 Gavin Williams CLE More below. 68 Brayan Bello BOS He won his first two starts, then pitched even better in his third (no-decision). One of Grey’s buys last Friday. 69 Matthew Liberatore STL Liberatore got beat by the rain in the same game that cost Andrew Abbott a shot at a win. The Ks are there, but the most impressive stat is the three walks in 30 IP. A big boost this week. 70 Bowden Francis TOR 3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 5.28. There’s a pope joke in here somewhere but, I must confess, I can’t find it. EDIT: Yesterday’s game against CLE wasn’t as bad as the 5-HR debacle from last week, but it was still not good. 71 Zach Eflin BAL Eflin was slated to pitch in a rehab game yesterday. The O’s are hoping he can pitch on Saturday when he’s eligible for activation (vs LAA). 72 Matthew Boyd CHC 5 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.70. Just a pint of Wacha-lite over here. 73 Jose Soriano LAA Soriano had his best game since the first start of the year (6 IP, 0 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks) but couldn’t record a win. Back-to-back starts with just one walk issued is the positive here. 74 Chris Bassitt TOR 5.1 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 4 Ks. Three homers allowed. At least they were solo shots. Barf emoji. 75 Jack Leiter TEX Gave up 6 ER in 4.1 IP, the majority of which was courtesy of Cal Raleigh and his two home runs (one of which was a grand slam). It’s another tough start this week at Fenway. 76 Jose Quintana MLW 3 HR allowed against the Cubs derailed Quintana’s quest for a quint in the win column. No? Ya, that was a bit of a stretch. 77 Jose Berrios TOR 6.2 IP, 2 ER,7 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, ERA at 3.98. It’s like Bibee, Keller, and Berrios all run the same roller coaster at the Jekyll and Hyde theme park. 78 Tony Gonsolin LAD Slides in this week in place of Taijuan Walker. The latter is headed to the bullpen to make room for the return of Ranger Suarez  (more on him below). 6 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 9 Ks. This is as good a return as we could have hoped for. 79 Colin Rea CHC More below. 80 Lucas Giolito BOS 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks. Similar to Tony Gonsolin, this is as good a return as we could have hoped for. 81 Andrew Heaney PIT 4.2 IP, 4 ER vs Cubs last week, then another 4 ER through 3.2 IP yesterday vs SD. The regression fairies have arrived. 82 Walker Buehler BOS Off to the IL with right shoulder inflammation. There’s news that he isn’t expected to be out long, but I wouldn’t bet a lot of money on him returning to full health in a week. 83 Ronel Blanco HOU 5 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 5.08. He’s close to a strikeout an inning, but the ratios need to be cleaned up before we move him up much higher than he is here. 84 Landen Roupp SFG More below. 85 Sandy Alcantara MIA 2.2 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 8.31. More like Al-TRASHCAN-tara. I keep waiting for the ‘ineffective list’ announcement. 86 Clarke Schmidt NYY Scratched last week with “left side soreness”. Scheduled to throw tomorrow. 87 Michael Wacha KC Not enough earned runs to call it a blowout, but not enough scoreless innings to record a victory. That’s the recipe for a Wacha stew. 88 Ryan Gusto HOU He’s won two of his last three starts and struck out a season high 6 last Tuesday. The only worry here is that HOU has some SPs getting ready to return, so Gusto could end up demoted or squeezed out to the bullpen. 89 Lance McCullers HOU Returned to face CWS yesterday. He was sad to learn that Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, two infielders who were in the lineup for his last start, were no longer on the roster, but after that he was fine. 90 Justin Verlander SFG 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, ERA at 4.38. At home against the Rockies? Mehhhhh. 91 Jeffrey Springs ATH 6 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 K, ERA at 4.98. He got the win in this one. And the scoreless outing helps shave some damage off of those ratios, but…One. Strikeout. 92 Yusei Kikuchi LAA 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 5 Ks, ERA at 4.21. The one walk was a breath of fresh air, but Kikuchi’s command was off in this one. The control was there (if that makes sense), but he left two changeups up in the zone that Javier Baez and Gleyber Torres both mashed for home runs. 93 Tomoyuki Sugano BAL 5 IP, 0 ER, 8 Ks last Monday and 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 Ks Friday night. Sugano must have caught wind that he was in danger of dropping off the list if he didn’t up his strikeout game. 94 Mitch Keller PIT Ugh. 95 Grant Holmes ATL 9 strikeouts is much better start than his last start. He gets CIN at home this week. 96 Jameson Taillon CHC Picked up his first win in 5 GS. See Wacha, Michael. 97 Will Warren NYY Not including yesterday’s game, he hasn’t gone more than five innings in any of his 6 GS. I dropped him for Ryan Weathers in a home mixed league. If you’re holding him for ATH next week, I get it, but it would have to be a very encouraging start to move him anywhere but down. 98 Tanner Houck BOS 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 6.38. Oh! He must have been mad about torpedoing in the list last week. 99 Merrill Kelly ARI Kelly was yanked after 5 innings Friday night when his hamstring locked up. He’s expected to make his start vs NYM on Tuesday. 100 Ranger Suarez PHI This week it’s just a placeholder. He got steamrolled by ARI yesterday but let’s give him a couple more starts and reassess later.