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SP RANK Name Team UP / DOWN Notes 1 Tarik Skubal DET “6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 12 Ks, ERA at 2.28. SEE?! Those hiccups over the last few games were nothing to be concerned about. No word on whether he saw the Sinead O’Connor graphic from last week and used that as fuel for this one.” That was the note after his first start last week. Yesterday’s 7 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks was almost as impressive. There’s no doubt this is our SP1. 2 Garrett Crochet BOS 6 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, ERA at 2.40. It’s a good thing that Rex Sox fans are going to obsess over Payton Tolle the rest of the way. Maybe that’ll mean some of them miss the Tarik Skubal Cy Young announcement. 3 Paul Skenes PIT “ 6 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and his 7th win. ERA at 2.05. Imagine being called up to start the first game of your career and knowing it was going to be against this guy? Yeesh.” 4 Yoshinobu Yamamoto LAD He was on his way to a third straight quality start yesterday while I was writing this up. EDIT: 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 B, 10 Ks, and the no-decision after Tanner Scott coughed up a 3-run homer to Corbin Carroll. 5 Bryan Woo SEA It wasn’t quite equivalent to the Madden cover curse, but right after I rolled out the Bryan Woo lede last week, his streak of 6+ IP starts ended. More below. 6 Tyler Glasnow LAD Back-to-back losses, but at least the one last week was a quality start. 7 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks isn’t a bad line. 7 Jacob deGrom TEX DeGrom broke a 5-game (personal) winless streak with yesterday’s dub against the Athletics.  8 Blake Snell LAD “5.1 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 8 Ks, and his 3rd loss. ERA at 2.41. When you’re a Top 10 SP, even a decent game like this can push a guy down the rankings a bit. And like I said in last week’s Top 100 Starting Pitchers article, Snell ran into an SP that was just a bit better than he was last night. A loss to ARI after two starts of 2 ER (total) and 13 IP against the Padres juggernauts? Yep. Because baseball is weird sometimes.” 9 Joe Ryan MIN “5 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 3.22. This game against the Jays and Max Scherzer was an easy money bet for those of you who dabble in gambling. Don’t get me started about the rules on that stuff up here, though.” That was my note after his start last Monday. Then, yesterday, he showed us the real Joe Ryan – 7 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his 13th win.  10 Freddy Peralta MLW “6 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his league-leading 16th win. This guy. Seriously. If you know someone who says he’s not a Top 10 arm, I don’t know what numbers or starters they’re looking at.” A big jump into the Top 10 today. 11 Hunter Brown HOU He gave up a bunch of unearned runs last Tuesday, but the back-to-back losses are deceiving. Including yesterday’s start, he’s allowed two or fewer earned runs in each of his last 7 GS. 12 Logan Gilbert SEA Another QS from Lo-Gi last Saturday. 6 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and a tough luck loss (6th). 13 Cristopher Sanchez PHI 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, and a no-decision. The 6 ER implosion at NYM two weeks ago was an anomaly. 14 Logan Webb SF 7 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, ERA at 3.16. Logan 3:16 says Mister Webb just whipped your Cubs. And that’s the bottom line, son. 15 George Kirby SEA “7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks. ERA at 3.95. His ratios aren’t as pretty as they usually are, but the walk total last night was what we’re used to seeing here.” 16 Trevor Rogers BAL More below. 17 Max Fried NYY 7 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.06. It was a homer fest in this game – the Yankees hit 6 – so it’s even more impressive that Fried only allowed 4 hits (and zero homers). 18 Framber Valdez HOU Nothing like a start against the Rockies to help an SP right the ship. 7 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 12th win. 19 Nick Pivetta SD 5 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision at MIN last week. Just the second time he’s allowed more than 2 ER in his last 10 GS. 20 Carlos Rodon NYY “6 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 15th win. ERA at 3.18. See what kind of excellent results we get when Carlos doesn’t walk a half a dozen…of wait, it was against the White Sox. Carry on then.” 21 Hunter Greene CIN Roughed up by the Dodgers in LA last week. 5 IP, 5 R (3 ER), 6 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks. 22 Chris Sale ATL N/R It’s tough to rank these kinds of guys when they return from a big injury. 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, and the no-decision means he’s Top 25 for now. 23 Shota Imanaga CHC 7 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.08. It still feels like he’s very undervalued, which means I’ll likely roster him everywhere next season. 24 Robbie Ray SF “4.1 IP, 6 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.18. Remember when I said the ball was moving last night? The Giants had 18 hits and gave Ray 15 runs of support, but he couldn’t get out of the 5th and was pulled at 94 pitches. Woof.” 25 Kyle Bradish BAL N/R 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 10 Ks. I sat down on Tuesday night for Bradish vs Giolito to see how Baltimore’s SP was going to bounce back after a lengthy IL stint. The movement on Bradish’s slider and two-seamer was fantastic. He hit 97 MPH on the fastball in the first, and struck out four in his first 2 innings. That’s as good a return as we could have asked for. Sliding right into the SP25 spot might be an eye-opener, but he looked surprisingly good. 26 Sonny Gray STL 7 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 7 Ks, ERA at 4.19. It’s a game of duck, duck, goose when trying to figure out which start will be the implosion, but last week’s wasn’t the goose. 27 Ranger Suarez PHI “5 IP, 1 ER, 10 (!) H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and the no-decision. Ranger’s start would have been excellent…if you flipped his hits total with his strikeout one.” 28 Brandon Woodruff MLW More below. 29 Drew Rasmussen TB 6 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.64. Kevin Cash is channeling his mid-1980s high school kid. “He’s on a strict innings limit…PSYCHE!” This was Rasmussen’s 4th consecutive, 6-inning quality start. 30 Cade Horton CHC More below. 31 Ryan Pepiot TB 5 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and his 10th win. ERA at 3.70. This one nets Pepiot a boost, which is nice, but I still feel like he’ll be pushed far too high up the SP list next draft season for my liking. 32 Eury Perez MIA “Eury Perez (0.2 IP, 5 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 0 K) was not up for the kid-pitching duel. He managed to secure just two outs on 39 pitches in the first and gave up homers to Juan Soto (33) and Brandon Nimmo (21) before getting the hook and being replaced by Todd Zuber.” 33 Dylan Cease SD 4.1 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.82. I honestly can’t figure out which pitcher drives me more crazy: Shane Baz or Dylan Cease. At least we expect Baz to get rocked each week. Then again, maybe a lot of us think the same way about Cease. 34 Seth Lugo KC “3.1 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 4 BB, 5 Ks, and his 7th loss. ERA at 4.15. 85 pitches. He didn’t have it last night, but will look to bounce back next week at home vs LAA.” 35 Jesus Luzardo PHI 4 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.23. Fluctuation station. Ugh. 36 Noah McLean NYM More below. It was between him and Tong for this spot. 37 Brayan Bello BOS 6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.99. Hey-o, Bello? Just keeps on chugging along and making me almost forget I also roster Bryce Miller and Shane Baz … almost. 38 Noah Cameron KC 5 IP, 6 ER. Last week, I said I hoped this wasn’t a sign of him slowing down. Then on Monday night, he hit a wall. To compound the worry, the Royals pushed him back so he missed his expected start last Saturday. He’s scheduled to pitch at home vs MIN this week. 39 Nick Lodolo CIN N/R 4.2 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 3.22 as he was activated from the IL. A bit of rust here, but rust never sleeps. That said, you’ll want to let him rest a bit more as he gets TOR at home this week. 40 Merrill Kelly TEX Back-to-back wins and 4 straight QS. 41 Lucas Giolito BOS I watched the Bradish start last Tuesday and ended up being just as impressed by Giolito’s start. 8 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 3.47. He walked 5 in 6 innings yesterday, but still recorded the win. Back-to-back Ws and 14 Ks in his last 14 IP. 42 Quinn Priester MLW His original start was pushed back because he reported wrist soreness, but it didn’t look like it was bothering him in Saturday’s start at TOR: 6 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 0 BB, 3 Ks. 43 Shane Bieber TOR “5.1 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, and his first loss of the year. ERA at 2.38. This one was more about Freddy Peralta’s dominance and less about any mistakes Biebs made (he made very few, if any).” He wouldn’t look out of place 20 spots higher, but let’s give him a couple more starts before we push him up too much. 44 Spencer Strider ATL 7 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.95. Just slowly walking through the gates of hell back into purgatory after this one. Because another word for slowly walking is… Ah, never mind. 45 Edward Cabrera MIA 7 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 10 Ks, and a thorough manhandling of Spencer Strider and the Braves last Monday, and I was all set to push him up the list. Then, the Mets lit him up on Saturday for 4 IP, 5 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 4K, and handed him his 7th loss. He stays here for now. 46 Cam Schlittler NYY He’s only won once in his last 6 GS, but the numbers are there. August starts – 33.2 IP, 6 ER, 22 H, 11 BB, 39 Ks. This is keeper league gold, folks. 47 Jonah Tong NYM N/R This guy was my lede in the Saturday morning round-up. I wanted to put him in a lot higher than this, but that instinct felt heavy with recency bias and excitement, so I went the conservative route today. More below. 48 Jacob Misiorowski MLW 5 IP, 3 ER, 5 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 4.33. Just making opposing hitters Miz-erable. 49 Kevin Gausman TOR 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 8 Ks, and the gas man was on fire! Then J “eff off, man!” came in to ruin another stellar start and blow another save. Smh. 50 Max Scherzer TOR 4 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and the no-decision yesterday vs MLW. I kept him in the Top 50 based on the 3-game win streak, but there were whispers about “upper back tightness” after the game. If there’s an “Uh Oh” emoji, slap that sucker in here. 51 Will Warren NYY 5 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 4.30. A meh start is better than an ouch start? Ya, that’s all I’ve got. 52 Luis Castillo SEA More below. 53 Matthew Boyd CHC 13 ER in his last 16.1 IP (3 starts). Ugh. 54 Jack Flaherty DET 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks at KC qualifies as a good bounceback after the 10 H, 8 ER the Royals gave him two weeks ago. 55 Ryan Bergert KC More above! He narrowly missed the Top 50 cutoff. 56 Sean Manaea NYM 4.2 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 5.01. I asked last week which second-half sleeper darling was due to disappoint us more, Joe Boyle or this guy. Can we accept “both” as an answer? 57 Gavin Williams CLE The curveball was lethal on Saturday, and the output reflected it. 7 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 8 Ks, and his 9th win. 58 Payton Tolle BOS N/R More below 59 Casey Mize DET 3.1 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks at ATH. Bing Bong Stadium takes another unsuspecting victim. Then again, was it really all that unexpected? You think you can find another 12-win SP that has looked this shaky? Hmph. Pfaadt chance. 60 Shohei Ohtani LAD 5 IP, 1 ER, 2 hits, 2 walks, 9 Ks, ERA at 4,18, a season-high 87 pitches. I watched the replay of this one, and Shohei looked frustrated in the first couple of innings when his control was off. Then he stopped “overthrowing” and settled in. “It must be nice to have that switch to flip!”: A quote likely from at least 90% of this year’s starting pitchers. 61 Aaron Nola PHI 6 IP, 4 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 6.47. 6-4-7? Don’t make me pull out the galaxy brain gif again. Also of note, those 4 Ks pushed his career total above 1845, which was good enough to pass Cole Hamels for 3rd place on the Phillies’ all-time strikeouts list. 62 Yu Darvish SD 4 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 5.66. “I honestly don’t know what to think about Yu. For a while, it was all rainbows and happiness. Now Yu is so unpredictable, I don’t know if I can trust Yu anymore.” This also works if read as a direct quote from a marriage counselling session. 63 Clayton Kershaw LAD 5 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.06. All these youngsters with control problems, and Grandpa Clay keeps heading out to the field and putting work in. Just make sure he gets in his afternoon nap on game days. 64 Andrew Abbott CIN It took him 96 pitches to get through 5 innings last week, and he hasn’t won in the second half. (His most recent W was on July 9th). 65 Kodai Senga NYM More below. 66 David Peterson NYM 2 IP, 8 ER, 8 H, 3 BB, 1 K vs MIA. Oh boy. David’s stamina is Petering out. 67 Jose Soriano LAA “5.2 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 3.85. Back from the DR baby trip and back into the W column.” That was my note after his first start last week. He was due to move up, but yesterday’s 7 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 8 K outing was even better. 68 Yusei Kikuchi LAA 4 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 3.68. Last week it was Pop Kikuchi. This week? He was blown up. 69 Mitch Keller PIT I was excited when he looked like he was back early last week with another quality start. Yesterday (5 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks) wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but we can’t rely on him in H2H playoffs right now. 70 Braxton Ashcraft PIT 5.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 2.58. I guess the good news about sucking for as long as the Pirates have sucked is that they have the chance to draft and develop excellent pitching talent. 71 Clay Holmes NYM 5 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA at 3.60. His inning count is at 142, and he’s already more than doubled his previous career high. At least he’ll have all winter to nurse that loose shoulder. 72 Ryne Nelson ARI 6 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 3.53. Boring but effective. Which sounds like the motto for all of the residents of Wachaville. 73 Jose Berrios TOR Last pitched two weeks ago (Saturday, August 23rd). He was pushed back for extra rest and should go at CIN tomorrow. I don’t know what that says about management’s confidence in him when they skip his home start against another playoff team (MLW), but maybe I’m reading too much into that. 74 Emmett Sheehan LAD 7 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 10 Ks, ERA at 3.56. Boing! 75 Luis Gil NYY 5 IP, 1 ER, 9 baserunners (4 BBs), 5 Ks, ERA at 3.75. “Oh, He’ll be fine!” – that’s fantasy managers who roster him as they ignore the elephant-sized walk rate in the room. 76 Sandy Alcantara MIA More below. 77 Justin Verlander SF Yesterday’s steam-rolling vs BAL was a welcome sight. 5 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 10 Ks, and his 3rd win (and second in a row!) 78 Brady Singer CIN 4 straight quality starts mean we have to move Singer up today. He was originally slotted as a George Michael (Singer in the mid-80s), but yesterday’s 6 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 9 K outing at ARI forced my hand, and he was promoted to a Freddie Mercury (late 70s). 79 Zack Littell CIN “7 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.63. His 16th quality start moves him into a tie for 10th place among MLB leaders.” 80 Michael Wacha KC Two straight games against DET were NFG for Wacha. 10.2 IP, 7 ER, 13 H, 2 BB, 8 Ks. Let’s cut him some slack, though. He just came back from the paternity list yesterday. 81 Jack Leiter TEX “6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 9th win. ERA at 3.77. That’s two quality starts and wins in each of his last 2 GS with 17 Ks in 13 IP.” I had Bibee here before a Hobbit edit (a second breakfast edit this morning). 82 Jason Alexander HOU 5.2 IP, 3 ER, 8 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 4.61. 83 Spencer Arrighetti HOU After losing 5 games in a row, there were some positives to take away from Saturday’s no-decision vs LAA. The Pasta Pirate threw 100 pitches for the first time this year and finished 6.1 innings before being lifted. The 5 BBs weren’t encouraging, but the 8 Ks were. 84 Tanner Bibee CLE He’s allowed fewer than 4 ER in just three of his last 10 starts. Ugly. Even this feels like it’s too high, and I dropped him down twice before submitting. 85 Zebby Matthews MIN “6 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and his 4th win. ERA at 5.06. His first 6-inning outing in just over a month, Matthews took care of a tough Padres offense and shaved a few points off the ratios.” 86 Jeffrey Springs ATH “ 5.2 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 9th loss. He hasn’t won since July 30th (6 starts ago). I still can’t get past thinking of a little kid asking for a juice box and a handful of Animal Crackers every time I hear that first name, though.” 87 Jose Quintana MLW 3.2 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 3.69. No way, Jose! 88 Michael McGreevy STL More below. 89 Cade Cavalli WSH 2 1/3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 5.11. Cade tripped and fell into the valley of homers that is Yankee Stadium. 90 Zac Gallen ARI “6 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 8 Ks, and his 10th win. ERA at 4.94. A gallant effort from Zac as the D-Backs rolled into D-land and picked up the dub. I don’t want to jinx anything, but it’s worth noting this was the 5th QS in his last 6 starts. Credit where it’s due when you’re facing a tough Dodgers lineup.” 91 Chris Bassitt TOR 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 4.14. The win total is great. The offensive support is excellent. The ratios are meh. Oh, and the Eric Lauer fans are honed in on him as their target to push out of the rotation. 92 Adrian Houser TB “4 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 Ks. ERA at 2.85. 86 pitches to get 12 outs isn’t ideal, but the Rays played it safe instead of giving him the chance to try to get to 6 innings.” 93 Parker Messick CLE N/R 7 IP, 0 ER, 4 hits, zero walks, 6 Ks, ERA at 0.66. I was on the fence here, and wasn’t sure whether he should be in the list or just recorded in the Stumper group. I know one thing. His results so far have been far from making me sick. He’ll start low today and move up quickly if he keeps producing. 94 Cristian Javier HOU N/R “6 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.38. They weren’t going to let him take a run at the no-hitter in just his 4th start back from the IL, but I do know one thing for sure. Someone needs to get the Top 100 Starting Pitchers guy on the horn and tell him to queue this guy up for an add on Monday!” That was from Saturday morning. 95 Charlie Morton DET 5 IP, 5 ER, ERA at 5.25. Charlie-5 is NOT alive! This might be the time to jump off the spinny spinny machine if you haven’t already.  96 Bailey Ober MIN 5 IP, 4 ER, 10 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, ERA at 5.14. Last week, two people said to me, “Maybe he figures it out and bounces back the rest of the season.” I’ll let them handle the headache while they wait and be thankful he’s not on any of my rosters. 97 Hurston Waldrep ATL 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 9 baserunners, 0 K. ERA at 0.90. A guy could throw a no-hitter with zero strikeouts, and I’d still look at the line like it was drenched in gym sweat. 98 Bryce Miller SEA This note autocorrected to Bruce Muller, and you know it’s bad when the immediate thought is, “I wonder if Bruce Muller would be able to get through 6 innings with 3 or fewer earned runs.” Because Bryce sure hasn’t. 99 Joe Boyle TB Optioned last week (August 22nd). I must have missed it, but let’s leave him here for two reasons. 1. Maybe he’s back in a couple of weeks, and 2. I’d still take him over our SP100. 100 Brandon Pfaadt ARI 2.2 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 5.24. Aaaaand there it is.