Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!
For this week’s installment of Top 100 Starting Pitchers, I decided to give us all a peek into the darkness that is “The Next 100”. The shadowy realm of the next 100 starting pitchers isn’t nearly as deep of an abyss as the one that houses the pitchers that follow these guys, (The Next Next 100), but they’re not on our main list for a reason…or maybe for a few different reasons.
There are a few names that you might have slotted into your own version of a Top 100. There are a few guys that might lend themselves to some healthy puns. And, of course, there will be plenty of Tea (For The Tiedemann fans).
These 101-200 ranked starting pitchers have some bruises, warts, or generalized levels of “OOF”. Some are coming off an injury. A few are fighting for a rotation spot. Some are slated for long relief or more ‘seasoning’ in the minors. Others are just flat out gambles for playing time or would need nothing short of a miracle to occur during spring training for them to break camp with the team.
With a little less than 2 weeks until the Dodgers and Padres face off in Korea (March 20-21), there isn’t a lot of time for those kinds of miracles to happen. Let’s have a peek at the list first, then write up a few names that stand out to your guy MarmosDad as players to slide onto that watch list for deeper drafts, best ball contests with fewer FAAB periods than others (Hello, RazzSlam!), or those AL/NL only leagues.
But, wait! As always, I like to mention the link to Rudy’s Razzball subscriptions. The tools, ad-free-browsing, Streamonator, and War Room access make it well worth the price of admission. I’ve been looking at the 15 team draft room for TGFBI and the 12 Team draft room for RazzSlam (Best Ball) so much this week that I think all my dreams are appearing as multi-colored Google Sheets.
Now that that’s out of the way, I give you…
THE NEXT 100 (101-125)
(Based on 5X5 SP Player Rater projections from 2024 15 team (Standard/NFBC) auction values/rankings (as of Saturday, March 9)
- One preamble, (before we get to the post-ramble), that was originally a mid-amble that got re-housed in the edit. For those of you ‘calculatorially challenged’ (totally a term) folks, listing off 100 players at a time in a list is pretty time consuming and creates a pretty large chunk of information on the page. I’m going to break these dudes up into subsections of 25 with a short blurb on the ones that I deem worthy of a mention for good or bad.
- It’s probably pretty obvious, but all of these players are projected for negative R$, too.
“Ok! I see some names that I wouldn’t mind rostering in the reserve rounds or maybe as a last arm with upside”. That might be your thinking here. The good news is I agree. The bad news is…it goes downhill from here quicker than Clark Griswold on a greased up snow saucer.
Is there anyone worth mentioning here? But of course, my young Roto-padawans…
Ryan Pepiot – The jewel returning to the Rays from the Tyler Glasnow trade, Pepiot is appearing on a lot of sleeper lists. The Rays have the golden touch when it comes to pitchers, but can they turn this projected (Steamer) 8.93 K/9, 3.55 BB/9 into another success story? With injuries to Jeffrey Springs, (more on him later), Shane McClanahan, Shane Baz (oblique tweak), and the Glasnow trade, there’s certainly room in the rotation for Pepiot to build up strength and show off the new curveball that our old Razzball friend Lance Brozdowski posted about last week.
Garrett Whitlock – Another arm that I’ve liked for a while may finally have a clear path to a rotation spot. With the news that Giolito has a partially torn UCL and flexor strain, it looks like both Whitlock and Tanner Houck will get a chance to stretch out. Whitlock struck out two over three innings last Tuesday. A Jordan Montgomery rumor becoming a reality would wipe any talk of SP5 out for either of these guys. For now, I’d be comfortable taking a flier on Whit or Houck, especially if I could dump them after a couple weeks for a FAAB pickup if they don’t work out.
Tyler Wells – Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Team has a set rotation and acquires an even bigger piece of said rotation puzzle. All of a sudden, team’s rotation loses two arms to injury/setbacks. This big fella (6’8”) came out gangbusters in the first half last year (27% K%, 6% BB%) but fell off in the second half and was sent to AAA to iron things out. Steamer has him projected for the highest K/9 out of all the projectors/fortune tellers (8.35), and the lowest BB/9 (2.61) from the same bunch. Are you in a league with weekly FAAB? Is Wells worth a roll of the dice early on? Yep and yep.
Max Scherzer – Back surgery in December? ‘Expected’ back in June? At 39 years of age? 39 years old is like 70 in baseball player years. I don’t know if Max provides that boost to your second half squad as much as some might think. I ‘expect’ it might be tough for an almost 40-year old to bounce back from an injured back after 6 months.
Jack Flaherty – Does not look like the 10.59 K/9 near 200 IP ace that St. Louis rolled out way back in 2019. But this is another post-100 SP that has a wide open spot in a rotation with the Tigers. If he can even come close to matching his ratios from 2021 (9.77 K/9 and 2.99 BB/9), Detroit fans will be ecstatic. Bottom line, if he’s healthy he’ll get innings no matter what. 144 IP last year was his highest since the aforementioned 2019.
Alek Manoah – Let’s get this out of the way first. I actually do like Alek Manoah. Yes, I admit that I was speaking this into existence from a darkened broom closet so no one actually heard me, but it’s true. Do I like how he fell apart last year? No. Do I like how he refused a reassignment to Buffalo last year after the team asked him to work on correcting his problems? No. As a shout to our lede that is being very much buried, Cat Stevens was a folk singer that sang the title song. His real name, Yusuf, may also be applied to anyone that rosters this arm in 2024. Drafting Manoah for this year? Yu-suf-fer.
Shane Baz and John Means – It’s a bit of a cheat here listing both in one, but the story is the same and I kind of mentioned it above. Baz’s ST debut is on hold after tweaking an oblique. Poetry. Means’ arm is barking again now too (elbow) and I guess it’s never too early to tie those shoes for a victory lap…(jokes, of course). I had wanted to put down Means for a bounce back after injury in Keelin’s AL East preview here, but after further digging I flipped to the flop and called him a sell because of that wonky left wing history.
That’s all for John Means? Cool beans. On to the next group.
NUMBER 126-150
Down we go!
Jordan Hicks – Former Blue Jay alert! Last year, I liked that the Jays landed Hicks. The problem was it was much more of the same story in Toronto as it was in St. Louis – Chuck (11.10 K/9) and Duck (4.39 BB/9). Now, after never throwing more than 77 innings in a year, San Francisco is going to make him a successful starter? Cue the extended O…………Kay. Steamer has him at 149 projected innings. And, coincidentally, this month’s character trait for our school is ‘Optimism’.
A.J. Puk – I swear these aren’t all ranked just based on similarities. Short reliever with closing experience that throws smoke is going to stretch out to start? Yep. Puk’s peripherals were pretty powerful last year and Steamer’s dishing out IP like Oprah gives away cars. I could see him throwing a decent 109 innings (projected) with 100+ Ks as a late flier. Edward Cabrera’s shoulder injury yesterday makes AJ’s path to a rotation spot even clearer. Spring training stats should always be taken with a giant grain of salt, but Puk’s 8.1 IP and 15 Ks over the past few weeks are certainly not bad news for those hoping he makes the starting five.
Zack Littell – Supposed to start all year, (see openings in Rays rotation above), but won’t be winning any fireballer of the year awards for you in those leagues with Ks as a category.
Adrian Houser – Admittedly this was just so I could mention the barfing on the mound episodes. I believe bonus points are in order, though. I went the classy route with a photo instead of a video link.
Yes. I know the saying is usually different, but this is just for pukes and giggles
Cole Irvin – See: Wells, Tyler above. Change the 6’8” to 6’4” and twist the K/9 down to 7.91. But the soft tossers do seem to accumulate innings. His previous two years innings totals before last year’s 77 was >175.
Joe Boyle – Winner of the “Is this guy an MLB starting pitcher or is he the guy hosting our poker night next Wednesday?” award. Seriously. This was the first name that elicited an owl call from yours truly. The strikeout upside is there, but the control is … worse than your average Joe’s. And an SP5 in Oakland is probably not where you want to push all of your chips in.
Clayton Kershaw – Still projected for decent ratios, but the shoulder surgery limits him to nothing before the all star game. Conservative fantasy drafters might want to look elsewhere for those 75-ish second half innings.
Casey Mize – One skull of the three headed monster the Tigers had queued up to run their rotation just two years ago. Then all of them fell apart physically and Detroit had to regroup. I’ll get to Manning later, but Skubal is already pushed way up by ADP and Mize is poised to make a strong return. Eno had them all over 100 Stuff+ in a post on Wednesday. If anything, Motown fans should be excited about this.
Spring training newStuff+:
Tarik Skubal 119
Casey Mize 119
Matt Manning 111(threw them in the doc, through yesterday’s games. doc linked for subscribers in pitching ranks that are pinned to my bio)
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) March 6, 2024
Well, that’s not THAT bad! There are some names I recognize and even like in that group! Yep. Can we say the same about these ones, though?
NUMBER 151-175
We’ve sufficiently buried the lede here. And when I say sufficiently, I feel that it’s probably jammed further down than some dinosaur bones are in certain regions of North America. With apologies to Matt Manning, and the pirate hippy, Ryan Yarbrough, this section is all about the Blue Jays starting rotation woes.
Ricky Tiedemann – The kid is electric. He’s the definition of a top prospect arm. Everyone and anyone with pitching sleepers in mind has this big lefty down as a name to watch or to stash away for those deeper league benches. If you’re in a dynasty league, he’s already rostered OR he was among the top players selected in your dynasty rookie drafts this spring. Does he look good? You can decide for yourself…
Ricky Tiedemann getting the rounds in #SpringTraining #BlueJays #MLB #baseball
— Andrew Remedios (@AndrewF31) March 10, 2024
Looks pretty good to me. The only problem is, does he have a job out of camp? The easy answer is yes…in Buffalo. There are a couple of names below here that will make it easier for the Blue Jays to leave Tiedemann in the land of spicy chicken wings and sports depression. But if he keeps throwing like he did this weekend (97 MPH), I wouldn’t be surprised to see them make a phone call to Buffalo and have the kid on a bus rolling up the QEW as early as mid-May.
Bowden Francis – Out of order here in favor of our top notch photoshopping, but it had to be done. Rumor around camp via the beat writers is that the Jays are seriously leaning towards running Bowden Francis out as their SP5 if our old friend Alek Manoah’s shoulder soreness is more than a minor blip. With word that he may break camp as the SP5, Grey moved Francis up to 116th in his Top 100 Starters for 2024 Fantasy Baseball.
Yariel Rodriguez – If you stuck around for the whole video of the AL East preview, first let me thank you, (even if it’s just you again, Grandma). You heard me drop Yariel’s name as a potential Manoah replacement if our big man dropped off…and I guess you also got a nice backstory on my own injury history (sorrey aboot that one). Yariel was somehow the Blue Jays big offseason ‘get’, and hearing fans try to pump it up is kind of sad. His numbers in the WBC as a reliever were good last year, but I’m not sure he gets stretched out unless something really bad goes on with the other guys in the big league rotation.
Michael Kopech – I know a lot of you have probably been burned by Kopech in the past, but when someone throws 105 MPH, it’s tough to forget about him. I saw an MLB article yesterday where he had this gem of a quote : “I’ve got to throw more strikes”. Yes, Michael, I would think that that’s a good plan.
NUMBER 176-200
Oh, baby. This chunk has more bunk than the double stacked bed warehouse. Luis ‘Funky Cold’ Medina? And there are more names below that? Ouch.
Alas, the show must go on.
Matthew Liberatore – Seeing Jeff Hoffman’s name floating around as a serviceable reliever made me think of a guy like Liberatore. A super hyped top prospect that hasn’t put it all together as a major league starter…yet? He’s thrown right around 120 innings in each of the last 3 seasons and is duking it out for a rotation spot with Zach Thompson.
Jeffrey Springs – As mentioned above, he’s out until July/August (elbow).
Zack Greinke and Carlos Carrasco – What? And Clayton Kershaw is returning to the Dodgers too? What’s next, Tom Brady heading back to the Expos?
Cody Bradford – I don’t know what’s worse. That I told a guy last year in one league that I had no interest in trading for Chad Bradford (aka the former A’s submariner from Moneyball), or that I mistyped his name here as ‘Cory’ before double-checking. Needless to say, he’s not quite a household name yet.
Sixto Sanchez – Not much to say here. I shall defer to our Fantasy Master Lothario…
— Razzball (@Razzball) February 21, 2024
That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed it! I’ll be back next week to do a once over of my TGFBI and RazzSlam drafts and walk through a bit of the process that I followed throughout both (while trying not to lose my mind doing two slow drafts at once and still maintaining some semblance of normalcy). Then we’ll head into the depths that is SP200-300 the following week for you deep draft/only league peeps.
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 and for those of you drafting leagues, good luck!
Follow me @marmosdad on Twitter/X and Bluesky @marmosdad.bsky.social
