Mid ranked SP

[onejayhawk]

If you believe Nick Pollack of PitcherList, there is none.

For as long as I’ve been making SP rankings, my favorite pitchers have normally been scattered around the #25-45 range. The exciting pitchers that I think are ready to break out in the season ahead after having struggles previously, making them better options than more conservative picks in their range. This year is weird. I’ve been hinting about it all season, how there are few true “Spice Girls” really working during the season, making it a terrible SP Landscape. It means that I’m really not excited at this point. Pitcher resembling the likes of Mike Clevinger, Jameson Taillon, Trevor Bauer, and Patrick Corbin are just not around this year. The closest I have is Nick Pivetta, which I know has already earned a ton of eye rolls. He’s the only clear case of high-upside stuff with the massive haze of doubt surrounding his consistency. It’s really annoying.

His advice is draft early and late, ie skip the middle and load up on reliable veterans and some of 2018's smoking craters, eg Reynaldo Lopez or Lucas Giolito.

https://www.pitcherlist.com/the-list-10-9-ranking-the-top-100-starting-pitchers-for-2019-way-too-early/

I admit that his logic looks solid. If he's right, this will be the year of the WW SP and maybe a few 1st inning RP.

What's your take?

J

[Ken]

Strange, from their list in the 25+ area I see a lot of guys who could fit that mold described.

Castillo, Berrios, Glasnow, James, Soroka, Bieber. High upside with some doubt about consistency seems to match all of them.

I'm not clear on why he'd want to skip that range this year. Looks a lot like past years.

What am I missing, what's the difference here between these guys and the crop in past years?

[Sour Masher]

Strange, from their list in the 25+ area I see a lot of guys who could fit that mold described.

Castillo, Berrios, Glasnow, James, Soroka, Bieber. High upside with some doubt about consistency seems to match all of them.

I'm not clear on why he'd want to skip that range this year. Looks a lot like past years.

What am I missing, what's the difference here between these guys and the crop in past years?

Yeah, those are all great examples, although I'd guess Berrios may be seen as a cut above. I like all the guys you mention.

[onejayhawk]

Strange, from their list in the 25+ area I see a lot of guys who could fit that mold described.

Castillo, Berrios, Glasnow, James, Soroka, Bieber. High upside with some doubt about consistency seems to match all of them.

I'm not clear on why he'd want to skip that range this year. Looks a lot like past years.

What am I missing, what's the difference here between these guys and the crop in past years?

Castillo, Berrios, and Glasnow made his cutoff at #40-ish. James and Soroka he mentions as having innings issues in addition to any performance issues, see also Touki Toussaint and Jonathan Loaisiga. As noted in another thread he has Yu Darvish and his medical history at #33.

Bieber is at #58 but not mentioned specifically. For what it's worth, I have a share of not-Justin.

J

[joncarlos]

I can kinda see it. I like Berrios a lot though. Castillo too. I'm fine with Tanaka too. After that... yeah, I like Pivetta, but do I like Glasnow enough to pick him as the 37th best SP? Probably not. I like James a lot but as the 48th SP? Same with Soroka at 50. The only good thing about those guys is that most of what comes later is worse. I haven't done a ton of prep yet but most of the guys in the 50-100 range that excite me are boring veterans (Heaney, Kyle Gibson, Anibal, Holland). Though I'd be stoked to get Musgrove that late.