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2016 Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings: Starting Pitcher (January, Part 1)

Welcome back to our second round of 2016 fantasy baseball rankings. This edition focuses on starting pitchers. We'll cover the top 60 here, and the rest tomorrow. Spoiler: Pitching is insanely deep.

This round of rankings features seven of our experts. They are Brad Johnson, Max Petrie, Harris Yudin, Jeff Kahntroff, Bill Dubiel, Nick Mariano, and yours truly. Assume a standard 5x5 redraft league when reading. You can also read part two of my pitchers analysis (tiers 7-13).

Be sure to also check out all of our 2016 fantasy baseball rankings articles. We have rankings and tiers across all positions, for MLB prospects, and for dynasty/keeper leagues.

 

2016 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Starting Pitcher

Tier One

So, uh...that Clayton Kershaw dude is pretty good at baseball, huh? Buster Posey, Paul Goldschmidt, and Carlos Correa were our only other consensus number ones in this round of rankings. Kershaw's the best. I know it, you know it, the American people know it. Here are his averages in standard categories over the last five seasons: 17.6 W, 250 K, 2.11 ERA, 0.93 WHIP. The only pitcher to throw more than Kershaw's 1,128 innings over that span? James Shields, who in seven more innings compiled less than half the WAR that Kershaw did. FanGraphs or Baseball-Reference, you ask? Pick one. Hell, if you added both sites' figures for Shields together, he'd still be behind Kershaw on either one. And Kershaw is only turning 28 this year! He's not human.

Tier Two

This tier is full of guys who are really super awesome at pitching. There are a lot of them out there these days, and any of the pitchers in this tier would be a fine choice to lead your fake staff. Over the last four years, Max Scherzer and Chris Sale are two of only five starters to have posted a double-digit K/9. Jake Arrieta just won a Cy Young, beating out Zack Greinke and his 1.66 ERA. There's a very strong argument to be made in favor of David Price being the best non-Kershaw pitcher this decade. Jose Fernandez came back from Tommy John surgery and immediately resumed being amazing. Jacob deGrom followed up his out of nowhere dominant rookie season with an even better sequel. There's not a whole lot of separation here; personal preference is as good of a tiebreaker as any.

Tier Three

Frankly, most of the arms in this tier could be considered fantasy aces as well. It's in this grouping that we start to see a bit more variance in individual writers' rankings, however. Harris is the only one to have Madison Bumgarner and Stephen Strasburg in the top 10, and ranks the last two AL Cy Young winners (Dallas Keuchel and Corey Kluber) lower than the rest of us. I'm a bit more bullish on Gerrit Cole and concerned about Felix Hernandez than most of my colleagues. The big surprise here is that I've ranked Noah Syndergaard lowest of anyone; I'm a pretty unabashed Thor fan and suggested at one point last year that he could be better than Sale as soon as 2016. Clearly need to bump him up for the next round.

Tier Four

Now we're getting into the slightly less awe-inspiring arms. Plenty of talent here, but more question marks than the players above them. Jon Lester and Cole Hamels have been durable and reliably excellent for the better part of the last decade. Yu Darvish and Adam Wainwright may be coming off injuries that wiped out their 2015 seasons, but their track records speak for themselves. Johnny Cueto and Francisco Liriano are vets with some rough seasons on the ledger, but recent success and great team and park contexts make both appealing fantasy assets The rest of this group is composed of younger pitchers who, if they can solve one nagging problem, could easily break into the elite tiers.

Tier Five

You probably wouldn't be thrilled with any of these guys as the best pitcher on your rosters, given the increased level of risk associated with the majority of them. Still, there's significant profit potential to be had - you just have to squint a little more. I'm most optimistic about Lance McCullers and his patently absurd curveball, while less enamored of Luis Severino than the others. Either is a reasonable bet to make a leap in their sophomore season, though. Given their injury histories, Michael Pineda and Masahiro Tanaka scare me a little. The remaining pitchers in this tier are cut more or less from the same cloth, with strikeout rates that fall short of elite but solid peripherals all around. It's hard to imagine a better situation for Jeff Samardzija than what the Giants can offer - I had him ranked a lot lower before he signed with them. Conversely, Jordan Zimmermann should find it tougher sledding with the Tigers  than he did with the Nationals.

Tier Six

Not coincidentally, this is the largest group of the bunch, containing 16 pitchers. I'm fairly skeptical on some of these vets (Gio Gonzalez, Justin Verlander, John Lackey, James Shields) and driving hype trains for the kids (Joe Ross, Raisel Iglesias, Taijuan Walker). I also quite like Drew Smyly, Kyle Hendricks, and the always underrated Hisashi Iwakuma.

Full rankings can be found below. Check back tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion!

 

Starting Pitcher Rankings for 2016 Fantasy Baseball

Rank Tier Name Brad Max Kyle Nick Harris Jeff Bill
1 1 Clayton Kershaw 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 Max Scherzer 3 2 2 2 2 3 4
3 2 Chris Sale 4 3 3 3 3 4 2
4 2 Jake Arrieta 2 5 4 4 12 5 3
5 2 Jose Fernandez 7 4 7 6 6 2 10
6 2 Zack Greinke 5 6 9 5 5 9 5
7 2 David Price 9 7 6 8 4 7 8
8 2 Jacob deGrom 10 8 5 7 10 6 6
9 3 Madison Bumgarner 11 11 10 10 7 10 13
10 3 Dallas Keuchel 6 9 11 9 18 17 7
11 3 Gerrit Cole 14 14 8 13 11 14 9
12 3 Felix Hernandez 8 10 18 11 13 18 14
13 3 Chris Archer 15 13 12 16 14 16 11
14 3 Corey Kluber 13 12 14 14 19 13 12
15 3 Noah Syndergaard 12 15 17 17 15 8 15
16 3 Stephen Strasburg 18 21 13 12 8 12 16
17 3 Matt Harvey 17 16 15 18 9 15 18
18 3 Carlos Carrasco 16 17 16 15 22 11 17
19 4 Jon Lester 19 22 19 21 24 19 20
20 4 Cole Hamels 25 19 21 19 20 25 21
21 4 Johnny Cueto 21 23 20 26 17 20 23
22 4 Sonny Gray 23 18 24 24 16 27 19
23 4 Adam Wainwright 20 20 26 20 26 26 25
24 4 Carlos Martinez 22 24 23 23 28 21 24
25 4 Yu Darvish 26 28 22 22 32 22 22
26 4 Tyson Ross 24 25 31 30 21 24 30
27 4 Danny Salazar 28 26 25 27 36 23 28
28 4 Marcus Stroman 31 32 27 28 23 33 31
29 4 Francisco Liriano 27 33 29 29 27 28 36
30 5 Masahiro Tanaka 40 27 35 25 33 34 29
31 5 Michael Wacha 38 30 33 32 31 36 32
32 5 Jordan Zimmermann 29 31 38 34 25 53 27
33 5 Jose Quintana 32 37 30 36 29 46 34
34 5 Luis Severino 30 29 44 33 40 49 26
35 5 Jake Odorizzi 33 41 32 42 35 30 39
36 5 Scott Kazmir 37 34 37 39 38 39 33
37 5 Garrett Richards 39 38 39 37 37 38 37
38 5 Lance McCullers 35 51 28 41 51 31 40
39 5 Michael Pineda 52 36 41 31 43 44 35
40 5 Patrick Corbin 43 47 34 35 54 29 42
41 5 Jeff Samardzija 36 43 46 49 34 37 49
42 6 Justin Verlander 41 49 51 43 46 32 46
43 6 Shelby Miller 51 35 54 46 30 61 38
44 6 Steven Matz 64 39 47 39 50 40 44
45 6 Gio Gonzalez 45 46 50 47 45 47 45
46 6 John Lackey 34 48 56 45 47 50 55
47 6 Hyun-Jin Ryu 49 45 48 59 53 48 47
48 6 James Shields 61 42 58 54 44 41 52
49 6 Raisel Iglesias 60 55 43 44 52 51 51
50 6 Clay Buchholz 42 53 42 48 59 56 56
51 6 Collin McHugh 46 50 52 51 57 54 50
52 6 Alex Cobb 44 44 49 58 58 71 41
53 6 Yordano Ventura 53 47 53 52 56 58 48
54 6 Drew Smyly 66 46 57 55 49 35 60
55 6 Hisashi Iwakuma 55 56 40 53 48 60 58
56 6 Jaime Garcia 48 52 64 40 78 67 43
57 6 Carlos Rodon 71 61 59 57 41 45 64
58 6 Joe Ross 89 40 36 38 77 62 57
59 6 Taijuan Walker 70 67 45 56 42 65 54
60 6 Kyle Hendricks 62 63 55 60 62 42 62
61 7 Wei-Yin Chen 54 54 74 61 60 52 63
62 7 Eduardo Rodriguez 58 57 62 62 68 59 61
63 7 Andrew Cashner 50 60 73 50 65 72 59
64 7 Julio Teheran 63 59 72 67 39 63 66
65 7 Nathan Eovaldi 47 74 60 65 74 70 68
66 7 Brett Anderson 57 58 70 63 76 66 78
67 7 Andrew Heaney 59 65 65 69 80 68 65
68 7 Anibal Sanchez 67 68 67 70 63 74 74
69 7 Jason Hammel 72 70 63 72 83 73 53
70 8 Robbie Ray 56 69 61 66 88 76 71
71 8 Aaron Nola 68 62 69 76 72 75 72
72 8 Jimmy Nelson 69 66 76 68 73 77 73
73 8 Marco Estrada 65 64 71 77 75 78 76
74 8 Mike Fiers 71 80 75 98 66 43 84
75 8 Alex Wood 81 77 68 82 55 79 79
76 8 Ian Kennedy 77 75 78 73 67 81 77
77 8 Kevin Gausman 83 76 79 85 71 64 70
78 8 Anthony DeSclafani 86 91 66 71 97 80 69
79 8 Mike Leake 84 78 87 89 64 82 85
80 8 Trevor Bauer 95 72 85 84 106 90 67
81 9 Wade Miley 74 98 92 103 95 69 103
82 9 Henry Owens 88 94 91 75 119 91 80
83 9 Jesse Hahn 105 71 109 80 77 112 88
84 9 Yovani Gallardo 91 89 102 102 61 115 87
85 9 James Paxton 85 103 96 97 90 83 99
86 9 Jake Peavy 111 97 84 94 99 87 81
87 9 Edinson Volquez 82 84 94 99 96 111 90
88 9 Mat Latos 112 96 82 87 102 102 92
89 9 Ervin Santana 106 87 99 81 112 110 86
90 9 Jerad Eickhoff 96 100 95 88 118 95 95
91 10 Phil Hughes 110 90 103 93 101 107 100
92 10 Tyler Duffey 78 82 111 108 120 109 96
93 10 Zack Wheeler 104 85 105 107 89 116 98
94 10 Chris Tillman 92 103 115 106 84 100 106
95 10 Rick Porcello 76 122 98 104 93 104 115
96 10 Kyle Gibson 75 110 100 100 108 118 104
97 10 Danny Duffy 107 104 114 112 107 103 113
98 10 Hector Santiago 114 112 119 116 82 106 110
99 10 Kenta Maeda 80 79 101 64 92 55 -
100 10 J.A. Happ - 93 83 79 87 86 102
101 10 Erasmo Ramirez - 95 77 74 114 92 83
102 10 Nate Karns - 81 80 92 115 93 82
103 11 Josh Tomlin 87 102 108 119 - 98 105
104 11 Derek Holland 73 86 97 101 - - 89
105 11 Erik Johnson 101 83 90 90 - 89 91
106 11 Taylor Jungmann 109 92 88 86 - 88 75
107 11 Ubaldo Jimenez 90 99 93 96 98 - 93
108 11 Matt Shoemaker 94 113 113 115 - 99 114
109 11 Kris Medlen - 73 89 113 86 96 116
110 11 Rubby de la Rosa 100 101 104 91 - 101 117
111 11 Chris Heston 116 88 - 83 91 - 94
112 11 Drew Hutchison - 111 81 78 - 94 107
113 11 Jesse Chavez - - 86 95 109 105 108
114 11 Joe Kelly 79 123 110 117 113 - -
115 12 Daniel Norris 97 105 - 105 70 97 109
116 12 Wily Peralta 115 106 123 109 - 121 118
117 12 Chase Anderson 113 108 - 118 - 114 -
118 12 Jonathan Gray 99 109 122 120 85 - -
119 12 John Lamb - 121 120 - 104 85 -
120 12 CC Sabathia 108 - 116 - - - 119
121 12 Doug Fister - 114 - 111 103 120 -
122 12 Martin Perez - 115 124 - 105 - -
123 12 Nicholas Tropeano 93 - 112 - - 108 -
124 12 R.A. Dickey - 107 - - - 119 111
125 12 Mike Foltynewicz - - 106 - - 117 -
126 13 Homer Bailey - 117 125 - 81 - -
127 13 Matt Cain - 113 - 114 - - -
128 13 Vincent Velasquez - 124 121 - - 57 -
129 13 Matt Moore - 116 - - 69 - -
130 13 Trevor May - 125 117 - - - 120
131 13 CJ Wilson - 118 - - 94 - -
132 13 Jeremy Hellickson 98 121 - - - - 112
133 13 Adam Conley - - 107 - - 84 -
134 13 Matt Wisler - 119 - - 116 - -
135 13 Jered Weaver - 120 - - 117 - -
136 13 Jorge de la Rosa - - - - 111 - -
137 13 Matt Boyd 102 - - - - - -
138 13 Miguel Gonzalez - 122 - - 110 - -
139 13 Chris Bassitt - - - - - 113 -
140 13 Brett Oberholtzer 117 - - - - - -
141 13 Tanner Roark - - - - - - -

 

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RANKINGS
C
1B
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SS
OF
SP
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RANKINGS

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