With the first half of the season in the books, it’s time for one last RotoBaller rankings update. As with our May edition, these rest-of-season rankings come from yours truly and my favorite bandwagon Red Sox fan, Nick Mariano. Today, we're finishing things off with a look at the pitchers; I'll cover the starters below, while Nick will dissect the reliever ranks.

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2017 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Starting Pitchers (Midseason Update)

Midseason Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis

The usual spate of injuries, along with the continuing surge in home runs, has made this season a hellish one for fantasy owners in search of quality pitching. Hardly anyone has been immune to the "allegedly" juiced ball. Even once and future king Clayton Kershaw has already set a career high in homers allowed, though it hasn't kept him from posting his typically transcendent results. Despite some whispers to the contrary, he remains in a class by himself, ahead of fellow top-tier aces Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, and Corey Kluber. The entire quartet has everything you want from a pitcher, of course: Tons of strikeouts, great ratios, high volume, and lengthy track records that point to more of the same in the games to come.

The group in Tier 2 have plenty going for them, they're just not quite up to the standard set by our Four Horsemen. Madison Bumgarner has the strongest case for inclusion in the top group, we just need to see how he rebounds from his shoulder injury. I maintain that Stephen Strasburg's health issues are overblown by most folks, but between those and his propensity for the occasional clunker outing, it's enough to relegate him to the second tier. Yu Darvish, Jacob deGrom, and Chris Archer are immensely talented, but none of the trio is pitching at his best this season.

Carlos Carrasco is likewise great, he just never seems to give you the innings you need to classify him as a no-doubt stud. Carlos Martinez remains vulnerable to left-handed batters, which keeps him from reaching his full potential. There's not much disagreement at the top between Nick and I, with the exception of Zack Greinke. He's completely rebounded from his difficult first year in Arizona and is having one of the best seasons of his illustrious career.

The next couple of tiers are an interesting mix of underachieving stars and guys who are excelling but have limited track records. In the former category, you have three-fifths of the Cubs' starting rotation - Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, and newly acquired Jose Quintana. All have had issues with the long ball this year and occasional control problems, which is why they're each rocking 4.00+ ERA and 1.30+ WHIP marks. Johnny Cueto and Justin Verlander have also taken a tumble in our rankings after struggling in the first half. Given the track records involved, it would hardly come as a shock to see any of all of these veterans turn it on after the break.

Hell, Verlander did so just last year, though he didn't have quite as poor a showing in the first few months of 2016 as he has this time around. In the "talented but less established" bucket, there's Lance McCullers, Alex Wood, Robbie Ray, Luis Severino, James Paxton, Aaron Nola, and Sean Manaea. Of that group, only Wood has ever topped 175 MLB innings in a season. Most of them have had their share of health issues, and only Ray and Severino have avoided the disabled list this year. That said, each of them has been largely excellent when on the mound and that figures to continue.

After a relatively harmonious top 30, the next several tiers are where you start to see some major disagreements between Nick and myself. After touting him during the offseason as a rebound candidate and investing in several leagues, I'm completely off the Gerrit Cole train. He's got a 4.75 ERA and 1.40 WHIP over the past calendar year at this point. Marcus Stroman's improved ERA feels like a mirage, since his peripherals have barely budged. No idea what the deal is with Masahiro Tanaka, but I'm certainly not putting him in the top 20 SP after his awful first half. Ervin Santana is #fakenews. Aaron Sanchez has been even more of a disappointment than I expected thanks to a season-long battle with blisters. Speaking of blisters, Rich Hill...pass. Between his health, his inconsistent performance to date, and the Dodgers' rotation shell game, I'm staying away. Also, Dylan Bundy is bad and Nick should feel bad for ranking him as high as he did.

As for the arms I've ranked higher, Cole Hamels looks more like himself on the other side of his DL stint. I'm cautiously optimistic on the Jimmy Nelson breakout. Drew Pomeranz has been quietly excellent of late, particularly with keeping the ball in the yard. Danny Salazar is worth a gamble in the second half, and could frankly make both of our rankings look foolish if he's healthy. Lastly, while there's a lot of uncertainty around when (or if) he'll return this season and in what capacity, even 4-5 starts from Noah Syndergaard at 70-80 percent could be a boon to fantasy owners in September.

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