The time for chalking things up to “just April shenanigans” has come and gone, and we here at RotoBaller felt that it was time for a rankings update with roughly 20 percent of the season in the books. Of course, now we’re closer to 25 percent but don’t worry -- we’ll always bring you the latest analysis across the site for the best context possible. This round features rankings from myself and my Reddit-famous brochacho Kyle Bishop, so you know you’re getting the best.

The pitching world has been absolutely rocked by this 10-day disabled list, as many arms are finding themselves on the shelf when they might’ve simply skipped a start or just pitched through some general fatigue/ineffectiveness/dirt-bike incidents. We can’t say for certain that anything fishy is afoot, but DL trips are up roughly 50 percent and the fantasy world is still reacting to those ripple effects.

As a result, those who have stayed healthy look even better thus far, and some hot starts stand out even more than usual with so many others hurt. For instance, James Paxton and Corey Kluber both got hurt pretty much as soon as we submitted our updated ranks. Obviously, Jameson Taillon's rank should be ignored and we wish him all the best in his battle with cancer.

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2017 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Starting Pitchers (May Updates)

You can check out all of our updated rankings. Positional tiers, top prospects, dynasty ranks, and more. It's all free.

Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis: May

50 percent of the preseason Tier One guys are on the DL, with Madison Bumgarner and Noah Syndergaard both out for the foreseeable future. Yu Darvish takes a small step forward into the bottom of the tier, but Jacob deGrom is the real mover and shaker here. He’s leapt from No. 14 to No. 5 here, though two of his three May starts haven’t gone so hot. Still, only one of them was a real clunker (May 3, five walks and five earned against the Braves) and he bounced back from that to strike out 11 Giants in a quality start.

Heck, he won that game against Atlanta. He’s just 2-1 through eight starts, but owns an absurd 12.39 K/9 that leads the National League and his 3.16 SIERA ranks inside the top 10 as well. His K’s are no fluke either, as his 15.3 percent swinging-strike rate trails only Danny Salazar, Chris Sale and Max Scherzer. Those guys can bring the electricity. Buy in to the stuff and hope the Mets can support him.

Dallas Keuchel, eh? He skyrockets to No. 18 from No. 39 here thanks to a perfect, MLB-leading 7-0 record with the third-best ERA out of qualified starters (1.84). He also leads the league in innings as of May 17 with 63 2/3 frames under his belt, which just makes him all the more sweeter for those of you in points leagues. Sure, his 7.63 K/9 won’t win anything on its own but it’s more than serviceable enough to go along with his league-leading 66.9 percent ground-ball rate. He seems to have regained his ability to just relentlessly snipe the edges of the strike zone and leave hitters with nothing good to hit while still limiting walks (1.98 BB/9,) so it’s hard to ignore this.

Aaron Sanchez drops from No. 23 to No. 37 thanks to gaining a bit of a Rich Hill vibe to him with Blister: The Sequel popping up far too often. It doesn’t help that when he’s been on the mound he’s surviving on some luck rather than skill, as his 4.77 FIP/4.40 xFIP/4.62 SIERA are pretty ugly with a relatively-low 43.6 percent ground-ball rate thus far (54.4 percent in ’16.) Yes, 18 1/3 innings where he hasn’t even been healthy for all of them make for an incredible tilted sample size to analyze, but there’s no questioning that his stock takes a hit regardless. He also made some real value with his 15-2 record last season, and Toronto needs to get their bats back in order before we can see Sanchez getting enough support for serious wins in ’17.

Ervin Santana only sits at No. 56 (for good reason,) though I’ve still got him nearly 100 slots higher than Kyle. I hate/am astounded by his peripherals as well, but his turnaround began in the middle of 2016 and he’s got the seventh-best ERA over the last calendar year (2.88) and seems to be channeling his early-2010s form when he habitually outpitched his underlying metrics. However, he never posted rates like these: .128 BABIP, 98.4 percent strand rate, 25.9 percent soft-contact rate, 52.5 percent pull rate. What that says is he’s getting lucky, but is also inducing terrible contact and batters are out in front of a lot of his offerings. It’s not an ideal (or sustainable) path to success, but he’s not going to suddenly become a pumpkin either.

Other notable risers are types like Luis Severino, Ivan Nova, Lance Lynn, Eduardo Rodriguez, Alex Wood and Andrew Triggs. I would put Wood higher today now that I feel more secure about his slot in the rotation, though I fear the Dodgers will place him on the DL with some minor injury as they continue to utilize their pitching depth to conserve innings. I guess that comes off as accusatory -- just calling it as I see it, and it’s smart baseball by them with their roster. And I would boost Nate Karns up a ton today as well, toward the SP50 range. Matt Garza, Ariel Miranda and even Wade Miley would draw a small bump up from that last group as well.

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