List 6/20: Top 100 starting pitchers for 2022 – Week 11

Welcome to the list where I rank in the Top 100 Fantasy Baseball SP every Monday of the year.

Want an earlier update to The List? Join me on Monday at 1pm ET as I broadcast live his creation every week!

Do you have questions? My “working hours” are at Twitch 9:00 – 11:00 ET Monday – Friday + the aforementioned stream on The List.

For each edition of the List, I have a set of rules to outline my thought process and how best to use these rankings. Please write down:

1. This is a 5 × 5, 12 team focused in H2H format. It’s usually the same as roto, but make sure you adjust accordingly.
2. We have two tables to review before the notes and the ranking. First is the injury chart, which outlines where players would be relatively ranked if they were completely healthy. This is the best way to deal with how to rate players in IL.
3. If a player is in the IL or is not confirmed in the rotation, he is not on the list. This includes injuries and boys in juniors, but there are exceptions for players who are expected to be in the rotation but missed this week.
4. The second is a table of pitches outside the Top 100 that I looked at. Please read this if you can’t find your man.
5. Since this is a team with 12 teams, I have a lot of weight in the back half of the rankings. Level 10 is likely to be lower than level 11 throughout the season, but it’s in your best interest to pursue a level 10 ceiling against level 11 floor satisfaction.
6. I decided to remove all the labels I struggle to maintain during the season to give each player only one label at a time. It streamlines the process much better and hopefully gives you a more focused understanding of the player.
7. The notes outline so much to help your team. Please read the notes if you can, instead of just scrolling to the bottom.

Let’s get to the tables. The first are all our injured compatriots:

This year I made a decision: I removed the “pre-season levels” and changed the “levels” to “relative rank”, as it will be more consistent than week to week – the levels change until their relative rank does not.

Please note that “70-80” does not guarantee that the player will be exactly in this range when he returns. The ranking is 100% relative to the landscape and while this table reflects where they would sit in a vacuum, it is a liquid creature. Sometimes there are so many options, sometimes I want to see them healthy and stretched again, and others we are hungry for pitchers and they jump higher than “70-80”. This is a free starting point and why it is called “relative ranking”. I hope it helps!

And one last point – pitchers often need an extra week or two to increase after returning to the big tournaments. That’s why ILL still exists, and the “relative rank” you see is when these guys shake off their rust. Will they return to normal on their first start or will they need a few? I have no idea! These ranks should show what I would expect once they return to normal.

Now let’s take a look at the pitchers I considered for the Top 100, but failed to come out:

Other pitchers I looked at (not sorted)

Finally, I highly recommend that you follow my daily SP Roundup, which outlines all of the pitcher’s performances this season, or if you want to find out most of these pitchers, you can check out my 40,000 pre-season words through my Top 224 Starter Pitchers for 2022 since February. Both will help you understand my common thoughts on most of these guys (especially the summary!), As I just can’t describe everything about the 100 pitchers in these notes each week.

Ranking notes

• This is your reminder to read these notes, as they will tell you a lot about why “someone moved up” or “why is it on #X?”
• Seriously. Read the notes.

• The highest level remains the same this week, as these pitchers are drugs and make us feel addicted.
• Since Joe Musgrove hit COVID-IL, there is an innate +1 for level 2 boys, although I chose to move Kevin Gaussman between Carlos Rodon and Alec Manoa this week. He was a little funk and Rodon looked back at his normal dominant ways.

• In the third level I decided to group all AGA weapons in one level before level 4 hit. Welcome back, Aaron Nola, Shane Bieber and Luis Severino, we missed you.
• I moved Clayton Kirshaw up as it is another start removed from his stay in Illinois and shows signs of the man we want him to be.

• Meanwhile, Lucas Jolito and Max Fried dive in a bit. Nothing new from Fried – this is the product of the rise of Bieber and Nola – while Giolito was a deliberate fall. His change was far different from what we’ve seen in previous seasons, and while I bet he’s back in shape, the fog is lowering the charts this week.
• It’s time to raise Shohei Ohtani to third level, given his perseverance on the hill, now that we have over 60 passes per game this year. Support him.

• Leading the fourth level is Julio Urias, who boasts a remarkable 2.56 ERA and 1.03 WHIP and I’m tempted to push him to level 3, but his low 5.4 innings at the start mixed with a low 22% percentage of drawing, keep it in Tier 4.
• I’m glad that Chris Basit seemingly went through his May fights and I gave him a promotion back to the Top 20. Volume is important and Basit will …