2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: Starting Pitcher Tiers, Version 3.0

Starting pitcher is still mostly about aces and non-aces, but some depth is emerging in the middle again, as Scott White's tiers show.

By Scott White

Mar 22, 2019 at 11:33 pm ET • 2 min read

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Tiers 3.0: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

Tiers, for the uninformed, are an alternate form of rankings that groups players by expected level of production. While it's true every player is expected to produce less than the player ranked ahead of him, there are points in the rankings where the drop-off in expected production is more significant. And at those points, a new tier begins.

The goal is to give you a clear depiction of the distribution of talent at each position so that, in the heat of a draft, you can determine at a glance which position is the ideal one to target. Naturally, the one closest to dropping into the next tier is the one you'll regret having passed up a round later.

Below are the starting pitcher tiers for 2019. They depict a position where the choices become harder to distinguish the further down the rankings you go.

The Super Elite: Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Jacob deGrom, Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander
The Elite: Blake Snell, Aaron Nola, Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole, Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Carrasco, Patrick Corbin, Zack Greinke
The Near-Elite: Walker Buehler, James Paxton, Stephen Strasburg, German Marquez, Mike Clevinger
The Next-Best Things: Clayton Kershaw, Jack Flaherty, Luis Severino, Chris Archer, Jameson Taillon, Jose Berrios, Madison Bumgarner, David Price, Miles Mikolas, Zack Wheeler, Mike Foltynewicz, Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Castillo, Charlie Morton, Yu Darvish
The Fallback Options: Cole Hamels, J.A. Happ, Rick Porcello, Robbie Ray, Yusei Kikuchi, Jon Gray, Shane Bieber, Nick Pivetta, Tyler Glasnow*, Tyler Skaggs, Collin McHugh*, Kenta Maeda*, Jose Quintana, Eduardo Rodriguez, Rich Hill, Kyle Hendricks, Nathan Eovaldi, Brad Peacock*, Dallas Keuchel
The Last Resorts: Ross Stripling*, Chris Paddack, Joe Musgrove, Matt Strahm*, Brandon Woodruff*, Kyle Freeland, Jon Lester, Marco Gonzales, Joey Lucchesi, Jimmy Nelson, Andrew Heaney, Corbin Burnes*, Julio Urias*, Jesus Luzardo, Carlos Martinez*, Trevor Richards, Domingo German, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Alex Wood, Caleb Smith
The Deep-Leaguers: Kyle Gibson, Jake Arrieta, Alex Reyes, Zach Eflin, Zack Godley, Sean Newcomb, Sonny Gray, Marcus Stroman, Josh James, Touki Toussaint, Carlos Rodon, Reynaldo Lopez, Dylan Bundy, Vince Velasquez, Steven Matz, Kevin Gausman, Jake Junis, Julio Teheran, Michael Wacha, Brad Keller*, Forrest Whitley, Ryan Yarbrough*, Wade Miley, Mike Minor, Luke Weaver, Michael Pineda
The Leftovers: Trevor Williams, Dereck Rodriguez, Anibal Sanchez, Tanner Roark, Matthew Boyd, Mike Fiers, Jordan Lyles*, Yonny Chirinos*, CC Sabathia, Derek Holland, Tyler Anderson, Danny Duffy, Mike Soroka, Jeff Samardzija, Jordan Zimmermann, Adam Wainwright, Sean Manaea, Jhoulys Chacin, Mike Leake, Pablo Lopez, Brent Honeywell, Clay Buchholz, Chase Anderson, Lance Lynn, Matt Harvey, Aaron Sanchez, Framber Valdez, Trevor Cahill, Jose Urena, Jaime Barria, Tyson Ross, Lucas Giolito, Jake Odorizzi