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What happens when 11 teams are scheduled to play only five games in a given week? A shortage of two-start pitchers — that's what.
It turns out a number of them are reasonable plays in Week 6 (April 29-May 5) anyway. The top 11 I'd consider must-start in most all formats, in fact. But of them, how many could you realistically find on the waiver wire? Mike Soroka is the only one owned in less than 80 percent of CBS Sports leagues.
But Yonny Chirinos with two favorable matchups is pretty interesting at No. 12. After him, my highest ranked is Jake Junis, who's only 39 percent owned, and by that point, we're already in the range of pitchers I'd consider inadvisable for traditional 5x5 categories leagues. He's fine as a points-league play — one who likely won't do too much damage in the format that most values volume, particularly with a favorable matchup against the Tigers on the schedule — but he shouldn't be a priority pickup for anyone.
The absolute cutoff for points leagues is Tanner Roark at 20, and he's a bit of stretch. In categories leagues, I wouldn't risk any lower than Kyle Freeland at 16.
Rank | Pitcher | Start 1 | Start 2 |
1 | Justin Verlander, HOU | at MIN | at LAA |
2 | Trevor Bauer, CLE | at MIA | vs. SEA |
3 | Blake Snell, TB | at KC | at BAL |
4 | Patrick Corbin, WAS | vs. STL | at PHI |
5 | German Marquez, COL | at MIL | vs. ARI |
6 | Luis Castillo, CIN | at NYM | vs. SF |
7 | Zack Wheeler, NYM | vs. CIN | at MIL |
8 | Chris Paddack, SD | at ATL | vs. LAD |
9 | Eduardo Rodriguez, BOS | vs. OAK | at CHW |
10 | Kenta Maeda, LAD* | at SF | at SD |
11 | Mike Soroka, ATL | vs. SD | at MIA |
12 | Yonny Chirinos, TB*^ | at KC | at BAL |
13 | Brad Keller, KC* | vs. TB | at DET |
14 | Rick Porcello, BOS | vs. OAK | at CHW |
15 | Julio Teheran, ATL | vs. SD | at MIA |
16 | Kyle Freeland, COL | at MIL | vs. ARI |
17 | Jake Junis, KC | vs. TB | at DET |
18 | Frankie Montas, OAK | at BOS | at PIT |
19 | Michael Wacha, STL | at WAS | at CHC |
20 | Tanner Roark, CIN | at NYM | vs. SF |
21 | Spencer Turnbull, DET | at PHI | vs. KC |
22 | Zach Davies, MIL | vs. COL | vs. NYM |
23 | Nick Margevicius, SD | at ATL | vs. LAD |
24 | Adam Wainwright, STL | at WAS | at CHC |
25 | Jake Odorizzi, MIN | vs. HOU | at NYY |
26 | Jeff Samardzija, SF | vs. LAD | at CIN |
27 | Michael Pineda, MIN | vs. HOU | at NYY |
28 | John Means, BAL* | at CHW | vs. TB |
29 | Anibal Sanchez, WAS | vs. STL | at PHI |
30 | Jhoulys Chacin, MIL | vs. COL | vs. NYM |
31 | Clay Buchholz, TOR | at LAA | at TEX |
32 | Ivan Nova, CHW | vs. BAL | vs. BOS |
33 | Manny Banuelos, CHW | vs. BAL | vs. BOS |
34 | Jason Vargas, NYM | vs. CIN | at MIL |
*RP-eligible | ^expected to follow opener | |||