2025 Position Previews: Starting Pitcher, Part 3
I bring you part three of the 2025 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Preview
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I will wrap up the starting pitcher preview series today. We’re going from SP #68 to SP #102, and then we’ll hit the big-name prospects and some of the “best of the rest” guys.
Remember that I’m not covering my full thoughts and analysis on each guy in this post. That is all covered in the team preview series. There are still plenty of teams that haven’t been published yet, but I will update the links below as I release more and more teams. The blurbs will be short, but click those links if you want the full analysis.
Tier 11
David Festa (ADP Rank #86)
Bowden Francis (ADP Rank #64)
Nick Lodolo (ADP Rank #73)
Lucas Giolito (ADP Rank #119)
Jackson Jobe (ADP Rank #76)
Tanner Houck (ADP Rank #62)
Ranger Suarez (ADP Rank #75)
There’s upside with most of these arms, but you have a lot of risk with pretty much every name from here forth. I would not be counting on any of these guys being stalwarts for your fantasy rotation all year, but it is certainly possible in every case.
Festa: He’s one of the guys I’m way over the market on, but I really like everything going on with him. The fastball, the K-BB%, and the innings load from last year. I think he’ll break out this year.
Francis: Not a believer in the fastball, hate relying on a splitter.
Lodolo: He has an SP2 upside if he can stay healthy. The stuff is really good, and the delivery makes him very tough to time up.
Giolito: Giolito says he’s ready to log a full season. Maybe that’s untrue, but I’m choosing to believe him. I think he can be a pretty good strikeout guy still, and we’ve seen a pretty nice ceiling on him in the past.
Jobe: I really have no idea what to think about Jobe. The stuff is good, but the K% in the minors came way down last year. Beats me, but this is where he ends up.
Houck: I’m hesitant to buy in on the sudden BB% improvements, and he is not much of a strikeout pitcher.
Suarez: I think there’s a real risk of him losing his job once Andrew Painter is ready to debut, but for now, he’s a solid arm on a very good team.