2025 Position Previews: Starting Pitcher, Part 2
I bring you part two of the 2025 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Preview
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I went over the full SP landscape and general strategy points in part one, so read all of that if you missed it! I’m jumping right back into the tiers in this one.
Podcast
Tier Seven
Spencer Strider (ADP Rank #39)
Jack Flaherty (ADP Rank #40)
Hunter Brown (ADP Rank #33)
Joe Ryan (ADP Rank #29)
Carlos Rodon (ADP Rank #38)
Freddy Peralta (ADP Rank #28)
Tyler Glasnow (ADP Rank #30)
Max Fried (ADP Rank #27)
Aaron Nola (ADP Rank #21)
Strider: I guess he’ll be back pretty early on in the season if everything goes well. The early reports suggest he could be back to a full-go by May. Once he’s back in the rotation, he catapults into the top 5-7 SPs, but it’s a little bit hard to invest in him right now, given all the uncertainty following his internal brace procedure.
Flaherty: As of this writing, he still does not have a team. I’m also not completely sold on last year's sudden breakout, even though the 24% K-BB% and 3.10 SIERA were elite. Maybe I’m too low, but I’d rather not put a ton of stock into a career year at the age of 28. That said, I’m ahead of the pack in my ranking, as you see above.
Brown: At the end of the season, it was just a 3.74 SIERA and a 16.7% K-BB%. It’s hard for me to get excited about something like that.
Ryan: I love this guy for the consistently great WHIP, but he has proven to be a bit of a landmine for ERA, and he finished the year on the IL. There’s plenty of risk going with that pick, and that’s why I’ve ended up so much lower on him than ADP. That said, he’s a great target when you’re deploying The WHIP Strat.
Rodon: He has stayed healthy the last couple of years, and last year he pushed out a 19% K-BB%. He is very reliable for strikeouts, and I’m not nearly as afraid about his health as I was in prior years.
Peralta: The walk rate was a problem last year (9.4%), and you know I’m biased against a guy with a high walk rate. The K% is also short of the league’s best at this point (27.6% last year), and he also gives up the long ball. I just see a lot of risk.
Glasnow: He’d be in my top ten with ease if I thought he had a real shot at 170+ innings, but I don’t think that, so here he is.
Fried: I not only have concerns about his health and age, but I also am starting to wonder about his performance. He went for an 8.0% BB% last year, which was horrible for him. I might be too low on him, and I won’t be surprised if he has a great season, but he’s not the type of guy I want to attack this year.
Nola: He originally appeared in part one, but then I did his write-up in the Phillies preview and realized that I don’t want much to do with him. The K-BB% has fallen off of a cliff in the last three seasons, and he’s long had a problem with giving up the long ball. It could be a very rough season for Nola.