Welcome to the FantasyPros Week 22 starting pitcher rankings for 2024. On Fridays, we view the upcoming week and rank starting pitchers based on their talent and the team they play against. These rankings are for Monday, August 26 through Sunday, September 1.

These rankings use expert consensus rankings (ECR) as a starting point. Matchup information can be found on the helpful Pitcher Planner’s resource for probable pitchers.

• Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Advice
• Fantasy Baseball Trade Advice
• Fantasy Baseball Start/Sit Lineup Advice
• MLB Prop Bet Cheat Sheet

As usual, remember that some starts are projected over a week in advance. Dates can change due to rain, injuries or anything else. Two-start weeks often end up as one-start weeks.

Be sure to check the FantasyPros Pitcher Planner for the most up-to-date information.

Top 50 Starting Pitcher Rankings: Week 22

Best Matchups

• Chris Sale has 32 strikeouts across his last three starts. That number sounds fake. It isn’t. Sale and his fellow Cy Young frontrunner Tarik Skubal are two of the only consistently dominant pitchers this season. Skubal and Sale should do well this week, but the Braves ace gets the top placement because of his strikeout addiction.
• Nathan Eovaldi is a great pitcher who analysts seem to forget about. The 34-year-old has had a late-career breakout. He has not had an above-4.00 ERA season since he was 29. The Texas Rangers starter is quietly among the top pitchers in baseball when healthy. Eovaldi is healthy, so fantasy managers should look for him to crush the White Sox this week.
• Spencer Arrighetti‘s ERA across his last five starts is 2.98. He has 13.1 K/9 and 44:8 K:BB across these starts (30.2 innings). This has been the summer for rookie pitchers named Spencer with complicated last names. Arrighetti and fellow rookie Spencer Schwellenbach seem to have legitimate talent after early struggles in the majors. Arrighetti recently shut out Baltimore for six innings, rebuilding confidence after a stumble against the lowly White Sox. Trust Arrighetti as his Astros team faces the Phillies.

Unfavorable Matchups

• Corbin Burnes and Patrick Corbin may have switched bodies. Corbin, who has an ERA of 5.69 across the past five seasons, outperformed Burnes on August 22. Corbin threw six innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts. Burnes, on the other hand, allowed five runs across 5.2 innings and only collected two strikeouts. This performance followed up a four-inning start against Boston where Burnes allowed eight runs. For the first time perhaps ever, Patrick Corbin looks like the better Corbin. In all seriousness, Burnes should recover. He is simply joining his fellow Orioles with late-season struggles. Burnes has been remarkably consistent all year and he will bounce back. His next start against the Dodgers might not be the bounce-back fantasy managers are looking for, though. Start Burnes with caution.
• Zac Gallen threw 243.2 innings in 2023, including the postseason. Is fatigue why Gallen is having the second-worst season of his career? His velocity is the same, so perhaps not. Maybe a hamstring injury that sidelined him for June is still causing some issues. No matter the cause, Gallen has been disappointing. His last three starts have totaled 16.1 innings and 10 runs with just as many strikeouts. Gallen’s 3.85 ERA and 1.32 WHIP this season are not all that bad, but his 8.3 K/9 is far below his career 9.6 mark and limited strikeouts have been limiting his value. Fantasy managers should most likely sit the Diamondbacks ace against the Dodgers.
• Eduardo Rodriguez looks solid after returning from a long-term shoulder injury. He has thrown 16 innings and allowed only seven runs to a 3.94 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. So, why is he in the unfavorable matchups category? His strikeouts are a concern. He threw 100 pitches in his last start and only caused nine swinging strikes. Rodriguez has 11 strikeouts this season, a 6.2 K/9 ratio. The strikeouts will increase with time, but the Diamondbacks starter’s current state leaves little room for error against the Mets.

Top 50 Pitchers (8/26 – 9/1)

Subscribe: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeart | Castbox | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict | SoundCloud | TuneIn