Fantasy Baseball Today - Early 2024 Starting Pitcher Rankings! Cole Ragans Top 12?? (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Episode Date: December 16, 2023

Download and follow Fantasy Baseball Today in 5! You can find FBT in 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the Audacy App and wherever else podcasts are found. Spencer Strider and Gerrit Cole are in a tier of their own. Can Tyler Glasnow stay healthy? Tarik Skubal is a top-10 starting pitcher? Cole Ragans is a top-12 starting pitcher?? Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let's take an early look at Scott's 2024 starting pitcher rankings up next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 on Saturday, December 16th. I am Frank Stamford, joined by Scott White, and here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you the top 15 in Scott's starter pitcher rankings, and we'll throw them at you in groups of five. So here we go. The top five SPs, we've got Spencer Strider, Garrett Cole, Kevin Gosman, Zach Wheeler, and Corbin Burns. Obviously, Scott, Strider and Cole

kind of in a tier of their own. You see that. They're going inside the top 12 or 13 picks in ADP. And then you have to drop down outside of the top 24 until you see another starting pitcher drafted, Strider, Cole, in a tier of their own.

And I endorse that approach. I might even wait longer to draft the next pitcher, honestly. But the reason I prefer Kevin Gosman over that somewhat crowded group there with Wheeler Burns and a couple others, is strikeouts.

I mean, you're going to see that's a recurring theme here with my starting pitcher rankings. I'm going all in for strikeouts this year because I feel like that is the most predictable thing in a really unpredictable time for starting pitchers. And naturally, a pitcher who misses more bats has more upside, so we might end up doing well

an ERA and WIP too. If you fixate on strikeouts, you might just accidentally do really well in those other categories. So that's kind of my approach. Kevin Gosman was one of the most prolific sources of strikeouts in all of baseball this past year.

And so that's why he's my preference over Wheeler and Burns. All right. Six through 10 in the starter pitcher rankings, we see Luis Castillo followed by Zach Gallin, Tyler Glassnow, Terek Scouble, and Blake Snell. So there's really a top seven and ADP, Scott, and it ends with Luis Castillo and Zach Gallen.

So you and ADP are on, you're on par there. Tyler Glassnow and Terrick Scouble, I mean, these are two names that have tremendous upside, great on a per inning basis, tons of strikeout ability, but how many innings are we going to get? That's the big question for each of those two. And I think it's a bigger question for Glass now than for Scoobel because Scoobel's durability issues, I mean, he hasn't been in the majors for long. You could just chalk them up to the normal growing pains for a young pitcher. but Glassnow he's been at it for a while

and just set a career high with 120 innings this past year. But again, it's all about the strikeouts for me. Pitch for pitch, there's nobody. I think Tyler Glass now comes closest to Spencer Strider of anybody, and at fact, he actually had a lower X-fifth and strider this past year.

So when he's healthy, you know he's going to be dominant. And so I'm willing, again, at a volatile time for pitching with that big glob of interchangeable pitchers. I want one who's going to stand out, and for however long glass now lasts, I know he'll be at. Scoobo, meanwhile, I think he's,

like, he's my early choice for A.L. Cy Young. I think he is that good. He was a distant first in both XERA and FIPP, among pitchers who threw at least 80 innings last year, came back from that elbow flexor injury, throwing a couple miles per hour harder, elite control, great secondaries, and now a good fastball to go with him,

and we saw him just dominate. And once he built up to six innings, he kept it up. And I think he's about to take off as Terek School Bowl. All right, 11 through 15 in your early rankings, we see, that's right. Cole Regens at number 11,

followed by Pablo Lopez, Kodai Senga, Freddie Peralta, and Logan Webb. Scott, the early ADP for Cole Regens, 115, as the 34th starting pitcher off the board. You said, uh-uh, that's my guy. I love him,

and I'm sticking with it. Well, to be fair, I said it before I saw, but the ADP is. And I'm a little surprised, given how hyped Cole Reagan's was within fantasy circles once he did come up in August and flat out dominate for the Royals.

You know, he saw a velocity jump of like four miles per hour, which was there from the beginning when he was working out of the bullpen for the Rangers, but was changed with the Royals as he added a slider to his arsenal that became his best swing and miss pitch. And really he has five pitches capable of missing bats,

including that fastball that generally can reach 98-99. Peaked at 101 at one point, very rare for a left-handed pitcher. So Cole Reagan's has the weapons to dominate, and over that 11-start stretch with the Royals to end the year he had. Let me see if I can find it real quick. The strikeout rate was very high. We'll just say the strikeout rate was very high.

It was... If I can't... I can't fight it. It's going to take too long. But it was really high. 86 strikeouts to 6 and 6, 2 thirds, innings. You could do the math on your own.

Cole Reagan's dominated. There are a couple of concerns here. He's twice had Tommy John surgery, so he hasn't proven to be durable yet. And he's also had some control issues in his past that started to pop up again toward the end of September. His final four starts. Cole Regans had six walks, two walks,

four walks, four walks. But again, I'm selling out for upside at starting pitcher. I'm looking for a difference maker. I'm looking for strikeouts. I'm willing to take on a little more risk to get it. And Cole Reagan's, as far as that goes, has as much upside as anybody.

And really, if you look at the way we're closing out my top 15 here with Reagan's 11, Pablo Lopez, Kodai Senga, Freddie Peralta, and then Logan Webb at 15. I think a lot of people would be inclined to move up Logan Webb for safety and predictability reasons. but I like those four big strikeout guys ahead of him. Again, Reagan's, Pablo Lopez, Kodi, Senga, and Freddie Peralta, all guys with huge strikeout upside.

And the final 11 stars, the number you were looking for, Scott, 11.6K per 9 for Cole Regens, a 15% swinging strike rate during that. I was bazin out. I couldn't get the numbers in it on the calculator fast enough. I'm glad you figured it out. All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify.

Apple Podcasts, the Odyssey app, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today and five, and we'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.