Fantasy Baseball Today - Top-24 Starting Pitchers for 2026! (11/21 Fantasy Baseball podcast)
Episode Date: November 21, 2025Let's continue on with Scott White's 2026 starting pitcher rankings, focusing on 13-24! What do we expect from Spencer Schwellenbach coming back from injury? Jesus Luzardo posted elite skills in Phill...y. Don't overvalue Freddy Peralta. Kyle Bradish has tremendous upside for next season. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome 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, @CPTowers @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/ 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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Let's continue on with Scott's top 24 starting pitchers for 2026.
Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome in to FBT Express on Friday, November 21st.
I am Frank Sam.
We'll join by Scott White.
Last episode, we broke down Scott's top 12 starting pitchers for next season.
We'll pick up from there.
We'll go 13 through 24.
Break them down in groups of three.
13 through 15, Scott, you have Blake Snell, Jacob de Grombe, and Spencer Schwellenbach.
Name that stands out here, Schwellenbach.
coming back from that fractured elbow.
He looked like the breakout that many were expecting last season.
He was throwing with harder velocity,
but it did lead to that injury.
How much do you worry about that heading into next season?
I worry about it some.
I think you have to be because it's clearly a usage-related injury.
Those are the kinds that scare me the most.
Will a pitcher's body hold up to the torque that he's putting on it?
In Schwellenbach's case, no.
Stress fracture and the elbow.
that's often tied to a velocity increase.
And the thing is,
Schwellenbach himself noted this.
He thinks it was because he was throwing harder
that his elbow snapped in this way.
So that's concerning because obviously velocity is important.
But we've already seen Schwellenbach succeed at less velocity.
It was his rookie season, basically.
And it was exciting enough that he was being drafted borderline top 20
coming off that year.
And then the velocity went up.
He looked even better.
Great.
He recognizes that he might not be able to continue with that.
And we've already seen what it looks like.
It's still really good.
So I think he has a good grasp on this situation.
And I think we can still draft him with confidence,
even given the nature of the injury.
16, 17, and 18, you have Jesus Lazzardo, Logan Webb,
and Framber Valdez.
Jesus Lazzardo, first season in Philly.
was a very good season for him.
Could have been better.
He had a stretch in the middle of the season
where he was tipping his pitches,
got blown up for a few starts.
And Scott, I know you'll enjoy this.
If you eliminate his two worst starts,
it would have been a 303 ERA and 11 whip.
Yeah, yeah, sometimes people have a laugh at my expense
when I do the eliminate his two worst starts
and this is how good his numbers look,
sort of exercise.
but I think everybody can get on board with it in Jesus Lazzardo's case
because those two starts,
he was obviously tipping his pitches,
and they were just so comically bad
that that's really the only explanation for how it could go so wrong.
So you take them out,
you get the 303 ERA 111-11 whip 10.6K per 9.
Maybe you look at that ERA especially and are like,
yeah, that's not going to happen though, right?
Well, actually, the ERA estimators kind of support it.
In fact, the FIP was even lower than 303 for Hayes-Sus-Lisardo.
So I think we can take those numbers at phase value.
And doing so, that very much looks like Jesus-Lus-Lus-Losardo is an ace.
So I know ranking of 16th might raise an eyebrow for some,
especially when you're comparing it to the full-season numbers.
But I'm coming about it honestly.
I really do think Luzardo has more of,
upside to offer than some of the names behind him that you're more familiar with,
like Logan Webb and Framber Valdez.
I did just want to mention with Webb and Valdez, who you have here, 17 and 18.
These rankings are for Roto.
If you look at Head to Ed Points Leagues, they are a little bit higher.
Logan Webb at 13, Framber Valdez at 14.
They are two pitchers in particular that excel in that format.
They throw a lot of innings.
They give you a lot of quality starts.
So keep that in mind if you play in a points league.
Let's take a quick break.
and we'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in FBT Express,
taking a look at Scott's top 24 starting pitchers
for next season, 19, 20, and 21.
You have Freddie Peralta, George Kirby,
and Tyler Glassnow.
Did just want to touch on Freddie Peralta here for a second.
People might be a little bit surprised
to see him at SP19.
He just finishes the top 10 starting pitcher
in fantasy this past season.
His value was boosted up by 17 wins,
and he kept the ERA and whipped down,
but he kind of overperformed based on his underlying numbers.
So I agree with where you rank Freddie Peralta.
I think you should expect closer to the pitcher we've seen before.
A very good one, but not a top 10 or top 12 starting pitcher.
No.
All the underlying indicators were about the same as always.
The strike rate about the same.
The walk rate about the same.
Vulnerability to home runs about the same.
His ERA was a run better.
than it normally is, a full run better.
And I think that's just, I think it's a fluke.
I think it's a fluke.
And so you're going to get burned if you draft Freddie Peralta expecting an ERA below three again
or even in the low threes.
That's just not, like the other numbers don't support that.
And the track record doesn't support that.
And it's really as simple as that.
I think he's a fine number two option,
particularly if your priority is strikeouts.
but be careful not to overvalue Freddie Peralta.
I do like George Kirby in this range too as your SP20.
He dealt with some injuries last year and some inconsistency,
but perhaps that was caused by him missing time.
I still expect him to be closer to the pitcher he was in previous years,
and if he does that, he could perform like a high NSP2, low NSP1.
So I actually think there's some kind of early profit potential based on
where I'm seeing Kirby in early 80P.
Is he going much later than this?
He's going around here, I think, like around SP 20-ish,
but I think he could actually perform better than that.
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, just if you have any memory at all,
if you can remember past seasons how we valued players
and not just look at how we're valuing them right now,
then it kind of goes without saying this is good value for Kirby.
Now, there's a reason he dropped
because obviously the season was pretty disappointing overall 421 ERA, not great.
He still had two 14 strikeout efforts, so we know the upside is there.
And, you know, he missed time early on with shoulder soreness,
and a lot of times that can have just a lasting effect on a pitcher's entire season
and an early injury like that.
Maybe he never felt quite right.
Maybe he got a little too cute with his pitch selection.
he's still young, he still has the talent,
he has enough of a track record that we can trust
that he'll probably set things right in 2026.
And 22 through 24, you have Kyle Bradish,
Yuri Perez, and Dylan Sees.
People might be surprised to see Bradish
and Perez as high.
Bradish was incredible in a small sample size,
Yuri Perez, a former top pitching prospect.
I actually agree with both of them being here.
Bradish in particular,
I get that it was only six starts, but 13K per 9 and a 14.6% swinging strike rate,
he looked incredible in that small sample.
If anything, I'm worried to have Bradish too low.
Like if somebody wanted to say, no, Jesus Luzardo shouldn't be your number 16 because
Kyle Bradish should be.
I wouldn't argue against it too much.
With Dylan C's free age of this offseason, his, you know, ERA and WIP were a huge
let down. He kind of has this on again, off again thing.
We'll see how teams
treat him in free agency, but
he, on the surface, looks like
one of the most unlucky pitchers from this
past season. Yeah,
it's been a frustrating
experience, a roller coaster ride
with Dylan Cease. And
the thing is,
the year-to-year inconsistency,
in the underlying
numbers, if you're just, you're just
looking beyond ERA and the ups down's there,
The underlying numbers, the biggest difference in the ups and downs is the Babbitt.
It's up in his bad years.
It's down in his good years.
And that is at least in principle, something he hasn't, he doesn't have direct control over.
Now, BAPIP has kind of fallen out of favor as an analytical tool because we know
quality of contact has a lot to do with Babbitt.
But that hasn't risen and fallen too much with Cs.
It's really just the bad Bip himself.
So now he's entering the free agent market.
Might that mean defense will go a long way,
whatever defense he lands with to predicting his future outcomes?
Maybe.
But he's also one of the best bat messers in the game.
And that's obviously a defensive independent skills.
So better defense will help.
I'm not sure.
it totally predicts CES' future and maybe some of it is just happenstance.
But we know he's capable of being a true ace in fantasy.
He's done it a couple times.
So this is the year to buy on him when nobody is valuing Dylan Cese as such.
All right.
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