Fantasy baseball 2020 tiered starting pitcher rankings

Starting pitching is deep by quantity but for fantasy baseball, the quality may not be there after the first two tiers.

The first of the two pitcher rankings went through a lot of changes since I started. With the injuries and now the delay to the start of the 2020 season, I had to adjust some of the tiers. For fantasy baseball owners, locking down your rotation with a starting pitcher from one of the top two tiers is important.

If you look at the skill level of the pitchers in the top two tiers and then the other six tiers, there is a significant drop off. The top-15 pitchers have the ability to help owners in four of the five major pitching categories. The next 15 or 20 could help in three of the five while the rest may be one or two-category pitchers.

With batters hitting more home runs than ever, pitchers’ ERAs are skyrocketing. The league average ERA last season was 4.49. The average ERA in 2014 was 3.74, almost a run lower. However, strikeouts have also increased. In 2014, the average per team was 1248. Last season, it was 1427, over 150 more per team.

What that means is the top pitchers are still doing their jobs in limiting the big hits and racking up the strikeouts while the lower-end arms are getting rocked. That limits the number of reliable options in most leagues.

Your rankings may change depending on what categories you use in your league. Some pitchers may rank higher if you use quality starts instead of wins, especially those on bad teams. But, with managers quick to pull their starter out of the game, how many pitchers will consistently pitch at least six innings?

This rankings list features the top-70 starting pitchers broken up into eight tiers for fantasy baseball this season. They all have some sort of value based on your league, but it’s important for you to know what that value is and where to draft them in order to have the best team.