Fantasy Baseball Draft Rankings & Advice: Starting Pitchers (2023)
The 2023 fantasy baseball season will be here before we know it. That means it’s time for you to prepare for your fantasy baseball drafts. Beyond our draft prep articles and mock draft simulator, we will have you covered with 2023 fantasy baseball rankings. You can find our updated 2023 fantasy baseball expert consensus rankings here. And below you’ll find rankings from our analysts to help you prepare for the 2023 fantasy baseball season.
Fantasy Baseball Draft Rankings: Starting Pitchers
Fantasy Baseball Player Notes
Julio Urias ended the 2022 season with a shiny 2.16 ERA, but this belies some concerning underlying numbers that pushed his xFIP to 3.81. The 26-year-old benefited from an excellent defense and an unsustainable .229 BABIP, while his HR/9 went up to 1.2. Those are the negatives. On the positive side, his spin rates are still above the 90th percentile, and he threw 175 innings, taking the ball every fifth day like clockwork. For 5×5 leagues, Urias finished third in the majors with 17 wins last year, and while it’s not great to chase that category, he seems a safe bet to do well in it. Draft him expecting some regression, but he is still a very good pitcher on a behemoth of a team with a great defense.
The Blue Jays took the training wheels off Alek Manoah, and he responded with 196 2/3 innings of ace-level pitching. His K/9 rate dipped to 8.24, but his BB/9 improved from 3.22 to 2.33. The concern is that his 2.24 ERA was well below his xERA of 3.31 and xFIP of 3.97. Manoah collected 16 wins and, while we can’t predict those very well, he did pitch over 6 innings on average, making him a solid pick in QS leagues as well. He is still only 25 years old and should be a durable righty on fantasy staffs in 2023.
Joe Musgrove has been a picture of pitching consistency over the past two seasons, with his stats almost eerily similar. His strikeouts were down, but so were his walks and ERA. He had identical WHIPs of 1.08 and has started more than 30 games in four of the past five seasons (excluding 2020). Drafting the 30-year-old is a smart idea if you pick an SP1 with more upside (and more risk) because you know what you’re going to get. With a stacked Padres lineup and a propensity to collect quality starts, Musgrove checks all the boxes for one of the highest floors in the 2023 SP pool.
Beyond our fantasy baseball content, be sure to check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Baseball Tools as you prepare for your draft this season. From our free mock Draft Simulator – which allows you to mock draft against realistic opponents – to our Draft Assistant – that optimizes your picks with expert advice – we’ve got you covered this fantasy baseball draft season.
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