shane-mcclanahan.jpg

Tiers are an alternate form of rankings that stresses the big picture rather than parsing the details. Alike players are grouped together at each position, thereby denoting the biggest drop-offs within the rankings. This way, you can control for position scarcity in the heat of the draft. The position nearing a drop-off is generally the one you'll want to target.

Below are the starting pitcher tiers for 2023, which depict a fairly even distribution of talent. The sharp divide between the haves and have-nots that defined the juiced ball era is no more.

For a deeper look at the position, check out Scott's SP strategies.

The Elite: Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Corbin Burnes, Sandy Alcantara, Gerrit Cole, Jacob deGrom, Shane McClanahan
The Near-Elite: Brandon Woodruff, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Carlos Rodon, Spencer Strider*, Shane Bieber, Alek Manoah, Dylan Cease, Shohei Ohtani, Julio Urias, Max Fried
The Next-Best Things: Luis Castillo, Zac Gallen, Kevin Gausman, Yu Darvish, Framber Valdez, Joe Musgrove, Robbie Ray, Cristian Javier, Triston McKenzie, Tyler Glasnow, Logan Gilbert, Logan Webb
The Fallback Options: Nestor Cortes, George Kirby, Kyle Wright, Lance Lynn, Clayton Kershaw, Blake Snell, Luis Severino, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Jesus Luzardo, Nick Lodolo, Hunter Greene, Chris Sale, Charlie Morton, Kodai Senga, Freddy Peralta, Jeffrey Springs, Joe Ryan, Chris Bassitt
The Last Resorts: Pablo Lopez, Grayson Rodriguez, Jose Berrios, Lucas Giolito, Jack Flaherty, Lance McCullers, Merrill Kelly, Miles Mikolas, Luis Garcia, Drew Rasmussen, Tyler Anderson, Martin Perez, Reid Detmers, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney, Jordan Montgomery
The Deep-Leaguers: Patrick Sandoval, Trevor Rogers, Noah Syndergaard, Brady Singer, Jose Urquidy, Tyler Mahle, Nathan Eovaldi, Cal Quantrill, Alex Cobb, Carlos Carrasco, Edward Cabrera, Sonny Gray, Marcus Stroman, Ranger Suarez, Michael Kopech, Mike Soroka, James Paxton, MacKenzie Gore, Hunter Brown*, Andrew Painter, Drey Jameson, Justin Steele, Bailey Ober, Brayan Bello, Braxton Garrett, Sean Manaea, Taijuan Walker, Jameson Taillon, Ross Stripling, Jose Quintana, Garrett Whitlock*, Kenta Maeda
The Leftovers: Cody Morris, Brandon Pfaadt, Adam Wainwright, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jose Suarez, Eric Lauer, Cole Irvin, Zach Eflin, Ken Waldichuk, Michael Wacha, Tarik Skubal, John Means, Hayden Wesneski, Roansy Contreras, Ryne Nelson, Bailey Falter, Josiah Gray, Anthony DeSclafani, Aaron Civale, Mike Clevinger, Steven Matz, Alex Wood, Kyle Bradish, Ryan Pepiot, Graham Ashcraft, German Marquez, Mitch Keller, Cade Cavalli, Aaron Ashby, Marco Gonzales, Luis Ortiz, Daniel Lynch

* RP-eligible