2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: Starting Pitcher Tiers 2.0

Want to get a jump on the competition? Go to the CBS Sports app on your phone, open up “Settings” and sign up for Fantasy alerts to get the latest from our Fantasy baseball team as soon as it’s available.

Tiers 2.0: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

Tiers, for the uninitiated, are an alternate form of rankings that groups players by expected level of production. While it’s true every player is expected to produce less than the player ranked ahead of him, there are points in the rankings where the drop-off in expected production is more significant. And at those points, a new tier begins.

The goal is to give you a clear depiction of the distribution of talent at each position so that, in the heat of a draft, you can determine at a glance which position is the ideal one to target. Naturally, the one closest to dropping into the next tier is the one you’ll regret having passed up a round later.

Below are the starting pitcher tiers for 2019. They depict a position where the choices become harder to distinguish the further down the rankings you go. 

The Super Elite: Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Jacob deGrom, Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander
The Elite: Blake Snell, Aaron Nola, Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Carrasco, Patrick Corbin, Zack Greinke
The Near-Elite: Walker Buehler, James Paxton, Stephen Strasburg, German Marquez, Mike Clevinger
The Next-Best Things: Jack Flaherty, Clayton Kershaw, Chris Archer, Jameson Taillon, Jose Berrios, Madison Bumgarner, David Price, Miles Mikolas, Masahiro Tanaka, Mike Foltynewicz, Zack Wheeler, Luis Castillo, Charlie Morton, Yu Darvish
The Fallback Options: Carlos Martinez*, Cole Hamels, J.A. Happ, Dallas Keuchel, Rick Porcello, Robbie Ray, Yusei Kikuchi, Tyler Glasnow*, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney, Collin McHugh*, Tyler Skaggs, Nick Pivetta, Kenta Maeda*, Alex Reyes, Jose Quintana, Eduardo Rodriguez
The Last Resorts: Joe Musgrove, Kyle Freeland, Kyle Hendricks, Nathan Eovaldi, Alex Wood, Shane Bieber, Jon Lester, Rich Hill, Josh James, Marco Gonzales, Kyle Gibson, Jake Arrieta, Zach Eflin, Jesus Luzardo, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Brandon Woodruff*, Zack Godley, Sean Newcomb, Sonny Gray
The Deep-Leaguers: Jimmy Nelson, Marcus Stroman, Carlos Rodon, Reynaldo Lopez, Dylan Bundy, Ross Stripling*, Vince Velasquez, Kevin Gausman, Jake Junis, Steven Matz, Julio Teheran, Michael Wacha, Michael Fulmer, Brad Keller*, Joey Lucchesi, Forrest Whitley, Ryan Yarbrough*, Wade Miley, Mike Minor, Luke Weaver, Michael Pineda
The Leftovers: Trevor Richards, Trevor Williams, Dereck Rodriguez, Anibal Sanchez, Tanner Roark, Matthew Boyd, Mike Fiers, Yonny Chirinos*, CC Sabathia, Derek Holland, Tyler Anderson, Danny Duffy, Mike Soroka, Jeff Samardzija, Adam Wainwright, Sean Manaea, Jhoulys Chacin, Mike Leake, Touki Toussaint, Brent Honeywell, Chase Anderson, Lance Lynn, Matt Harvey, Aaron Sanchez, Trevor Cahill, Jose Urena, Jaime Barria, Jordan Lyles*, Tyson Ross, Lucas Giolito, Framber Valdez, Jake Odorizzi, Gio Gonzalez, Clay Buchholz, Freddy Peralta, Sean Reid-Foley, Max Fried

*: RP-eligible