It’s time to turn our attention to the other side of the equation, run prevention. They are a fickle, volatile, injury prone bunch, but those are also the attributes that make it so fun (and easy-ish) to find underrated breakouts all over the place. Top 5 free on the Brick Wall. The Top 500 Prospects Rankings are dropping next week and the full Top 1,000 Dynasty Rankings will drop the week after that. But first, here is the Top 305 2025 Starting Pitcher Dynasty Baseball Rankings (Patreon):
CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY PATREON FOR THE REST OF THESE RANKS & TONS OF EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ALL OFF-SEASON, INCLUDING:
-A TOP 200 SNEAK PEEK OF THE 2025 TOP 1,000 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKS (full Top 1,000 coming soon)
-2025 DEEP DYNASTY POSITIONAL RANKS: Top 78 C–Top 83 1B–Top 98 2B–Top 109 3B–Top 154 SS–Top 260 OF-Top 305 SP
-TOP 146 2025 FYPD RANKS (+FYPD Target & Strategy Guide)
-TOP 100 2025 DYNASTY BASEBALL PROSPECT RANKS (full Top 500 coming soon)
-HALP’S DYNASTY BASEBALL PODCAST: END OF SEASON MAILBAG!
-SPREADSHEETS
Dynasty Team Reports on Patreon (free ones listed in parenthesis)
Atlanta Braves—Baltimore Orioles—Boston Red Sox (free)—Cincinnati Reds–Chicago Cubs (free)—Chicago White Sox—Cleveland Guardians—Detroit Tigers—Kansas City Royals—Los Angeles Angels—Los Angeles Dodgers (free)—Miami Marlins—Milwaukee Brewers (free)—Minnesota Twins—New York Mets (free)—New York Yankees (free)—Oakland Athletics—Philadelphia Phillies—Pittsburgh Pirates—San Diego Padres—Tampa Bay Rays—Texas Rangers—Toronto Blue Jays—Washington Nationals (free)
1) Paul Skenes – PIT, RHP, 22.10 – While this is far from the most impressive part of Skenes game, I’ve just been having a lot of fun diving into the new bat tracking data, and of course Skenes ranks towards the top of those leaderboards as well. The disparity amongst pitcher’s induced swing speed is obviously much less than the disparity between hitters, but I still find it interesting. Skenes had the 8th best swing speed against amongst qualified pitchers at 70.9 MPH. The only qualified starter to induce slower swings was Chris Sale, and Will Vest led of all baseball amongst qualified pitchers. That’s just the cherry on top of his elite profile. He throws a 6 pitch mix, and all of them range from above average to elite. His 94 MPH sinker was the most valuable sinker in baseball with a +18 run value. His 98.8 MPH 4-seamer notched a +6 run value, the curveball notched a +2, the sweeper was at +5, the changeup at +2, and while the slider was his only negative value pitch at -2, that was only because he got unlucky on the pitch with a .229 xwOBA. He combined that filth with plus command which led to a 1.96 ERA and 33.1/6.2 K%/BB% in 133 IP. He’s the easiest #1 dynasty pitcher in the game ranking I’ve ever made since … 2024. Spencer Strider was a damn easy call last off-season, and he’s a perfect example of the only thing that can go wrong, injuries. Pitchers break, and pitchers who throw upper 90’s seem to break even more. You can’t play scared, and you need good pitchers to win, but it’s why I can’t rank any pitcher higher than around Top 20-ish overall on the Dynasty Rankings. They are just inherently too risky. – 2025 Projection: 15/2.77/0.98/227 in 185 IP
2) Tarik Skubal – DET, LHP, 28.4 – I was all in on Skubal’s 80.1 IP explosion in 2023, ranking him 59th overall on the 2024 Top 1,000, and placing a futures bet on him to lead the league in strikeouts ($10 to win $800). He not only led all of baseball with 228 strikeouts, but he was also the #1 fantasy pitcher in the game with a 2.39 ERA and 30.3/4.6 K%/BB% in 192 IP. His 96.8 MPH fastball was up another tick from last year and was the 4th most valuable 4-seamer in the game. His changeup is elite with a 46.1% whiff%. His 96.6 MPH sinker was the 24th most valuable sinker in baseball. And his slider was above average. Tack on elite control and you have one of the very best pitchers in baseball. It really wouldn’t be crazy at all to have him above Skenes as the top dog. – 2025 Projection: 16/2.82/0.96/220 in 185 IP
3) Garrett Crochet – BOS, LHP, 25.9 – Paul Skenes is the no doubt #1 dynasty pitcher in the game. I’m not arguing that … buuuuuuuuuuuut … what if Crochet is actually better than him? He put up a better K% (35.1% vs. 33.1%), BB% (5.5% vs. 6.2%), Chase% (33.5% vs. 30.9%), and a much better whiff% (33.0% vs. 28.7%). His 97.2 MPH 4-seamer put up a 31.4% whiff% while Skenes’ 98.8 MPH 4-seamer put up a 24.2% whiff%. Crochet’s cutter put up a 32.7% whiff% while Skenes’ sinker notched a 29.3% whiff%. Crochet’s sweeper notched a 42.7% whiff% while Skenes’ sweeper notched a 22.6% whiff% and his curve notched a 33.7% whiff%. They are both beastly athletes. I described the 6’6”, 245 pound Crochet as a WWE Ballerina in my March Mailbag Podcast. With Chicago, he couldn’t touch Skenes in wins, but he’s in Boston now, and just judging who is the better pitcher, I wouldn’t be so sure the answer is Skenes. Now, Skenes dusted him on ERA (3.58 vs. 1.96), and even though their xERA’s were much much closer (2.83 vs. 2.50), I do think that matters. Crochet also has more of a track record of control problems than Skenes does. Like I said, Skenes is the undeniable #1 dynasty pitcher in the game … but maybe … he won’t be at the end of 2025. Crochet ranked 29th overall on the Top 200 Sneak Peek of the 2025 Top 1,000 Dynasty Baseball Rankings. – 2025 Projection: 15/3.03/1.03/230 in 170 IP
4) Logan Gilbert – SEA, RHP, 27.9 – While everyone was focused on George Kirby, waiting for Kirby to turn into a true ace, Gilbert was putting in the work in the shadows, and he emerged as the one to enter true ace territory in 2024. He put up a 3.23 ERA with a 27.4/4.6 K%/BB% in 208.2 IP. He led all of baseball in IP. His 31.7% whiff% is in elite territory for a starter, and his walk rate was in the top 5% of baseball. Elite control, swing and miss, and durability is a Teflon combination. And that isn’t even it. He throws gas with a 96.6 MPH fastball. His splitter is insanely elite with a 50.6% whiff% and .137 xwOBA. His most used pitch is a plus to double plus slider with a 36.8% whiff% and .264 xwOBA. And he has yet another plus secondary in his curve with a 35.4% whiff% and .210 xwOBA. He also throws a useful cutter, giving him a very diverse pitch mix. He straight up doesn’t have a flaw. He has a very very real case to be the top fantasy pitcher and the game, and also possibly the top dynasty pitcher in the game. – 2025 Projection: 15/3.18/0.98/209 in 200 IP
5) Roki Sasaki LAD, RHP, 23.5 – Sasaki and his people pulled whatever back room deals that needed to be pulled and got him coming stateside this season, which is insanely exciting, because there is little doubt that he will be a true ace right from the get go, and possibly the best pitcher in all the land. He’s better than Yamamoto, and you saw Yamamoto’s seamless transition, other than the shoulder injury. But that injury might have pushed LA to a six man rotation, which works just fine for Sasaki. His fastball sits in the upper 90’s and regularly hits over 100 MPH. The splitter is truly elite and the slider is plus. He has prototypical size at a projectable and athletic 6’2”, 187 pounds, and he has plus control/command of his stuff. He’s been so insanely dominant in Japan that he has basically already hit legend status with so many crazy feats, and he’s only 23 years old. He put up a 2.35 ERA with a 28.7/7.1 K%/BB% in 111 IP this year. He was even better in 2023 with a 1.78 ERA and 39.1%/4.9% K%/BB% in 91 IP. As you can see, the biggest and only red flag is injuries, as he has a career high of 129.1 IP. He battled an oblique injury in 2023 and right arm discomfort in 2024. The right arm discomfort is particularly concerning because his stuff was actually down a tick or two this year. It was still beastly, but would any of us be surprised if Tommy John/internal brace surgery was right around the corner? You can’t be too scared off by that, because even if he needs it, he should still return as an ace. He’s so easily the top pick in First Year Player Drafts, and he has a very real argument to be the top dynasty pitcher in the game. – 2025 Projection: 12/3.06/1.04/175 in 150 IP Prime Projection: 16/2.72/0.92/240 in 185 IP
CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY PATREON FOR THE REST OF THESE RANKS & TONS OF EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ALL OFF-SEASON, INCLUDING:
-A TOP 200 SNEAK PEEK OF THE 2025 TOP 1,000 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKS (full Top 1,000 coming soon)
-2025 DEEP DYNASTY POSITIONAL RANKS: Top 78 C–Top 83 1B–Top 98 2B–Top 109 3B–Top 154 SS–Top 260 OF–Top 305 SP
-TOP 146 2025 FYPD RANKS (+FYPD Target & Strategy Guide)
-TOP 100 2025 DYNASTY BASEBALL PROSPECT RANKS (full Top 500 coming soon)
-HALP’S DYNASTY BASEBALL PODCAST: END OF SEASON MAILBAG!
-SPREADSHEETS
Dynasty Team Reports on Patreon (free ones listed in parenthesis)
Atlanta Braves—Baltimore Orioles—Boston Red Sox (free)—Cincinnati Reds–Chicago Cubs (free)—Chicago White Sox—Cleveland Guardians—Detroit Tigers—Kansas City Royals—Los Angeles Angels—Los Angeles Dodgers (free)—Miami Marlins—Milwaukee Brewers (free)—Minnesota Twins—New York Mets (free)—New York Yankees (free)—Oakland Athletics—Philadelphia Phillies—Pittsburgh Pirates—San Diego Padres—Tampa Bay Rays—Texas Rangers—Toronto Blue Jays—Washington Nationals (free)
By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@DynastyHalp)
Blue Sky: Dynasty Halp (@ImaginaryBrickWall)