Fantasy baseball starters #9: Dylan Cease
We’ve seen Dylan Cease’s potential for a few years now, but in 2022, he finally put it all together and had a dominant season. Cease made 32 starts and tossed 184 innings. He allowed 126 hits, 45 earned runs, 78 walks, and struck out 227 batters. His ERA is 2.20, his FIP was 3.10, his WHIP was 1.11, and his ERA+ was 180. The only issue was the walks, which led baseball, but since he doesn’t allow many hits (only 6.2 H/9), he was able to keep his WHIP down. If he can trim those walks down a bit, he can be even better.
Fantasy baseball starters #8: Shohei Ohtani
Obviously if I was ranking overall fantasy baseball players, he would be the easiest #1 pick ever, but I’m only looking at Shohei as a starter here. Last year was his best pitching season to date. He made 28 starts, tossed 166 innings, allowed 124 hits, 43 earned runs, 44 walks, and struck out 219 batters. His ERA was 2.33, his FIP was 2.40, his WHIP 1.01, and his ERA+ was 172. Factor in the offensive value he also brings, and you can’t go wrong with this guy.
Fantasy baseball starters #7: Aaron Nola
Aaron Nola had one of his best seasons in 2022. He made 32 starts and tossed 205 innings while allowing 168 hits, 74 earned runs, only 29 walks, and striking out 235 batters, good for a ridiculous K/BB of 8.10. His ERA was 3.25, his FIP was 2.58, his WHIP was 0.96, and his ERA+ was 125. He was hurt by the poor Phillies defense behind him, as you’ll see his ERA was 67 points higher than his FIP. In some ways, this was the best year of his career, and there’s no signs of him slowing down.