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2012 Fantasy Baseball: Starting Pitcher Rankings

Athlon Sports' updated consensus fantasy rankings reveal plenty of starting pitching to go around

By: Athlon Sports | 3/30/12, 9:30 AM EDT

Athlon Sports' updated consensus fantasy rankings reveal plenty of starting pitching to go around

Opening Day is next week and Athlon Sports has all the fantasy baseball rankings you need to get ready for the upcoming season.

Athlon Sports has combined nine fantasy baseball big boards from around the web to compile an updated consensus Top 200 as well as positional breakdowns.

There's a new No. 1 atop the starting pitching depth chart as Roy Halladay edged out Clayton Kershaw in the updated rankings. They are followed by fellow Cy Young winners Justin Verlander, Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez, who rounds out the award-winning top 5. The rest of the top 10 is the same except for the No. 10 spot as Dan Haren replaces David Price.

Outside of the top 10, most of the movement was related to position in the Top 200 as there wasn't a lot of change in the starting pitching rankings themselves. Some of the biggest risers in the Top 200 included Adam Wainwright (No. 100, up from No. 110), who looks to be progressing well in his comeback from Tommy John surgery, Ubaldo Jimenez (No. 147, up from No. 158), and Jeremy Hellickson (No. 156, up from No. 172), last year's AL Rookie of the Year.

Some of the fallers included Ian Kennedy (No. 78, down from No. 63), Tommy Hanson (No. 92, down from No. 82), Michael Pineda (No. 95, down from No. 85), and Tim Hudson (No. 168, down from No. 133).

Hudson's decline is health-related, as he is recovering from offseason back surgery and another pitcher to watch along those lines is Chris Carpenter (No. 124 overall). Carpenter has been dealing with nerve issues in his neck and shoulder during spring training. He will certainly not be ready by Opening Day, and he could be out until late May or early June, if not longer.

Further down the rankings, the pitchers who made large jumps to break into the Top 200 were Ted Lilly, Brandon Morrow, Brandon McCarthy and Chris Sale.

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Rank – Position ranking
OVR – Overall ranking on The Big Board
LR — Last Ranked, where player was ranked on The Big Board that was published on Feb. 20, 2012
NR — Not Ranked, means player did not appear on The Big Board that was published on Feb. 20, 2012

AS – Athlon Sports (updated 3/19/12)
CBS – CBSSportsline.com (as of 3/16/12)
ESPN – (updated 3/13/12)
FOX – FOXSports.com (updated 3/7/12)
MLB – MLB.com (as of 3/15/12)
RC – RotoChamp.com (updated 3/18/12)
RS – RotoSummit.com (updated 2/27/12)
USA — USAToday.com (updated 2/13/12)
Y! – Yahoo! Sports (updated 2/24/12)*

*Yahoo! ranked only 120 players on their list, while Athlon's Big Board contains 200. The aggregated scores of the other eight big boards were used to extrapolate Yahoo!’s rankings to 200 players.

Athlon Sports Fantasy Rankings: Big Board | C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

Rank OVR LR Player Team Pos AS CBS ESPN FOX MLB RC RS USA Y!
1 13 12 Roy Halladay PHI SP 10 6 12 19 23 10 12 22 18
2 14 11 Clayton Kershaw LAD SP 9 7 20 13 19 8 22 21 15
3 16 13 Justin Verlander DET SP 8 10 17 17 22 17 21 17 16
4 20 19 Cliff Lee PHI SP 20 11 22 21 27 14 24 26 24
5 25 23 Felix Hernandez SEA SP 24 21 28 28 28 31 32 35 30
6 27 26 Jered Weaver LAA SP 15 25 31 38 33 25 39 45 35
7 29 28 Tim Lincecum SF SP 25 27 32 32 30 51 42 32 28
8 31 31 CC Sabathia NYY SP 67 22 43 25 38 28 31 33 31
9 33 27 Cole Hamels PHI SP 23 24 39 40 31 46 36 66 32
10 41 37 Dan Haren LAA SP 47 31 41 61 41 65 34 46 49
11 42 35 David Price TB SP 21 34 53 48 47 56 54 53 50
12 43 41 Zack Greinke MIL SP 66 28 48 57 46 55 50 44 40
13 51 46 Matt Cain SF SP 37 70 61 73 48 36 59 77 54
14 56 50 Jon Lester BOS SP 49 50 56 55 61 98 78 62 58
15 58 55 Stephen Strasburg WAS SP 35 58 75 84 81 20 68 108 57
16 60 60 Yovani Gallardo MIL SP 54 40 65 85 58 90 92 48 59
17 68 62 James Sheilds TB SP 76 36 64 78 72 103 62 72 81
18 72 75 Madison Bumgarner SF SP 46 49 79 94 67 72 88 87 80
19 73 70 C.J. Wilson LAA SP 101 61 68 70 51 69 75 80 88
20 78 63 Ian Kennedy ARI SP 90 35 72 86 76 70 69 122 79
21 88 91 Mat Latos CIN SP 111 47 94 103 62 104 84 119 100
22 92 82 Tommy Hanson ATL SP 77 62 116 131 80 68 86 142 97
23 93 95 Josh Johnson MIA SP 53 59 128 124 91 66 108 132 101
24 94 96 Daniel Hudson ARI SP 109 63 85 109 89 116 99 94 102
25 95 85 Michael Pineda NYY SP 91 60 96 116 105 74 101 116 116
26 97 103 Matt Garza CHI SP 114 71 101 119 93 107 109 86 104
27 100 110 Adam Wainwright STL SP 78 64 97 143 126 89 100 134 99
28 101 99 Ricky Romero TOR SP 65 82 81 90 118 134 113 127 124
29 107 100 Josh Beckett BOS SP 75 51 108 121 107 145 119 128 126
30 111 105 Yu Darvish TEX SP 108 80 124 186 148 76 105 129 87
31 119 117 Brandon Beachy ATL SP 123 81 123 137 132 80 137 165 110
32 124 122 Chris Carpenter STL SP 132 136 103 114 100 - 97 159 133
33 126 124 Gio Gonzalez WAS SP 118 73 132 115 160 - 125 161 109
34 134 135 Cory Luebke SD SP/RP 144 135 130 174 134 67 136 177 137
35 136 131 Jordan Zimmerman WAS SP 131 115 110 184 138 - 122 125 139
36 137 134 Anibal Sanchez MIA SP 134 96 137 173 137 125 133 191 141
37 144 138 Johnny Cueto CIN SP 87 162 151 134 180 163 152 149 152
38 147 158 Ubaldo Jimanez CLE SP 151 121 105 141 158 - 140 174 144
39 150 145 Shaun Marcum MIL SP 147 186 122 - 114 142 129 179 148
40 156 172 Jeremy Hellickson TB SP 160 164 91 165 164 - 161 156 158
41 164 166 Doug Fister DET SP 174 175 144 196 163 108 148 - 163
42 168 133 Tim Hudson ATL SP 133 189 139 132 - 179 174 - 166
43 169 181 Jaime Garcia STL SP 199 163 154 139 179 144 180 183 180
44 173 173 Max Scherzer DET SP 190 188 134 185 130 - 178 171 169
45 181 206 Ted Lilly LAD SP 191 - 164 - 159 151 147 - 192
46 183 191 Hiroki Kuroda NYY SP 193 174 147 - - 170 150 196 193
47 184 152 Ervin Santana LAA SP 148 - 161 156 - - 176 187 197
48 187 NR Brandon Morrow TOR SP - 176 170 154 161 - 198 175 -
49 189 184 Wandy Rodriguez HOU SP - 137 166 199 194 185 184 189 186
50 193 197 Justin Masterson CLE SP - 158 159 153 - - 200 - -
51 194 214 Brandon McCarthy OAK SP 170 200 179 188 - 147 - - 189
52 198 204 Chris Sale CHW SP 183 - 177 - - 143 199 - 187
53 205 199 Jhoulys Chacin COL SP - 178 - - 146 - 185 - 194
54 206 NR Colby Lewis TEX SP - 173 173 - 184 - 173 - -
55 208 195 Scott Baker MIN SP - - 157 - 165 - 187 - -
56 211 215 Vance Worley PHI SP 184 177 - - - 157 - - -
57 212 209 Clay Buchholz BOS SP 195 165 187 193 - - - 181 -
58 224 NR Derek Holland TEX SP - 190 - 191 - - 193 185 -
59 228 208 Jair Jurrjens ATL SP 197 - - 166 - - - - -
60 234 NR Bud Norris HOU SP - - 198 - 170 - - - -
61 239 NR Chad Billingsley LAD SP - - - 175 197 - - - -
62 242 NR Tim Stauffer SD SP - - 181 - - 194 - - -
63 244 218 Roy Oswalt SP 179 - - - - - - - -
64 245 217 Alexi Ogando TEX SP 180 - - - - - - - -
65 246 210 Trevor Cahill ARI SP - 180 - - - - - - -
66 252 NR John Danks CHW SP - 199 - - 195 - 196 - -
67 257 NR Gavin Floyd CHW SP - - 193 - - - - - -
68 260 NR Mike Minor ATL SP - - 195 - - - - - -
69 262 NR Henderson Alvarez TOR SP - - - - - 196 - - -

— By Mark Ross, updated on March 30, 2012

Other Fantasy Baseball Content:

2012 Fantasy Baseball: First Base Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Second Base Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Shortstop Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Third Base Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Outfield Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Catcher Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Starting Pitcher Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Relief Pitcher Rankings
2012 MLB Fantasy Closer Grid
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Infield
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Outfield
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Starting Pitching
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Closers
Fantasy Baseball Studs to Avoid in 2012
2012 Fantasy Baseball Deep Sleepers

For more fantasy baseball help, visit our friends at the Fantasy Baseball Hub.

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