It’s time we turn our attention to the Frankenstein’s monsters of the baseball world. Starting pitchers. They have hamstring tendons in their elbows, internal braces, sutures holding their shoulders together, their nerves cut and sewed back together, numb fingers, bleeding blisters, huge scars … you name it, they got it. But these warriors do it all for the love of the game …. and millions and millions of dollars. It’s what makes them the most volatile, nightmare group to bank on for fantasy, but it’s also what allows you find underrated breakouts all over the place, both during the off-season and on the waiver wire. I’ll be going over 300 deep. Top 11 free here on the Brick Wall. Next week on the Patreon I will drop the Top 500 Prospects Rankings, along with Relief Pitcher Rankings Week. Then it’s the big dog, the Top 1,000 Rankings. But first, here is the 2026 Positional Dynasty Baseball Rankings: Top 300+ Starting Pitchers:

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 2026 TOP 1,000 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKINGS (full Top 1,000 coming soon)
-TOP 100 2026 DYNASTY FANTASY BASEBALL PROSEPCTS RANKS (a Top 500 coming soon)
–2026 DEEP POSITIONAL RANKS: Top 80 C–Top 91 1B–Top 97 2B–Top 101 3B–Top 161 SS–Top 288 OF–Top 300+ SP
-TOP 161 2026 FIRST YEAR PLAYER DRAFT RANKS
–2026 FYPD TARGET & STRATEGY GUIDE
-HALP’S DYNASTY BASEBALL PODCAST: END OF SEASON MAILBAG!
–SPREADSHEETS
-Plus so much more coming like Position by Position Targets, Predicting Future Prospect Lists, Top 10 2027 FYPD Rankings, Spring Training Rundowns …

Previous Dynasty Team Reports on Patreon (free ones listed in parenthesis)

Arizona Diamondbacks—Atlanta Braves—Baltimore Orioles—Boston Red Sox (free)—Chicago Cubs (free)—Cincinnati Reds (free)—Cleveland Guardians—Colorado Rockies—Detroit Tigers—Houston Astros—Kansas City Royals—Los Angeles Angels—Los Angeles Dodgers (free)—Miami Marlins—Milwaukee Brewers—Minnesota Twins—New York Yankees (free)—Pittsburgh Pirates (free)—Sacramento Athletics—Seattle Mariners—St. Louis Cardinals (free)—Tampa Bay Rays—Texas Rangers—Toronto Blue Jays—Washington Nationals

1) Garrett Crochet – BOS, LHP, 26.10 – There is a clear 3-headed monster in the true top tier of dynasty pitchers, and all 3 have great arguments to be the #1 overall dynasty pitcher in the game, but only one of them can take the crown, and I’m anointing a new King this off-season. Garrett Crochet is my #1 dynasty pitcher in the game. It feels to weird to say because he’s likely the worst pitcher of the 3 on skills alone. Worse being relative as he’s still insanely elite with a 2.59 ERA and 31.3/5.7 K%/BB% in 205.1 IP. He was the #1 overall pitcher on the Razzball Player Rater. His 255 strikeouts led all of baseball. He pitched the 2nd most innings in baseball behind only Logan Webb. He won the 2nd most games behind only Max Fried and tied with Carlos Rodon. And his 25.7% K-BB% was 2nd to Tarik Skubal. Even if he’s very, very, very slightly worse than Skubal and Skenes on skills alone, he has Skenes beat on Win potential (and probably Skubal too), and he has Skubal beat on age (I talk more about age in the Skenes blurb). I could pick any of the 3 out of hat and be fine with that order, but Crochet seems to be in that perfect Goldilocks zone of young, elite, and on a good team. Skubal and Skenes can’t fully check all 3 of those boxes like Crochet can. – 2026 Projection: 17/2.88/1.05/246 in 195 IP

2) Paul Skenes – PIT, RHP, 23.10 – Playing for Pitt kills Skenes’ in wins. Pitt scored 583 Runs which was last in baseball, and the only other team even close to them was Colorado at 597 (absolutely wild that it’s even possible for Colorado to be that bad playing in Coors). The guy put up a 1.97 ERA with a 29.5/5.7 K%/BB% in 187.2 IP and won only 10 games. Pitt made offensive additions this off-season, Konnor Griffin is coming, and Pitt has nowhere to go but up, but it’s still a major thorn in his fantasy value. On almost any other team, he would be the undisputed top dog, and in Quality Start leagues, he would be my top dog, but in Wins leagues, it has to be taken into account. Crochet and Skenes are close enough in age, and Crochet is elite enough himself, where I do give the edge to Crochet. But I just can’t seem to bring myself to say that I would trade a 23 year old Skenes for a 29 year old Skubal in dynasty, even though Skubal is the better win now fantasy pitcher. Skenes nestles inbetween Crochet and Skubal at #2. – 2026 Projection: 13/2.55/0.99/238 in 195 IP

3) Tarik Skubal – DET, LHP, 29.5 – Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball. He’s #1 for me in redraft. He’s better than Crochet and Skenes. His 27.8 K-BB% led all of baseball amongst qualified starters. His 32.2% K% led all of baseball. His 0.89 WHIP led all of baseball. His 4.4% BB% trailed only Zack Littell. His 2.21 ERA trailed only Paul Skenes. He trailed Garrett Crochet by only 1 spot on the player rater, and that was in a year where Crochet won 5 more games than him, and we know wins are fickle. He’s in his last year of team control for Detroit, so wherever he ends up landing, it’s almost certain to be a good team. Wins shouldn’t be a problem. There is a great argument that at a not old 29, and considering age shouldn’t be factored in as much for pitchers due to the injury volatility, that he should be the #1 dynasty pitcher in the game. I wouldn’t argue with anyone that puts him first. I was honestly tearing the hair out of my head trying to figure out the right order. – 2026 Projection: 15/2.51/0.94/242 in 195 IP

4) Yoshinobu Yamamoto – LAD, RHP, 27.7 – How the hell am I supposed to remain objective after the legendary playoff and World Series performance from Yamamoto? I am a mere mortal, and while I was pulling hard for Toronto, Yamamoto’s heroics couldn’t help but pull me in. I originally had Yamamoto as the 7th overall pitcher in the End of Season Rankings, but he’s now moving up to my 4th overall pitcher. After the Big 3, is there anyone else you would want to give the ball to in a big game than Yamamoto right now? It seems crazy to even think of saying any other pitcher but Yamamoto for this 4th spot. And it’s not like it’s just emotions. He had a strong case for it anyway with a 2.49 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, and a 29.4/8.6 K%/BB% in 173.2 IP (1.45 ERA with a 22.9/4.2 K%/BB% in 37.1 IP in the playoffs). The 95.4 MPH 4-seamer is elite with a +17 Run Value, the splitter is devastating with a .193 xwOBA and 42.1% whiff%, and the curve is plus with a 36.7% whiff%. The cutter, sinker, and slider are all good pitches too. The annoying, party pooper, Debbie Downer side of me is saying maybe the long season, the career high 211 IP, and the pitching on back to back games will create a hangover effect in 2026, or even worse, gasp, and injury, but trying to predict which pitchers are going to get hurt year to year is mostly a crapshoot. I’ve long since stopped trying to predict it. I can’t give the ball to anyone else but Yamamoto right now with the 4th pitcher spot in Dynasty. – 2026 Projection: 14/2.91/1.02/204 in 175 IP

5) Logan Gilbert – SEA, RHP, 28.11 – We all know the Big 3 are the top dogs in both dynasty and redraft, however you want to order them (Crochet, Skenes, Skubal for me in dynasty and Skubal, Crochet, Skenes for me in redraft), but there is a hellacious tier right under them that is nipping at their heels. I originally had Gilbert leading that 2nd tier, but Yamamoto’s World Series heroics just couldn’t be denied. Maybe I’m a sucker. Maybe I’m a prisoner of the moment. But there is no shame in being the 5th dynasty pitcher in the game. Gilbert has a very elite 32.3/5.8 K%/BB% and 32.9% whiff% in 131 IP. The 95.4 MPH fastball is elite with a +10 Run Value, the control is elite, and he has 3 bat missing secondaries in his slider (34.5% whiff%), splitter (50.4% whiff%), and curve (38.6% whiff%). The only that is holding him back from actually entering the truly elite tier, is that he’s got a homer problem. He throws the ball over the plate and challenges guys to hit it, and in Seattle, they can’t, but on the road, they can. He put up a 2.24 ERA with 8 homers at home vs. a 4.74 ERA with 12 homers on the road. Seattle knows how to develop pitchers to thrive in their ballpark, but it can hurt them on the road. That homer flaw is what keeps him in Tier 2. – 2026 Projection: 14/3.29/1.04/226 in 185 IP

6) Hunter Brown – HOU, RHP, 27.7 – Brown’s 28.3/7.8 K%/BB% and 27.8% whiff% are excellent, but they aren’t in that truly elite of the elite tier to really make it all that tempting to elevate him to the 3 headed dragon tier (Crochet/Skenes/Skubal). I would say he had a huge 2025 breakout, but the truth is the breakout started in May/June of 2024 (he put up a 2.46 ERA with a 26.1/7.3 K%/BB% in his final 142.2 IP that year), and he just carried it over fully into 2025 with a 2.43 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and a 28.3/7.8 K%/BB% in 185.1 IP. The 96.6 MPH fastball is elite with a 28.8% whiff% and +17 Run Value. He has a wipeout secondary in the curve with a 39.2% whiff%. The changeup is solid with a +2 Run Value. And the sinker induces weak contact like crazy with a 78.6 EV against. He also mixes in a cutter and slider. There is no doubt he is a true ace, I’m just not ready to say he’s a true talent mid 2’s ERA guy. I trust the 3.11 xERA a tad more. – 2026 Projection: 14/3.08/1.06/207 in 185 IP

7) Hunter Greene – CIN, RHP, 26.8 – I nailed Greene’s ace breakout in 2024, calling him a major target, and then I doubled down in 2025, predicting that wasn’t even the peak. Who else predicts a random jump in control but me? Greene had a 9% BB% in 2022, a 9.6% BB% in 2023, and a 9.3% BB% in 2024, and I looked at that and said, you know what, I’m smelling improvement coming, writing in his Top 1,000 blurb last off-season, “His control/command remained below average, but I still think there is another level in here as he stays healthy and gains more experience. I don’t even think this is the peak, assuming he stays healthy, which who knows there honestly (he missed time with elbow inflammation this year). Greene had the ace breakout I knew was coming, and I’m going to continue to buy high.” … and then he went out in 2025 and proved me prescient with that huge jump in control I saw coming, putting up a 6.2% BB%. It wasn’t a “random” prediction of course. It was me betting on his athleticism and work ethic, and it resulted in the cementation of true ace status with a 2.76 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and a 31.4/6.2 K%/BB% in 107.2 IP. The 99.5 MPH 4-seamer put up a +20 Run Value which was tied for 5th best in baseball and the double plus slider put up a 46.9% whiff%. You can ding him for injury risk as he only pitched 107.2 IP and has never pitched more 150.1 IP in a season, but it was a groin injury that knocked him out for over 2 months this year, so I find it hard to really hold that against him too much. He also didn’t improve his third pitch at all, the splitter, with a negative 5 Run Value on the pitch. The negatives are enough to very clearly keep him out of the true top tier, but you know I’m going to keep betting on this kid. – 2026 Projection: 13/3.22/1.06/207 in 170 IP

8) Bryan Woo – SEA, RHP, 26.2 – I’ve been naming Bryan Woo a major Target since before the 2023 season and every year since then, and man is it awesome to see him fully blossom into a true ace. God, I love dynasty. Did I trade him away in one of my leagues after that 2023 season in a deal that included Henry Davis? Yes, yes I did. God, I hate dynasty … He throws one of the very best fastballs in baseball with a 95.7 MPH 4-seamer that put up a 28.8% whiff%, .270 xwOBA, and a 21 Run Value that was tied for 3rd best in baseball. He also throws the 15th most valuable sinker in the game with a negative 3 degree launch, while mixing in a slider (36.1% whiff%), sweeper (46.1% whiff%) and changeup (.282 xwOBA). It all led to a 2.94 ERA with a 27.1/4.9 K%/BB% in 186.2 IP. The 26.2% whiff% overall isn’t super impressive and he’ll give up plenty of homers (26 dingers) because of how much he throws the ball over the plate, but it’s crystal clear that he’s a true ace. He belongs in this Tier 2 of aces. – 2026 Projection: 14/3.23/1.01/191 in 180 IP

9) Cole Ragans – KCR, LHP, 27.4 – You should be all over any discount on Ragans with the quickness. He missed 3.5 months of the season with a rotator cuff strain (shoulder), limiting him to just 61.2 IP, and he put up a 4.67 ERA in those innings, so I’m hoping people get scared off, but I’m sure as hell not getting scared off. He returned from the injury in September and the stuff was all the way back, so other than the obligatory I guess there is some injury risk, I’m not really that concerned about it. And while he had a high ERA, it came with a 2.63 xERA and 38.1/7.8 K%/BB%, so I mean, what more needs to be said. The 34.8% whiff% is silly elite. He leads with the elite 95.3 MPH 4-seamer (28.6% whiff%) and elite changeup (50.4% whiff%), but the slider is a really good pitch too (43.4% whiff%) and the curve is solid. He also mixes in a cutter. I almost think this ranking of him is still underrating him. If he joins the true elite Tier 1, 3 headed monster during the 2026 season, I wouldn’t be surprised, but there is enough volatility (injury and average-ish control) to keep him out. – 2026 Projection: 13/3.27/1.16/220 in 180 IP

Shadow9) Shohei Ohtani – LAD, RHP, 31.9 – This is where I would rank Ohtani as a pitcher only. Only Ohtani can come back from major elbow surgery and put up career bests in BB% (4.3%), xERA (2.45), velocity (98.4 MPH) and nearly K% (33.0%) in 47 IP. So many of these other Tommy John/internal brace returnees were fighting for their lives just to survive, but not Ohtani, who coolly notched an elite 2.87 ERA. He’s a true ace that probably deserves to be in Tier 1 with Crochet/Skenes/Skubal, but we know LA is going to baby him. He’s never thrown more than 166 IP in a season, and I don’t see why the Dodgers wouldn’t want to limit him to the 150 range, especially when they want to save bullets for the playoffs. The low IP projection keeps him in Tier 2. – 2026 Projection: 13/3.07/1.05/191 in 150 IP

10) Chase Burns – CIN, RHP, 23.2 – Chase Burns is my #1 pitching prospect in baseball (at least in leagues that use the 50 IP threshold, like most of my leagues do, and not service time, because based on service time I don’t think he’s prospect eligible anymore). I was high on him in First Year Player Drafts last off-season, ranking him 4th overall, because I saw the type of true ace upside that was worth sticking your neck out for, and then he went out and proved it. He sliced through the minor leagues with a 1.77 ERA and 36.8/5.4 K%/BB% in 66 IP, and then he almost did the same in the majors with a 3.47 xERA (4.57 ERA) and a 35.6/8.5 K%/BB% in 43.1 IP. The 98.7 MPH 4-seamer is near elite with a 25.2% whiff% and +4 Run Value and the slider is also near elite with a .229 xwOBA and 43.7% whiff%. He only went to the changeup 5.6% of the time, mostly vs. lefties, but it was a solid pitch with a 33.3% whiff% and 75.7 MPH EV against. The control was really good too. He’s an athletic 6’3”, 210 pounds. I don’t see how it can get anymore obvious than this. This is a true ace waiting to happen, even pitching in Cincinnati. – 2026 Projection: 10/3.42/1.15/190 in 150 IP Prime Projection: 14/3.03/0.98/245 in 190 IP

11) Cristopher Sanchez – PHI, LHP, 29.4 – Sanchez broke out in 2023, proved it was for real in 2024, and then took it to an entirely different level in 2025. He adds velocity every year, going from a 92.1 MPH sinker in 2023, to a 94.5 MPH sinker in 2024, and then finally a 95.4 MPH sinker in 2025. It led to a true ace breakout with a 2.50 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and a 26.3/5.5 K%/BB% in 202 IP. The sinker is the most valuable sinker in baseball with a +19 Run Value and the changeup was tied for the 2nd most valuable changeup with a .208 xwOBA and 45.1% whiff%. The slider isn’t as good, but it’s useful with a solid 33.6% whiff%. The 30.4% whiff% overall is elite for a starter, he keeps the ball on the ground with a 3 degree launch, and the control is double plus. He’s an ace. Simple. – 2026 Projection: 13/3.18/1.10/194 in 190 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 2026 TOP 1,000 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKINGS (full Top 1,000 coming soon)
-TOP 100 2026 DYNASTY FANTASY BASEBALL PROSEPCTS RANKS (a Top 500 coming soon)
–2026 DEEP POSITIONAL RANKS: Top 80 C–Top 91 1B–Top 97 2B–Top 101 3B–Top 161 SS–Top 288 OF–Top 300+ SP
-TOP 161 2026 FIRST YEAR PLAYER DRAFT RANKS
–2026 FYPD TARGET & STRATEGY GUIDE
-HALP’S DYNASTY BASEBALL PODCAST: END OF SEASON MAILBAG!
–SPREADSHEETS
-Plus so much more coming like Position by Position Targets, Predicting Future Prospect Lists, Top 10 2027 FYPD Rankings, Spring Training Rundowns …

Previous Dynasty Team Reports on Patreon (free ones listed in parenthesis)

Arizona Diamondbacks—Atlanta Braves—Baltimore Orioles—Boston Red Sox (free)—Chicago Cubs (free)—Cincinnati Reds (free)—Cleveland Guardians—Colorado Rockies—Detroit Tigers—Houston Astros—Kansas City Royals—Los Angeles Angels—Los Angeles Dodgers (free)—Miami Marlins—Milwaukee Brewers—Minnesota Twins—New York Yankees (free)—Pittsburgh Pirates (free)—Sacramento Athletics—Seattle Mariners—St. Louis Cardinals (free)—Tampa Bay Rays—Texas Rangers—Toronto Blue Jays—Washington Nationals

By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@DynastyHalp)
Blue Sky: Dynasty Halp (@ImaginaryBrickWall)

This post is a collection of strategies and thoughts from my 2026 Dynasty Baseball Team Reports. Some were free and most were on the Patreon. I wanted to collect them in one easy to read post. Also make sure to check out my previous strategy articles if you haven’t read those already, linked to below. Here are my 18 Dynasty Baseball Strategies/Thoughts for 2026 (A Collection from the 2026 Dynasty Baseball Team Reports):

Strategy Articles from Previous Years
11 Dynasty Baseball Rules to Live By from 2019
10 (More) Dynasty Baseball Rules to Live By from 2021
Top 10 Trade Negotiation Techniques (Patreon only)
16 Dynasty Baseball Strategies/Thoughts for 2023
20 Dynasty Baseball Strategies/Thoughts for 2024
19 Dynasty Baseball Strategies/Thoughts for 2025

CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY PATREON FOR TONS OF EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ALL OFF-SEASON, INCLUDING:
-A TOP 200 SNEAK PEEK OF THE 2026 TOP 1,000 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKINGS (full Top 1,000 coming soon)
-TOP 100 2026 DYNASTY FANTASY BASEBALL PROSEPCTS RANKS (a Top 500 coming soon)
–2026 DEEP POSITIONAL RANKS: Top 80 C–Top 91 1B–Top 97 2B–Top 101 3B–Top 161 SS–Top 288 OF
-TOP 161 2026 FIRST YEAR PLAYER DRAFT RANKS
–2026 FYPD TARGET & STRATEGY GUIDE
–END OF SEASON 2025 TOP 450 DYNASTY RANKS
–END OF SEASON 2025 TOP 325 PROSPECTS RANKS
-HALP’S DYNASTY BASEBALL PODCAST: END OF SEASON MAILBAG!
–SPREADSHEETS

1) Everyone talks about bat speed these days for hitters, but nobody talks about bat speed against for pitchers. So let’s dive in a little bit. The first thing you will notice is that the spread for bat speed against isn’t even close to as wide for pitchers as it is hitters, because obviously a pitcher is only going to have so much control over how fast a guy swings. But there are discrepancies, and like I wrote in the Will Vest blurb, they can give us some signal for sure (“I didn’t rank Vest in last off-season’s Top 1,000 rankings, but he did make the rankings in a different way, writing in the Paul Skenes blurb, “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 should have been the indicator for me to put Vest in the damn rankings, but I didn’t listen to the signs.”). Chis Sale once again led all starters with a 70.9 MPH against, and Hunter Greene was 2nd at 71.1 MPH. Skubal was third and Skenes was 4th. I mean, the fact that those 4 guys are top 4 tells me that bat speed against means at least a little bit. The interesting takeaway from that is that Slade Cecconi is 5th. I wasn’t big on Cecconi before diving into this, but now I think I am willing to take a flier or two. On the flip side, I found it interesting that Clayton Kershaw ranked dead last among qualified starters with a 73 MPH bat speed against. That is straight terrible considering most pitchers sit around the MLB bat speed average of 71.7 MPH. And they have been swinging that hard against him since bat speed has been tracked since 2023. So that tells us not to put too much value into bat speed against, especially on this end of it, as there were other good pitchers on the bad end of the leaderboard like Merrill Kelly, Carlos Rodon, Shota Imanaga, Sonny Gray, and Corbin Burnes. So I get why nobody talks about it, because there is limited value in it, but I still think it’s fun and interesting to see how much hitters love to (try) and tee off against Kershaw, unsuccessfully for the most part ha. Either way, while there isn’t a ton of value in it, I do think there is some, and the one name to really takeaway is Slade Cecconi. Let’s see what happens with him in 2026.

2) I’m genuinely curious if there have been advancements with shoulder surgery. I remember when shoulder surgery was a big deal for hitters, and while it’s certainly still a big deal, it used to routinely destroy player’s seasons when the rehab went right up until the start of the season, and sometimes even their careers. Now, it really does seem like they come back even better and stronger than before. They get power bumps! People were scared off of Zach Neto because of the shoulder surgery last off-season, and look how that turned out. Shit, people were turned off by Shohei effing Ohtani because of his off-season shoulder surgery too. Daulton Varsho straight up looked like he returned from surgery with a bionic shoulder. It really is remarkable to me, and while this only applies to hitters at the moment, we’ve actually seen some pitcher shoulder surgery success stories too of late. Brandon Woodruff’s stuff was down, but other than that, he looked and performed absolutely great. And even more recently, Daniel Espino was back out there looking like fire in the AFL coming off two shoulder surgeries. I’m still scared off by pitcher shoulder surgery, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know, I kinda see something brewing here. I’m all in on the shoulder surgery discounts going into 2026 (Rainer, Conrad, Crisantes), and I even might have some more forgiveness for shoulder surgery pitchers in the future. I don’t know what they are putting in these shoulder surgeries these days, but at the least it’s something to keep our eye on.

3) Jumping off from the Trey Yesavage blurb, he got me interested to dive into how many of the top pitchers in the game don’t have that super elite fastball. The Big 3 (Skubal, Skenes, Crochet) all have elite fastballs. The 2nd Tier (Yamamoto, Gilbert, Brown, Greene, Woo, Ragans, Ohtani) all have elite fastballs too. That says something right there that all of the top 2 tiers in my dynasty rankings have 95+ MPH elite fastballs. Sanchez, Fried, Kirby, Ryan, Peralta and Bradish are the next 6 vets on my dynasty rankings and all had elite to excellent fastballs/sinkers. The old guys, Wheeler, Sale and deGrom have elite fastballs. There are obviously good pitchers out there who don’t have truly elite fastballs, and I don’t think I’m discovering anything new here, but point being, having a truly elite fastball matters a lot. It probably does cap your upside if you don’t have it. I’m not saying this to scare you off Yesavage, because I absolutely love him, and I think his fastball does have the potential to be very good. Even if it stays just mediocre, the rest of the arsenal is good enough to make him a fantasy beast. But when we are splitting hairs amongst the very top pitching prospects in the game, you need to be very critical, and it’s my reasoning (along with better control) for putting Burns #1.

4) Nothing hurts more in dynasty baseball than when you trade away a young player/prospect who turns out to be a star. Earlier this year, I had a subscriber cancel and said the reason was, “I’m done with fantasy baseball. I traded away C. Carroll and I will never forgive myself.” I still live with the pain of trading Juan Soto away in 2017, the year before he shot to the moon. I won the championship that year by 0.5 points, so I needed every point, but that trade still haunts me. I had another subscriber ask me in the comments, shoutout VinnyB, “Yo Halp, been catching up on the podcasts this week. Super cool! Konnor Griffin’s sonic explosion through the prospect stratosphere has blown my mind. I drafted him 1.9 in the FYPD back in Feb while he wasn’t in my main plans. I ended up moving him for picks that netted Seaver King & Yorger Bautista along with one of my top gets Ryan Sloan. I’m not losing sleep over it but that second guess phenomenon won’t leave the back of mind anytime soon. Any sane comments(lol)?” And here was my response to him, and it’s the best I got on how to handle the pain, “Wish I had some great sage advice, ha, but really, every “bad” decision I’ve made in dynasty sticks with me. It just does. You just have to realize it is part of the game, and it’s going to happen and it’s going to keep happening. I also try to then focus on the good decisions I’ve made, which of course the bad ones stick more than the good ones. And also focus on next year’s draft, and trying to find that gem again. And I guess the biggest advice, is to remember we all do this because it’s an awesome hobby, and by not being able to get trading Griffin away out of your mind, you aren’t dwelling on the any number of other horrible things you can be thinking about that actually matter a lot more in life ha”

5) Way, way back in October of 2024, I went where no man had gone before, deep into the bat speed leaderboards to see if we could glean any sleepers from them, and it was immediately obvious that there was a treasure trove of value to be pulled from there. Seriously, bat speed was not really being talked about or used that much (or nearly at all if my memory serves me right) as it was relatively new to Statcast. As the off-season went along, people jumped on the bat speed bandwagon, and at this point it is very obvious that bat speed is a tremendously valuable tool to use in your player evaluation. I had a ton of target hits using bat speed like Tyler Soderstrom, Jo Adell, Junior Caminero (less a target and more just staying super high on him), Spencer Torkelson, and Addison Barger. Hunter Goodman I didn’t call a target because I was worried about his glove, but I did name him as a bat speed standout and worth going after for that alone. There were misses too like Oneil Cruz, Garrett Mitchell and Jordan Walker, but I’m less interested in focusing on the guys with huge bat speed this off-season, and more interested in how many guys were able to improve their bat speed year to year. I closed out my thoughts on bat speed last year by writing, “Guys who “swing for the fences” are going to swing faster, hit for more power, and strikeout more. Guys who swing slower are going to make more contact, but not hit for as much power. So I don’t think bat speed is necessarily a completely sticky thing if a player decides to change his approach to hit for more power or contact. We’ll have to keep an eye on this in future years as we continue to build on this data to see how often that happens exactly, and how often it’s successful. Really cool to have this data at our fingertips now.”

And as we saw with PCA, bat speed can definitely be improved very quickly, and it can result in the power explosion we want. Meaning, we shouldn’t just automatically cap a player’s power upside if they come up and don’t immediately swing a fast bat. PCA improved his bat speed by 2.1 MPH and went from 10 homers to 31 homers. Brice Turang was the #1 bat speed riser in baseball, raising it 4.5 MPH, and he went from 7 homers to 18 homers. Anthony Volpe was the 2nd biggest riser at 3.3 MPH, and while he didn’t have a great year, he did go from 12 homers to 19 homers (and now he’s getting the supercharged shoulder ;). Sal Frelick raised it 1.9 MPH, going from 2 homers to 12 homers. Geraldo Perdomo raised it 1.4 MPH, going from a career high of 6 homer to 20 homers. Maikel Garcia raised it 1.1 MPH, going from 7 homers to 16 homers. There are more power breakouts up and down the bat speed risers list. While you can’t solely contribute bat speed to all of the power breakouts, it is clearly a major reason. And the takeaway for me here is what I suspected last off-season, which is that guys can improve their bat speed considerably year to year. It’s why I’m not panicked over Matt Shaw’s below average 69.6 MPH swing (I’m more panicked about his playing time now). My bet is that rises in 2025, just like it did with PCA this year. So while bat speed is certainly a major tool to use, I would caution about putting too much emphasis on it, especially for younger players who are still getting comfortable vs. MLB pitching. It is not a power death sentence to swing a slower bat, as the skill can very obviously be improved, and be improved in a major way year to year.

6) Am I the only one who finds interviews with prospects (and really athletes in general) mostly boing and devoid of any value for dynasty? I’ve had opportunities to interview prospects, and I’ve passed them up. Back when I was co-hosting the Razzball Prospect Podcast with the artist formerly known as Ralph Lifshitz, I remember that Cody Ponce floated out there that he would be interested to come on the show when he was a prospect with the Brewers, and I just wasn’t interested in it really. I could have definitely asked Harrison Bader for an interview when I was emailing with his former coach and mom, because they were so excited that someone was hyping him up. Bader was my OG pro debut breakout with 11 homers in 61 games in his debut. That was back when the draft was earlier in the year and allowed for even bigger samples. And the prospect/dynasty world wasn’t what it was today, so I was just about the only one writing about him and giving him love. But again, I just wasn’t interested in even asking. Most of the athlete interviews I see, especially with young prospects, are kinda awkward and stiff and not much is said. But I get it, because I also wouldn’t want to ask like “got ya” questions that could get them in trouble with the organization, or questions that could make them uncomfortable. I grew up watching the Howard Stern show on E!, so I feel like I wouldn’t even be able to trust myself to not try to ask some weird shit just to get a reaction ha. But that is why I respect it when you can get an interesting interview out of these guys without doing that like with the Baseball America Chase Dollander interview where he claimed the Rockies never even brought up any strategy around pitching at Coors Field when he was in the minors. I’ve seen other interesting ones too where they stuck to baseball and was able to glean some value from it, like one with Cade Povich where he showed very little interest in trying to gain velocity out of fear of injury. Baseball America does a great job with them and so do other places. I’ve seen Eno get some good stuff from Jackson Holliday and Rafael Devers. It’s not an avenue I’m looking to go down from a content creation standpoint, but I’m genuinely curious on people’s thoughts on them. Do most people love the athlete interviews, or are you mostly like me and find them on the boring side (for the most part)?

7) I talked shit about athlete interviews in a previous Dynasty Team Report, so let me give props where it is due to both Grayson Rodriguez and Foul Territory on an awesome post trade interview. That is a highly recommended watch. Grayson came out for blood, threatening to bean former Orioles teammates who didn’t get in contact with him after the trade (he pointed out Gunnar was the first to reach out), and also licking his chops at killing any white-tailed deer that might be frolicking in the Anaheim area. Imagine you’re a deer. You’re prancing along, you get thirsty, you spot a little brook, you put your little deer lips down to the cool clear water… BAM! A fuckin bullet rips off part of your head! Your brains are laying on the ground in little bloody pieces! Now I ask ya. Would you give a fuck how many lat strains and bone spurs the son of a bitch who shot you was suffering through? … but seriously, Grayson also said there isn’t some big secret injury here that scared Baltimore away. He was just constantly, minorly straining his lat, and he’s been dealing with these bone spurs for several years. The hope is that the bone spur surgery will help with the lat. There is obviously injury risk, and I guess after watching that interview the “makeup” whispers kinda make sense, hah, but hard to say from just one interview. And even assholes can be good at baseball. I’m still liking the injury discount.

8) There is a major gap between how badly fantasy managers think Great American Ball Park tanks pitchers, and how much Great American Ball Park actually tanks pitchers. It’s really not that bad guys. It is only the 4th worst ballpark in baseball with a 103 Park Factor (3 year rolling average), meaning it’s not all that much worse than average (100 Park Factor). Coors has a 113 Park Factor for reference. For just 2025, it was actually a below average hitter’s park at 18th overall! I’m telling you, it’s really not that bad. Sure it juices up homers, but that is much more a positive for hitters than it is a negative for pitchers if the rest of the park factors mitigate that HR advantage, which is the case in Cincy. People were scared off of Greene when I was yelling buy. People were scared off of Lodolo when I was yelling buy. People were dropping Burns in FYPD Ranks because of it when I ignored it. Shit, just look at the season Andrew Abbott just had. He doesn’t even have nasty stuff and he still managed a 2.87 ERA in 166.1 IP, I’m not saying that wasn’t good luck or that is sustainable, I’m just saying you can even get random great years like that. Please do not be scared of this ballpark. It is not worthy of that level of fear, and I still see fantasy managers treat it like some horrific ballpark. I’ve been sweeping up on value because of that fear, and I plan to do the same in 2026.

9) It’s time to change the prospect eligibility rules for pitchers. 50 IP doesn’t make sense anymore. Maybe it made sense when starters went deep into games and routinely threw over 200 IP, but those days are long over. If a guy goes 150 IP these days, that is basically considered a full workload. Maybe not for the best starters in the game, but for most starters. Even comparing the threshold to hitters, 130 at bats, pitchers need to go for a much larger percentage of their season than hitters to lose prospect eligibility. If we use 600 AB as the marker for a full season of at bats for a hitter, 130 at bats would be 21.7% of their season. Even if we push the full season threshold up to 180 IP for pitchers, 50 IP is 27.8% of that season. If we lowered it to the hitter threshold of 21.7%, that would come out to 39 IP. I submit that 40 IP should be the new cut off for pitchers. Chase Burns shouldn’t be prospect eligible anymore with 43.1 IP. Nolan McLean shouldn’t be prospect eligible anymore at 48 IP. Do these guys really still feel like prospects to you? I know that service time comes into play too in real life, but most of my leagues go by the 130 AB and 50 IP limit. Also, not to get off topic, but we shouldn’t we use Plate Attempts and not At Bats for hitters. A walk doesn’t count as an AB. What is with punishing players that walk a lot? MLB can barely get out of their own way, so tweaking rookie eligibility rules is so far down their list it’s not even funny, but I really think it’s time for a change. Not an overhaul, just a small one.

10) Betting on Tommy John/internal brace returnees is a total roll of the dice. We have no idea which ones are going to come back fully healthy and which ones aren’t, but one thing I noticed in 2025, is that you can tell which ones are fully back extremely quickly. Conventional wisdom would say we should give guys time to shake the rust off, but that wasn’t the case at all in 2025. The guys who came back and looked great from literally their first rehab outing, were the guys who kept on looking great. And the ones who looked rusty out of the gate, more or less remained rusty all season. I still buy into the conventional wisdom somewhat, but I think it’s worth mentioning that in practice it didn’t work that way at all. And it’s a lesson I’m taking with me for 2026. Basically buy hard on a guy who dominates in their first rehab outing, and at the very least don’t buy on a guy who doesn’t look back to 100%.

11) I was given in the option at the 2024 trade deadline in my 18 teamer to take a mid round FYPD pick, or instead, to take on Trevor Rogers with his remaining 1 year, $4 contract as a flier in a larger deal. I know the other owner was trying to clear that roster spot, which is valuable in our league, and also to clear that $4, which has value too, but I still said why not, I’ll take the shot on Rogers over the pick. I thought at best I would get some extra innings which always comes in handy in that 18 teamer, but never in a million years did I expect what ended up happening. And then I was able to flip Rogers’ expiring contract at the deadline to a team going for the championship for 6 years of Ben Rice (other pieces were involved in the deal on both sides too, but I don’t want to get too in the weeds on it). Even though I thought Rogers would end up a negative asset, I just didn’t need another mid round FYPD pick. You don’t need nine thousand decent prospects on your team to have a good dynasty team. The off chance that a bottom of the roster MLB guy, with just a smidgen of hope, would be able to contribute for my team in 2025 was enough for me to take the shot. I was torn on which one to take at the time, and I want to remember the lesson that even a long shot MLB player can be more valuable than another prospect. When looking at tack-ons for larger trades, don’t always opt for the prospect. Sometimes take the “junk” sitting on the bottom of their MLB roster. It just might pay immediate dividends.

12) I get the foreboding sense that 2025’s low velo, plus changeup lefty revolution is going to backfire in 2026 if the pendulum swings too far in the other direction. K to BB is King is for a reason, and that reason is that it is a much more reliable indicator of a pitcher’s true ability for things he can control. For one, what if the baseball’s aren’t as dead as they were in 2025? Baseball even acknowledged that the balls were not carrying as much this year, and that it was not by choice. Back in 2023/24 I wrote in the Strategy/Thought of the Day Section, “MLB changes the baseball every damn year, and I’m not even 100% sure they are truly in complete control of every change, as my understanding is that they manufacture new balls for every season.” Back then, everyone thought MLB was messing with the balls on purpose, and like I wrote, I wasn’t so sure that was the case. I had a sneaking suspicion that they were as clueless as we were as to how the balls would actually play, and that is now basically proven correct. So if the balls start carrying more, are guys like Cameron going to see as much success? Or if BABIP luck doesn’t go their way as much, will they have as much success?

13) The Andrew Vaughn Story is like a scared straight after school special for dynasty owners who think it’s okay to dabble in bad organizations. I don’t do it all the time! Every once in a while! I can stop whenever I want! We all know bad organizations are a prospect graveyard for raw, toolsy teenagers, but Vaughn shows us even nearly MLB ready college bats are not immune. A good organization like the Brewers on the other hand can work miracles. Low velo? No problem, we’ll still turn Logan Henderson into a beast. Horrific control? No problem, we’ll still turn Miz into an ace. Lower velo Woodruff? No problem, he’s still an ace. They just took Brice Turang and pulled off the single greatest raw power uptick we’ve basically ever seen in the Statcast era. They got a super team friendly deal on an elite prospect (Chourio), correctly promoted him at 20 years old when he was ready to contribute, and then stuck with him when he got off to a bad 1st half in his rookie year. How many other organizations would have panicked and demoted him and messed with his development? DSL breakouts. Trade cast offs like Vaughn and Priester breakouts. Proximity play breakouts like Durbin. Short righty pitcher breakouts like Freddy Peralta. An assembly line of elite bullpen arms. It’s wild how good they are at literally everything. Milwaukee is simply one of the best organizations in baseball across the board, and their players/prospects 100% deserve a bump just for being in the organization. It’s what gives me the confidence to call Logan Henderson one of my biggest targets this off-season. And it’s what gives me confidence to stick with Braylon Payne through the ups and downs. Bet on Milwaukee.

14) The beauty of dynasty leagues especially, is that you don’t have to panic if a player you believe in doesn’t have a perfectly clear path to a full time job to start the season. People have short memories, so maybe you don’t remember how Ben Rice’s lack of clear path was absolutely killing his value last off-season, but it was real. I named him a major target despite that and had faith it would work itself out one way or another. The same thing happened with Spencer Torkelson, and Torkelson was also a major off-season target for me and big hit. Taking advantage of that playing time uncertainty created monster value to be had on both of them, with both of them going for soooooo cheap. Even a little uncertainty of a players full time job status will scare so many fantasy/dynasty managers away, and it’s an area to 100% take advantage of when it happens. I get in redraft leagues being a bit scared, but in dynasty, you have the long term view to fully stay the course if you believe in the bat. And Rice and Torkelson both had very clear reasons to believe in their bats. For 2026, Matt Shaw and Jasson Dominguez now fit this bill. Don’t panic.

15) There has always been a certain hive mind/consensus/flaw/I don’t know what exactly when it comes to ranking pitching prospects on Top 100 lists. I always love seeing this get exposed a bit when the smart redraft guys get their eyes on these super talented, non Top 100 pitching prospects for the first time in spring, or in their MLB debuts. Getting those fresh eyes on pitching prospects who have been evaluated by the same people for years always reveals something about the prospect world to me. I love it when the redraft guys are like, “whoa, who the hell is this guy and why wasn’t he getting more hype.” I’m not even trying to come at anyone in the prospect world, because it really could just be a function of how volatile pitching prospects are. One tweak, or one new pitch, or one level of better control/command can take a guy from a middling prospect to an elite one in the blink of an eye. We see it all the time with veteran pitchers in the majors, so imagine the volatility of 19/20/21 year olds. Good luck predicting which ones will stay healthy and find that right tweak to unlock all of the upside. It’s not an easy task. But I also find when it does happen, sometimes list makers don’t make the big jump in the rankings quick enough. They lean toward being more conservative than aggressive with the rankings, which I understand. But that has consistently created great buying opportunities on underrated pitching prospects, and I’ve been preaching to shop in that aisle since I started ranking. Take advantage of it as a dynasty owner. Prospect lists are far from perfect to begin with, and they are even less perfect when it comes to pitchers. You don’t need to pay up for the already tippy top pitching prospects to find gems.

16) It’s so easy as fantasy baseball analysts and players to overrate the 2nd half of the season vs. the 1st half of the season. It makes sense, because the argument would be a player made a real change, either good or bad, and that change is going to carry over into the next season, but it’s not always so simple. Just looking at 2024, Maikel Garcia had the worst wRC+ in baseball in the 2nd half amongst qualified hitters with a 51 wRC+, and he broke out in 2025. Andrew Vaughn was 2nd worst at 60, and he’s now getting love and hype as a possible 2026 breakout. Brice Turang was 9th worst with a 71 wRC+, and he was another huge breakout this year. All of them had much better 1st halves before dropping off, but that didn’t stop them from having big seasons the next year. Sometimes injuries and getting banged up in general can cause a 2nd half decline. We aren’t always aware of what a player is battling through, and when they get a full off-season to heal, they look much better. We are all well aware of the of the slow starters like Julio Rodriguez, where just because they have huge 2nd halves, doesn’t mean they are going to carry that over fully at the start of next season. Some guys take awhile to get into a groove. It’s why in most cases, it’s smarter to use as big of a sample as possible, and that big sample is the entire season, not just one half, where small sample shenanigans can often lead you astray. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to parse out why one half was much better than the other. And we should always be on the lookout for skills changes, especially for young players, in both a positive and negative direction, but I think we need to keep in mind the bias we have for overrating 2nd halves when history says we shouldn’t put as much emphasis on it as we do. The bigger, full season sample should be given greater deference.

17) I would have put my thoughts on the recent off-season moves here, but I made that a separate post yesterday, and I don’t really have a great dynasty thought/strategy in mind right now. I don’t want to force it so I’m not going to hav … actually, you know what, that did spark a legit dynasty baseball thought/strategy, which is to not force it. So many of my worst decisions came from forcing a trade that I didn’t really want to do because of a lack of patience. Maybe a better deal would come along later. Or maybe it’s just not set up to make that move right now. Don’t force a bad trade just to fill a hole if your gut is screaming at you that the trade is bad. Filling a team need with a bad option at a cost is much worse than just keeping the need open and staying flexible for the right opportunity. Trust that the right move will come along, just as this immaculate dynasty baseball thought/strategy came along for me at the last second 😉 (please know this is mostly tongue in cheek ha) … but also seriously, don’t force shit, both in life and fantasy, it never ends up worth it. Dynasty Buddha signing out 😉

18) The 2026 season is my 10 year anniversary season of me starting Imaginary Brick Wall. December 16th, 2015 was day where I said eff it, I’m finally starting that blog I’ve been thinking about starting for awhile. I named it Imaginary Brick Wall and posted my first article, “Why the Name?” I wrote, “it represents striving to reach your goals despite the seemingly impossible hurdles in your way. I hoped it would inspire both myself and others when they read the name, even if just a little.” … and now 10 years later, I really can’t even wrap my head around not only how far I’ve come, but how far the dynasty baseball community has come. It has so far surpassed any expectation I had 10 years ago. When I wrote “I hoped to inspire both myself and others,” I thought I was going to maybe inspire people to be a musician, or artist or something … not to be dynasty baseball writers hah. There wasn’t even a real job of “dynasty baseball writer.” You would have been crazy to even think it was possible, but damn, here we are today with not only myself, but many other writers doing this full time or making legit part time money or just writing for the love of the game (which I did for the first 5 years of writing, and still do). I’m not saying I was the first guy to write about dynasty baseball or that I’m even close to solely responsible for the boom, but I like to think that I played a role in it, and I’m equally as proud in seeing that boom as I am for my own success. And of course, it’s the people who play the game and have such a strong passion, curiosity and sense of community that was the real engine for what it is today. I seriously can’t put into words how thankful I am for each and every one of you, and I hope in turn that my passion for the game comes across in my writing and continues to spread the good word of dynasty baseball. What an insanely little awesome corner of the internet we’ve all built here. Genuinely, thank you. It’s nuts.

Strategy Articles from Previous Years
11 Dynasty Baseball Rules to Live By from 2019
10 (More) Dynasty Baseball Rules to Live By from 2021
Top 10 Trade Negotiation Techniques (Patreon only)
16 Dynasty Baseball Strategies/Thoughts for 2023
20 Dynasty Baseball Strategies/Thoughts for 2024
19 Dynasty Baseball Strategies/Thoughts for 2025

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By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@DynastyHalp)
Blue Sky: Dynasty Halp (@ImaginaryBrickWall)