Weekly Pitcher Rankings: Start Me Up

I've been thinking a lot about playing time lately. Skills projections are more science than art, but playing time lacks the same reliance on science. The focus is on the player's history, as opposed to how the entire field of players responds to a certain level of recent playing time.

History demonstrates players with "X" years of "Y" innings rarely come close to recent totals, yet we project the high totals. The same is true for batters and plate appearances. 

Things can change, but with only two weeks left in the season, we're looking at an inordinate number of pitchers with at least 30 starts. Here is last season's distribution:

Including this weekend, there are 16 more days in the season, so the maximum number of remaining starts is three, with the slim chance of four. To reach 30, a hurler needs to currently be at 27.

There is a chance a handful of pitchers start 34 games. There will almost no doubt be more than last season's four with 33 starts and 17 with 32 starts. Granted, innings are important too, but those are also tracking higher in this group. Projecting the number of starts for some pitchers in 2024 is going to be challenging.

As for this week, there are 95 games, a bit more than an average period. When in doubt, keep in mind rotations will be in greater flux next week with some starters being shut down, or held back for the playoffs, so this is the time to pull out all of the stops.

As always, the schedules are pulled from the Probable Starters page, so please direct questions in that direction. I'm happy to address rankings inquiries below.

UPDATED: Monday September 18, 12:20 AM ET

Week of Sept. 18-24

Mixed

American League

National League