Up this week are the August rankings. Players are ranked based on how I believe they will perform in 5x5 leagues over the remainder of the season. Included with the position rankings is a new overall top-250 list.
Click to see other August Rankings:
Relief Pitcher Rankings
Starting Pitcher Rankings
Outfielder Rankings
Catcher Rankings
First Basemen Rankings
Second Basemen Rankings
Shortstop Rankings
Third basemen Rankings
Top 250 Overall Rankings
Starting pitchers
Rising:Brandon Webb (8 to 2), Dan Haren (12 to 6), Chad Billingsley (22 to 15), Jon Lester (31 to 21), Randy Johnson (36 to 22), Rich Harden (40 to 28), Ryan Dempster (45 to 29), Oliver Perez (61 to 32), Derek Lowe (46 to 34), Matt Garza (49 to 37), Mike Mussina (70 to 46), Francisco Liriano (82 to 47), Aaron Cook (85 to 49), Ubaldo Jimenez (94 to 57), Ricky Nolasco (88 to 61), Chris Carpenter (92 to 64), John Lannan (NR to 84)
Falling:Josh Beckett (3 to 7), Cole Hamels (6 to 11), Aaron Harang (20 to 31), Jered Weaver (29 to 41), Roy Oswalt (30 to 42), John Maine (26 to 51), Erik Bedard (16 to 53), Dana Eveland (67 to 109), Tim Hudson (17 to NR), Dustin McGowan (42 to NR), Micah Owings (68 to NR), Aaron Laffey (75 to NR), Randy Wolf (79 to NR)
Notes:
- Liriano was pretty wild in his return to the majors on Sunday, but he held the Indians scoreless for six innings anyway. He's set to spend the rest of the month facing the Royals, Mariners (twice) and A's (twice), so he should be used in even the shallowest mixed leagues.
Sports
- I figured that Nolasco would be back on the DL by now after a month of June that included starts of 132 and 120 pitches, but the Marlins have backed off him now and he was as strong as ever in a 13-strikeout game on Saturday. I still worry about his arm after he had his 2007 season ruined by an elbow injury, but it doesn't take quite as much of a toll on his ranking this month.
