SPECULATOR: Fighting recency bias—pitchers

Last week in this space, we looked at several "recency bias" hitters whose draft costs may be overly impacted by last year's stats. History says they have at least a 60/40 chance to regress toward the mean the following year—those odds grow even further for pitchers.

Since 2015, 71 starting pitchers have seen their ADP rise by 50+ picks in consecutive seasons (to reduce injury bias, we're limiting this to pitchers with 80+ IP in both seasons).

  • 51 of those pitchers (72%) saw a decrease in 5x5 earnings per inning the following season.
  • Just 19 of them (27%) turned a profit at their ADP in year two.

And on the flip side, 63 starters have seen their ADP fall 50+ picks in consecutive seasons.

  • 40 of those pitchers (63%) saw an increase in...

Almost!

You’re just a few clicks away from accessing this feature and hundreds more throughout the year that have a singular goal in mind: Winning your league. Subscribe to BaseballHQ.com here!

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

More From Speculator

Our annual "draft skills, not roles" using projected skills and year-to-date playing time.
Apr 22 2026 3:05am
With most pitchers 3-4 starts in, we dive into the sub-indicators to see who's rising and falling.
Apr 15 2026 3:06am
Using our Quality of Batted Ball (QBaB) metric to make some speculative hitter snap judgments.
Apr 8 2026 3:06am
Baseball is back, and it's time to overreact... because what else are we supposed to do?
Apr 1 2026 3:08am
Our Opening Day Eve tradition speculating on the top category producers who went late in drafts.
Mar 25 2026 3:07am

Tools