Sixth starters, 2025

One of the biggest draft day mistakes that fantasy managers make is to overvalue Opening Day roles.

It might seem natural to target Opening Day starting rotations when filling out your pitching staffs. After all, they include the guys who already have starting jobs, and we all want to get out of the gates quickly in our fantasy leagues.

But early-season roles on pitching staffs are fluid, especially when it comes to starting pitchers. Injuries will create openings. So too will poor performance, or strong performance from guys outside of their team's initial starting rotation.

Over the last 11 seasons, a team's starting rotation as of Opening Day consistently has comprised only about 70% of the total innings thrown from their starters for...

Almost!

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