​The All-Star break is winding down, and the “second half” of the baseball season is about to begin, which feels like a fitting time for an update to my starting pitcher rankings.Back in May, I published my final preseason version of these rankings, so you can reference that if you want to see how much my opinion on certain arms has changed. While some of the familiar names are at the top, a handful of young guns like Jacob Misiorowski, Chase Burns, and Cam Schlittler have vaulted among the league’s elite arms. I have an article in the works (that likely won’t come out until the end of the season) on why certain of our young preseason favorites hit and others (Eury Perez, Nolan McLean) didn’t, but the short takeaway is that I may have previously focused too much on pure stuff and not enough on the effectiveness of that stuff, i.e. command. I think I remedied that a bit in this update.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt’s important to note that, even in a midseason rankings update, I only partially use surface-level stats when constructing my rankings. Yes, a pitcher’s ERA, WHIP, or even SIERA is important in determining how well they have done and impacts, partially, how well we should expect them to do. However, I don’t think we should ignore K-BB%, swinging strike rate (SwStr%), Ideal Contact Rate (ICR), or individual pitch efficiency in projecting how these pitchers will finish the season.As always, the pitchers are split into tiers, and the tiers themselves are more important than the rankings inside the tiers, so I wouldn’t split hairs over a few spots in the rankings. I’ve also ranked these pitchers as if I’m doing a 12-team league, so safe but boring low-end starters take a hit in value, etc. Also, since there is much going on right now (and I have a weekly podcast with Nick Pollack where I discuss most of these pitchers), I’m not going to be able to give detailed blurbs on WHY each pitcher is ranked where they are.OK? Ok, so let’s get started.RankPlayerTeamTop of the Line Aces1Jacob MisiorowskiBrewers2Tarik SkubalTigers3Cristopher SanchezPhillies4Paul SkenesPiratesYes, this hasn’t been the season you were hoping for from Tarik Skubal or Paul Skenes, but they remain top-tier starting pitchers, and you’d struggle to find starters you’d truly rather roster than them the rest of the way. Skenes saw his fastball velocity and spin rate go back up in his last start, so maybe we can close the book on that narrative. I know Cristopher Sanchez got hit hard in the All-Star Game and his final start before it, but we can’t ignore what we’d done the past two years or what Jacob Misiorowski has done so far this season. This is the cream of the crop.You’d be pretty happy with any of these guys as the ace of your fantasy team. There isn’t a lot of analysis to do here, and if you wanted to shuffle their names around in a different order, I think that would be warranted. The bottom line is that I don’t believe these guys have the peak of the