AJ Mass, ESPN Staff Writer 8y

Pitchers to target for the final third of the season for points leagues

MLB, Fantasy, Fantasy MLB

The non-waiver trade deadline is behind us, which means we're in the season's homestretch. That's a perfect time for fantasy points league players to make one last bit of tinkering to their rotations in an effort to maximize their pitching potential headed into the last few weeks of the 2016 campaign. So let's once again take a look at our metric for declaring hurlers to be among the league's "elite" -- the "rule of seven."

In case you've forgotten, this list of peak mound performers is made up of all starters who have posted an ERA of 3.50 or less, along with a K/BB rate of 3.50 or more. Add them up and you get seven, hence the name. When we first took a look at this tier of arms in April, we had 23 pitchers on our radar, and membership remained constant at 23 in our June check-in, though some of the names had changed. While the bar may not seem all that high to clear, our club has suffered from a little bit of shrinkage, with only 21 pitchers still qualifying as of the start of play Sunday.

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