The third base position is going to give fantasy managers plenty of headaches this season. Outside of catcher, this is the weakest positional group, as there are no more than seven players who managers should be excited to have in their lineup.
Drafters will need to make tough choices when handling third base. Some managers may insist on filling the position early, even if that means that they need to reach a few picks during the initial rounds. The opposite approach is also viable — a manager could wait until the final rounds of their draft, knowing that there is plenty of risk in every third baseman who is ranked eighth or lower at the position.
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There is also a lack of diversity within the skill sets at third base, which will be an issue for Roto managers. Aside from José Caballero, every third baseman who is being selected in the majority of leagues past pick 100 has limited speed and therefore draws all of his value from the power and/or batting average categories.
Optimists will see an opportunity to gain an advantage at third base. After all, the weak depth among this group means that managers who correctly determine a late-round sleeper will gain a massive advantage over their competitors.
Here are a few players to either target or avoid.
More positional previews
Proactive picks
Maikel Garcia, Kansas City Royals (Yahoo ADP 83.0)
Garcia’s 2025 breakout season was well-supported by skill improvements. His strikeout rate (12.6%) and walk rate (9.3%) were career-best marks by a wide margin. Both his average exit velocity (91.3 mph) and barrel rate (5.6%) improved as well. By keeping most of his skill gains, the native Venezuelan could be even more effective this year, thanks to the changes to the outfield walls at Kauffman Stadium. And there is room for his steals total to rebound after it dropped by 14 last year.
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Colson Montgomery, Chicago White Sox (Yahoo ADP 160.4)
Montgomery showed exciting power potential when he homered 21 times in 71 games during his rookie year. Sure, he isn’t likely to maintain a 45-homer pace during his first full season in the Majors, but he could regress significantly and still justify his current ADP. Montgomery produces oodles of pulled fly balls, which should keep the homers coming while he works on lowering the 29.2% strikeout rate from his rookie year.
Fades
José Ramírez, Cleveland Guardians (Yahoo ADP 7.2)
This pick is controversial, as Ramírez is being selected as early as fifth overall in some drafts. I want to be clear that I have no issues with the 33-year-old’s skill set. He’s a legitimate superstar, although I expect some pullback after two consecutive 40-steal seasons. My main issue with drafting Ramírez is my massive distaste for a Guardians lineup that finished 28th in runs scored last year and failed to add significant help in the offseason. I want my Round 1 hitter to be part of an above-average offense.
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Matt Chapman, San Francisco Giants (Yahoo ADP 144.5)
While Chapman can be a solid accumulator at his position, he offers little more than the third basemen who rank behind him in ADP. The career .240 hitter will likely be a drain on the batting average category. His homer and RBI totals are more likely to be respectable than great, as he tries to overcome the power-suppressing nature of his home park. And although Chapman has swiped 24 bases in the past two seasons, he tallied 11 swipes in his previous seven campaigns and therefore cannot be considered a reliable base stealer for his age-33 season. There are more exciting options at other positions in his ADP range.
Addison Barger, Toronto Blue Jays (Yahoo ADP 190.7)
Barger was one of October’s best stories when he hit .367 with a 1.025 OPS during Toronto’s run to the brink of a World Series title. Unfortunately, the longer sample size from the regular season paints a less-exciting picture. Barger slumped in the second half (.679 OPS), and the lefty slugger struggled against southpaws (.607 OPS) throughout the season. On a deep Toronto roster, he’s likely to be a platoon player who leaves fantasy managers disappointed.
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Sleepers
Jorge Polanco, New York Mets (Yahoo ADP 191.8)
Want to wait for a third baseman? This is your guy. Polanco finally stayed healthy, which allowed him to rejuvenate his plate skills and hit .265 with 26 homers and 78 RBI last year. But a bounce-back season isn’t the biggest reason that the 32-year-old tops my sleepers list. By signing a two-year deal with the Mets, Polanco is suddenly locked into one of the best lineup spots in baseball, as his cleanup role behind Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette could lead to a 100-RBI season.
JJ Wetherholt, St. Louis Cardinals (Yahoo ADP 200.0)
One of baseball’s most exciting prospects, Wetherholt has an excellent chance to make the Opening Day roster for the rebuilding Cardinals. And after hitting .306 with 17 homers and 23 steals in 109 minor league games last season, the seventh overall pick of the 2024 MLB Draft has proven to have the versatile skill set that fantasy managers covet. Wetherholt is already a favorite for the NL Rookie of the Year award and could be one of this year’s best value picks by producing a 20-20 debut season.
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José Caballero, New York Yankees (Yahoo ADP 201.5)
Caballero is an especially good pick in standard Yahoo Roto leagues. After all, the waiver wire is usually fruitful in these contests, which means that managers can finish their drafts with players who have significant immediate value. Such is the case with Caballero, who should be the Yankees starting shortstop until Anthony Volpe returns from a season-opening IL stint. The speedster needed just 314 at-bats to lead the Majors with 49 steals last season, and he could single-handedly put fantasy teams ahead of the pack in swipes while holding a starting role in April.
Carlos Correa, Houston Astros (Yahoo ADP 198.4)
During his best seasons, Correa was often on my “fades” list. After all, he was highly coveted in drafts despite spending significant time on the IL, stealing zero bases and having good-but-not-great contributions in other categories. But the hate for the 31-year-old has gone too far, as he is now going undrafted in most leagues despite having similar plate skills to his prime years and holding a premium spot in a solid lineup. As a last-round pick at a weak position, Correa could hold down the fort early in the season while his manager looks for breakout players on the waiver wire.
Shortstop is the fun zone of fantasy baseball, the donut shop with endless variety. Everything you want is here, just choose your own adventure. A whopping 16 players with shortstop eligibility finished in the top 100 fantasy players last season, assuming a 5×5 scoring system.
In an earlier era, the shortstop position was seen as “glove first, hitting a bonus” situation, but that’s gone the way of the dinosaur now. MLB clubs understand you need offense and defense at this critical spot.
Because the position has so many good options, you don’t really need a specific strategy for filling the shortstop spot. You’re going to draft these guys by accident because you’re focused on getting the offensive stats you need. Take note that if your league requires starting a utility middle in addition to a second baseman and shortstop, that UM player will probably be a shortstop because that position is considerably deeper.
More positional previews
Proactive Picks
Zach Neto, Angels (Yahoo ADP 39.0)
Neto won’t be a screaming bargain, but he’s likely undervalued simply because he missed 36 games last year and it slightly muted his counting stats. Neto has improved his average every season and already has the category juice you demand in the early rounds. Even with a pedestrian Anaheim lineup supporting him, I’ll consider Neto in the second round and pounce on him in the third. You want players on the escalator, and Neto steps into his age-25 season.
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Geraldo Perdomo, Diamondbacks (ADP 62.9)
Perdomo was the No. 11 player in 5×5 value last year but his ADP is nowhere near that for the fresh season. This presents an attractive “regress and win” opportunity where Perdomo can actually give back a significant amount of last year’s stats and still be a fantasy profit. Perdomo is a high-percentage base stealer, just entering his age-26 season, so I’m not worried about that column. And he’s the rare player who had more walks than strikeouts last year, and those players are always attractive targets. Maybe the 20 homers won’t come back, but there’s enough broad profile here to make Perdomo a cornerstone player.
Colson Montgomery, White Sox (ADP 160.9)
It’s fair to worry about the average, which was .239 with the White Sox last year and just .246 during 376 games in the minors. But Montgomery at least does exciting things when he does make contact, conking 21 homers in just 255 at-bats with Chicago. His Baseball Savant page is full of validation, with plus marks in expected slugging, hard-hit rate, barrel rate and bat speed. Montgomery feels like a cinch for 30-plus homers and he’ll get extra volume as the No. 3 hitter in Chicago. Picking him might require some batting average care later, but we can manage that.
I’ve often stated that you never lose money on a player like Betts, but maybe the loss years are here. It’s his age-33 season. The steals have all but evaporated. He’s playing a more demanding defensive position. His OPS+ last year was merely 104, slightly above the league mean. He’s also coming off his worst season in all three slash columns. Player ascension isn’t always linear, but player decline almost always is. I take no joy in writing any of this, because Betts himself is a joy.
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Corey Seager, Rangers (ADP 65.9)
It hurt me to fade Betts above and the same applies to Seager, one of the best hitters in baseball. Seager’s plate discipline is so perfect that there’s a popular zone-judgment metric that’s named after him. But the reality is that Seager has played just one full season out of the last seven (ignoring the 2020 truncated year) and that’s not a trend to swim against as he turns 32. Seager’s average has dropped into the .270s the last two years and he’s never been interested in stealing bases. I’ll stay open-minded if his price slips in my rooms, but I can’t consider him at current ADP.
Carlos Correa, Astros (ADP 200)
Esteemed colleague Fred Zinkie listed Correa as one of his third base sleepers, and I know from experience that disagreeing with Fred is not a +EV strategy. But I’d like to point out that Correa’s Yahoo ADP is about 60 spots higher than his global ADP, and he’s always going to carry batting-average and injury risk, in addition to the zero you’ll get in the stolen base column. This is also the weakest Houston lineup we’ve seen in a while; the Astros were 21st in runs scored last season.
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Sleepers
Otto Lopez, Marlins (ADP 213.1)
Lopez already showed us category juice last year (15 homers, 15 steals), and his .246 average is somewhat misleading. Lopez gets plus marks for his contact rate and zone discipline, and his expected average based on contact data was a solid .269. The typical Miami discount applies, too; it’s a fairly pedestrian roster, which often makes players like Lopez a few rounds cheaper in drafts than is justified.
Ezequiel Tovar, Rockies (ADP 197.7)
Let’s play some Occam’s Razor with the Tovar case. He plays in Colorado. He was a 26-homer guy two years ago. The 2025 mess is mostly excused by injury. Tovar will swing at just about anything but he’s maintained a career .258 average despite that approach. He also has a reasonable chance at double-digit steals over a full season.
Simple math shows that having a productive outfield group is essential to a winning fantasy lineup. After all, outfielders comprise 30-50% of the hitter lineup spots in a standard Yahoo leagues, depending on how each manager chooses to use their utility spots.
The number of outfield spots is just part of the equation, as the variety of skill sets available from this group provides an appealing amount of flexibility. Fantasy managers who need to make up for skill deficiencies at other positions — whether power, speed or batting average — can find what they need in the outfield at all points in the draft.
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Wise managers will spread out their outfield selections, hitting the position at various points throughout the draft. Getting a couple stars will be hard to resist, especially since there are eight outfielders who have an ADP within the initial 20 picks. But it also makes sense to save a couple outfield spots for the later rounds, especially in head-to-head category and rotisserie leagues, where managers can finish off their active lineup by using the depth at the position to find the exact type of player they need.
More positional previews
Proactive Picks
Kyle Tucker, Dodgers (Yahoo ADP 17.1)
The draft market has not yet adjusted to Tucker’s choice to sign with the Dodgers. Sure, he struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness last summer, but Tucker has a long track record of excellence that should override any recent results. The 29-year-old now calls home to a park that maximizes power and will be surrounded by talented hitters. He belongs in the first round and could produce career-best marks in every standard category.
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Cody Bellinger, Yankees (Yahoo ADP 66.1)
Staying with the Yankees on a five-year contract was the best possible outcome for Bellinger. The homer-happy nature of Yankee Stadium raises both his power ceiling and floor, as is evidenced by the fact that he produced 18 of his 29 long balls at home in 2025. And beyond the pure power numbers, his membership in a lineup that led MLB in runs scored last year increases his odds of producing a substantial R+RBI total. His sneaky speed (six seasons with double-digit steals) makes Bellinger a top-50 asset for 2026 drafts.
Yelich isn’t being given enough credit for his terrific 2025 season. The 34-year-old was a major contributor in homers (29), runs (88) and RBI (103) last year, while also stealing more than 15 bases for the fourth straight season. Working almost exclusively as the DH has reduced his injury risk, and he is well-supported by a strong lineup that ranked third in runs scored last year. Currently being selected in the range of pick 100, Yelich should be drafted at least two rounds earlier.
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Possible Fades
Byron Buxton, Twins (Yahoo ADP 95.2)
Can lightning strike twice? That’s what needs to happen for Buxton to be a major fantasy contributor for a second straight year. There is no doubt that the 32-year-old can excel on a per-game basis. But even in a relatively healthy 2025 season, Buxton still managed to play in just 126 games. Most of his games played totals are two-digit numbers, which means that managers who are expecting another healthy season are probably setting themselves up for disappointment.
Ceddanne Rafaela, Red Sox (Yahoo ADP 159.6)
An excellent fielder, Rafaela has tremendous value to the Red Sox. Unfortunately, fantasy managers can’t extract value from his fielding acumen, and his offensive numbers leave something to be desired. Rafaela’s respectable 2025 season was mostly spurred by two good months in June and July, as he logged a sub-.700 OPS in each of the other four months and a lowly .587 OPS in the second half. The Red Sox have a crowded outfield and could reduce the 25-year-old’s playing time if he gets off to a poor start.
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Mike Trout, Angels (Yahoo ADP 167.8)
Trout has some similarities to Buxton, as even though he played in 130 games last year, he is likely to miss significant time in any given season. And with Trout, the ceiling is much lower than that of Buxton. After all, Trout has hit .230 across the past two seasons, and he offers minimal steals contributions. Unfortunately, the reward is no longer worth the risk in standard-sized leagues.
Sleepers
Konnor Griffin, Pirates (Yahoo ADP 207.1)
The consensus best prospect in baseball, Griffin could debut as soon as Opening Day. After all, while the Pirates are traditionally slow to promote their prospects, they are starting to turn the corner in a long rebuild and have a limited window to maximize the talent that surrounds ace right-hander Paul Skenes. Griffin has a fantasy-friendly skill set (.333 BA, 21 HR, 65 SB in 2025) and could be a top-50 player this season. He’s worth stashing in every league.
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Ramón Laureano, Padres (Yahoo ADP 217.3)
Fantasy managers aren’t recognizing Laureano’s terrific 2025 season in which he hit .281 with 24 homers in 132 games. Sure, the memorable campaign mostly came out of nowhere, but this isn’t the 31-year-old’s first strong season, as he hit .288 with 24 long balls and 13 steals way back in 2019. Some regression on a per-game basis will be offset by logging a heavier workload on a Padres team that has some stars but lacks depth.
Daylen Lile, Nationals (Yahoo ADP 216.3)
At the exact moment when most fantasy managers turned their attention to football, Lile decided to break out. He hit .391 with six homers and a 1.212 OPS in September and ranked among the top-10 players in both runs (20) and RBI (19). The memorable finish ensures the 23-year-old a heavy workload and premium lineup spot on the rebuilding Nats, and his Yahoo roster rate should be much higher than its current mark of 54%.
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🚨 Headlines
🎿 Vonn speaks: In her first public statement since Sunday’s devastating crash, Lindsey Vonn said she has “no regrets” about racing on her torn ACL, which “had nothing to do with my crash.” Regardless, her father hopes she never races again.
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🏀 Perfect no more: No. 9 Kansas handed top-ranked Arizona its first loss of the season, rallying in the second half for an 82-78 victory at home that marked the Jayhawks’ first win over a No. 1 team since 2003. With that, No. 23 Miami (Ohio) is now the last undefeated men’s team in the nation.
🏈 Pearce arrested: Falcons rookie James Pearce Jr. was arrested Saturday on domestic violence-related charges following a dispute with WNBA player Rickea Jackson. Pearce fled the scene before crashing his car at the end of a police chase.
🏀 Benches clear in Charlotte: Four players and Charlotte’s head coach were ejected in the second half of the Pistons’ win over the Hornets after a heated exchange following a shooting foul led to an all-out brawl.
The Olympic rings surrounded by fireworks are displayed during the Milan Cortina Opening Ceremony. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Interest in the Winter Olympics has declined precipitously after three straight editions in locales cursed by authoritarian regimes, COVID, a lack of real snow, and more.
Flipping the script: Milan Cortina 2026 offers a return to normalcy; a much-needed respite from the cynicism. And if the response to Paris 2024 was any indication, we could be in for the most enjoyable Winter Games in quite some time.
On one hand, the Olympics are compelling no matter where you put them. For the athletes, who are mostly globetrotting anyway for big competitions, a gold medal won in Milan is no different than a gold medal won in Beijing. And for most of the world it’s all just a TV show anyway. Who cares where you put the hockey rink?
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But if you rewind to the summer of 2024, Paris was different. From the racy, bizarre and very French take on the Opening Ceremony to iconic Paris landmarks being used as the backdrop for competition venues, something clicked in the zeitgeist.
After several cycles of audience decline for its Olympic broadcasts, NBC rebounded with a whopping 30.6 million viewers per day across its platforms — an 80 percent increase over Tokyo three years earlier.
It felt like the Olympics as a big, galvanizing cultural force were truly back. Can Italy deliver the same irresistible experience?
The 2024 Paris Olympics saw a major viewership bump after 2021’s COVID-induced decline. Will Milan Cortina experience something similar? (Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports)
Don’t discount the possibility, albeit with one big caveat: The Winter Games are not the Summer Games. There are fewer sports, fewer athletes, fewer countries involved and most importantly fewer mainstream superstars.
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But relative to the last three Winter Games held in Sochi, PyeongChang and Beijing, these Olympics are going to visually present like a storybook Alpine adventure in a way that you simply could not pull off at a Russian Black Sea resort or on the Korean peninsula or in a smog-filled megalopolis where it almost never snows.
Another difference: NHL players are back for the first time since 2014. With all due respect to the minor-leaguers who stepped in and put on a good show in PyeongChang and Beijing, the Winter Olympics were significantly diminished by not having the elite of the elite competing in one of its marquee events.
Fresh pow. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Milan is also going to be different because of what we don’t have to talk about. We are not in a host country rife with human rights abuses like China. We are not in a host country getting ready to invade a neighbor. And, perhaps of utmost relevance from an audience perspective, we are not in the middle of an Olympics defined by COVID infections and empty stands.
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Of course, these Games are not taking place at a perfect moment for the world either. Russia will not be recognized as the war in Ukraine rages on. Tensions in the Middle East are simmering. And if the recent Australian Open is any indication, American athletes should expect to be asked about ICE raids and Venezuela and other actions by the Trump Administration generating international headlines.
There will never be an Olympics without political tension. But all in all, it has been since Vancouver 16 years ago that a Winter Games was hosted by a Western country, in a true winter wonderland, without being served on a platter of cynicism.
Instead, this one comes on a big plate of pasta. Eat up.
💯 Big numbers
(Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
🏈 1 of 9
Drake Maye is one of nine QBs to start in a Super Bowl as an NFL sophomore, joining Dan Marino, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Russell Wilson, Joe Burrow, Brock Purdy and Colin Kaepernick.
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The long road back: “That group is an interesting mashup, showcasing that while some QBs are destined for more Super Bowl opportunities (Brady, Warner, Roethlisberger and Wilson), others either never again stepped on the biggest stage (Marino and Kaepernick) or are still trying to find their way back (Burrow and Purdy),” writes Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson.
🏀 183 triple-doubles
Nikola Jokić (183) has moved past Oscar Robertson (181) for second on the NBA’s all-time triple-doubles list. He now trails only former teammate Russell Westbrook (207), who has added four to his tally so far this season with the Kings.
Rounding out the top 10: Magic Johnson is fourth on the list (138), followed by LeBron James (122), Jason Kidd (107), Luke Donćić (88), James Harden (82), Wilt Chamberlain (78) and Domantas Sabonis (68).
(Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
🏀 61 straight home wins
Kansas loves Mondays. With their victory over top-ranked Arizona, the Jayhawks have now won 61 consecutive home games played on Mondays over a 25-year span.
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Their last home loss on a Monday? That came all the way back on Feb. 5, 2001, when the Drew Gooden-led Jayhawks fell 79-77 to Jamaal Tinsley and Iowa State.
📺 $65 per month
YouTube TV is introducing lower-priced bundles to allow subscribers to better tailor their plans to their interests. The Sports Plan will begin rolling out this week at $65 per month, which is $18 cheaper than the main YouTube TV plan.
What you get: The Sports Plan includes “all the major broadcast networks,” including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, as well as TBS, TNT, FS1, USA, NBCSN, CBSSN, NBA TV, NFL Network, all of the ESPN networks. Premium channels like NFL RedZone will continue to be sold as add-ons.
(Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)
🏒 10 years
Boston College are Beanpot champions for the first time in a decade after dominating Boston University, 6-2, in Monday’s championship game, which was also the 300th meeting between the rival programs.
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The Battle of Comm Ave: BU still leads the all-time series, but it’s incredibly close. 141 wins for the Terriers, 138 wins for the Eagles, 21 games ended in a tie.
✈️ 13 hours
Roughly 13 hours after departing California where he called Super Bowl LX, Mike Tirico stepped into Studio A at the International Broadcast Center in Milan, Italy, on Monday night to host “Primetime in Milan.”
The man behind the mic: “For an only child, raised by a single mom in Queens, growing up dreaming of being the next Marv Albert, Tirico is a sportscaster’s sportscaster, with a rare dual ability to lead a studio and call play-by-play at the highest level. Headlining a portfolio of sports’ biggest events now puts him on the path to be considered among the all-time greats in sports TV.” (Andrew Marchand, The Athletic)
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🇺🇸 Spotlight: Ilia Malinin
(Amber Matsumoto/Yahoo Sports)
After helping Team USA defend its championship in the team event over the weekend, young figure skating sensation Ilia Malinin begins his quest today to win individual Olympic gold as the men’s singles program gets underway in Milan.
Hometown: Fairfax, Virginia
Fun fact: His parents were also Olympic figure skaters, competing for Uzbekistan in the 1998 and 2002 Games.
College: George Mason University
The Quad God: The two-time defending world champion, undefeated in his last 15 competitions, dominates figure skating to an astonishing degree thanks to his singular ability to pull off the hardest move in the sport: a quadruple axel.
In 2022, at age 17, the teenager who’d already nicknamed himself the “Quad God” became the first skater ever to land a quad axel in competition. And while he’s repeated the move more than a dozen times since, he remains the only skater who’s ever landed one.
Similar to Simone Biles, Malinin is difficult to beat not only due to his immense skill but because the base values of his routines are so high. A few minor errors won’t sink him like they would someone else.
What they’re saying: “It’s not a shoo-in. Ilia still has to skate well to win. His competitors are good,” 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano told AP. “But yeah, as far as the advantage of being the favorite, it’s him and — well, you know, he’s far ahead.”
🛷 Ashley Farquharson: The Utah native sits in fifth entering today’s final two luge runs. If she can make up the 0.113-second deficit separating her from the podium, she’ll become just the second American woman ever to medal in the event (Erin Hamlin, 2014).
We’ll be spotlighting America’s best athletes throughout the Games. Follow Team USA’s progress on their homepage, and for in-depth Olympics coverage, go to ours.
An American and Canadian player fight for the puck during 2022’s gold-medal match. (Meng Yongmin/Xinhua via Getty Images)
🏒 Women’s Hockey, Canada vs. USA
The world’s top two teams square off in their group stage finale (2:10pm ET, USA) before likely meeting again in next week’s gold-medal game.
Head-to-head: Canada leads the all-time series, 106-86-2, and has a 5-2 edge in Olympic golds. But the Americans are riding a six-game winning streak against them that includes last year’s World Championship final and a sweep in their annual Rivalry Series.
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🎿 Alpine Skiing, Women’s Team Combined
Childhood friends and USA teammates Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson go for gold in the Olympic debut of this event that, ahem, combines two disciplines. Downhill began while you were sleeping, and slalom gets underway soon (8am, USA).
Heavy favorites: Johnson already won downhill gold on Sunday, Shiffrin is the most decorated slalom skier of all-time (by a mile) and the duo took the title last year in the event’s World Championship debut.
🥌 Curling, Mixed Doubles Finals
Team USA upset Italy to reach the championship(12pm, USA), where Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin will face Sweden as they seek America’s third curling medal ever — and first since 2018.
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Third-place matchup: Italy and Great Britain will meet in the bronze-medal match earlier in the day (8am, Peacock).
⛸️ Figure Skating, Men’s Short Program
American sensation Ilia Malinin headlines the men’s singles, which kicks off today with the short program(12:15pm, USA). The top 24 skaters will advance to Friday’s free skate, and the combined scores will determine the medalists.
🥇 Medal events
🎿 Cross-Country Skiing: Sprint Classic Finals (6:10am, USA)
🎿 Freeskiing: Men’s Slopestyle Final (6:30am, USA)
Wemby and the Spurs are rolling. (Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
More to watch:
🏀 NBA: Clippers at Rockets (8pm, NBA); Spurs at Lakers (10:30pm, NBA) … San Antonio (36-16) has won four straight to climb within four games of the league-leading Thunder.
🏀 NCAAM: No. 13 Purdue at No. 7 Nebraska (7pm, FS1) … Boilermakers All-American Braden Smith ranks second nationally with 8.7 assists per game.
⚽️ Premier League: West Ham vs. Manchester United (3:15pm, Peacock) … The Red Devils are 4-0-0 under interim manager Michael Carrick.
Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events happening in your city. Get tickets now!
🌎 Olympics trivia
Team USA flagbearer Erin Jackson walks in the athlete parade with her teammates. (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
The United States has the largest delegation (232 athletes) at the Milan Cortina Games.
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Question: Which country has the second-largest delegation (211 athletes)?
Hint: Host nation Italy is third (195) and Germany is fourth (189), so you can rule them both out.
Answer at the bottom.
📸 Photo finish
Athletes compete in the Mixed Relay at Anterselva Biathlon Arena. (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Biathlon (cross-country skiing + rifle shooting) is one of those sports that sounds fake until you watch it for five minutes and go, “Oh wow, this rules.”
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The High Score 100 — the top-100 players in Yahoo’s newest fantasy basketball format — is a running reflection of year-to-date performance and trending production. Each weekly update captures who’s actually delivering value and who’s fading.
Here’s a breakdown of the biggest risers and fallers through the 16th week of fantasy basketball, right before the All-Star break — with the complete High Score 100 at the bottom of the article. I’ll be updating my rankings every Tuesday throughout the fantasy basketball season.
Clingan’s having a moment. The second-year big man is ranked 48th over the last 14 days and smashed in Week 16, averaging 41.5 fantasy points per game while rattling off three straight double-doubles through Feb. 7. Over a stretch of seven games, his numbers rose to 12 points, 15 boards, 2 assists and 2 blocks per game. That’s exactly the kind of production that moves you up in High Score rankings.
Clingan’s been a force on the glass all season, but with rebounds devalued in High Score, fantasy managers needed to see more from him as a scoring threat and shot blocker — and that’s where he’s been steadily improving as the All-Star break approaches. While I don’t expect his minutes to clear 30 a night, if he keeps this up, he’ll comfortably remain inside the top 100.
With Stephen Curry out through the All-Star break, Brooks could earn his first All-Star Game selection in 2026. He’s in the midst of a career year, being one of the primary drivers of the Suns’ success thus far.
Over the past seven games, though, his numbers have spiked to an average of 37.8 fantasy points per game, good for 50th overall in High Score. On Jan. 29, he scored a season-best 62 fantasy points by way of his first 40-point game against one of the best defenses in the league (Detroit Pistons).
Brooks continues to shine as a scorer without being penalized for his inefficiency or poor assist-to-turnover ratio, making him a strong player for this format.
Brandon Ingram — G/FC, Toronto Raptors: 41st overall (⬆️ 5)
BI’s averaging 42 fantasy points per game over the last 14 days, ranking inside the top 35 in High Score during that stretch. For the year, he sits 47th, but the trend is clearly upward — exactly what you want to see heading into the second half.
Over his last six games, he’s putting up around 25 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and over 1.5 stocks per game. The five-spot climb is modest, but it reflects his consistent performance as a top-50 player this season.
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📉 Fallers — The tank is on
Player
Team
Previous Rank
Current Rank
Rank Change
Trae Young
WAS
75
100
-25
Ja Morant
MEM
55
75
-20
Lauri Markkanen
UTA
34
53
-19
Trae Young — G, Washington Wizards: 100th overall (⬇️ 25)
Trae’s on the verge of falling off the rankings entirely. He’ll be re-evaluated after the All-Star break, but with Anthony Davis done for the season, it’s increasingly unlikely we’ll see Young again this year. The Wizards are tanking hard for a top pick, leaving little incentive to rush him back.
I’m keeping him at 100 for now — barely hanging on — but if we don’t get anything concrete post-break, he’s gone. Fantasy managers holding should be preparing to move on.
Ja Morant — G, Memphis Grizzlies: 75th overall (⬇️ 20)
Ja’s situation is looking just as murky as Trae’s. He’ll also be re-evaluated after the break, but Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman said it’ll take a medical determination for Morant to return. Don’t count on that coming.
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Memphis traded Jaren Jackson Jr., lost nine of its last 11 games and clearly doesn’t care about winning. The Grizz put Ja on the trade block, but received minimal interest. There’s no reason to bring him back now that Ty Jerome and Scotty Pippen Jr. are back, plus Cam Spencer is still in the rotation.
The 20-spot drop reflects reality — Morant’s probably done. And without more clarity, he could find himself off the list by Week 18.
Lauri Markkanen — FC, Utah Jazz: 53rd overall (⬇️ 19)
Tank season is here, and Lauri’s getting benched in third quarters. He’s played under 30 minutes in four of his last five games, and the Jazz are clearly managing his workload with an eye toward the lottery. It’s ridiculous.
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I’m getting ahead of this now because post-All-Star break, expect more rest days and “load management” games. Utah has no incentive to play Lauri heavy minutes, which directly hurts his fantasy value. The 19-spot slide is just the beginning if this continues.
Complete High Score 100 rankings
The High Score 100 is a running reflection of year-to-date performance and trending production.
MILAN — Halfway through Tuesday’s women’s team combined event, the American power duo of Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin could not have been in a stronger position.
Johnson posted the fastest time in the downhill portion of the competition, providing the greatest slalom skier of all time a cushion of six-hundredths of a second.
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What happened next was another all-too-familiar Shiffrin collapse on an Olympic stage, one that will surely evoke memories of her nightmarish Winter Games in Beijing four years ago. It wasn’t just that the 30-year-old American failed to hold the lead. She wasn’t even able to keep herself and Johnson on the podium.
Shiffrin’s time in the slalom was just the 15th fastest among the 18 women who were able to complete the course. As a result, she and Johnson plummeted to fourth place, more than three-tenths of a second behind gold medalists Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber of Austria. Emma Aicher and Kira Weidle-Winkelmann of Germany took silver, while Americans Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan secured bronze.
The disappointing performance from Shiffrin denied Johnson what would have been her second medal of these Olympics. Only two days after she won Olympic gold in the women’s downhill, Johnson once again was in the form of her life on Tuesday, identifying the most direct line down the mountain and attacking it fearlessly.
Between the downhill and slalom portion of the competitions, Johnson tried to ease the mental burden on Shiffrin by reminding her lifelong friend that she already would be returning home with some hardware.
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“Listen, there’s no pressure on my side,” Johnson told Shiffrin. “I already have my Olympic gold.”
Judging by the way Shiffrin skied, it looked like the pressure affected her. Shiffrin appeared uncharacteristically hesitant on the course, taking turns rounder than she normally does and quickly losing the cushion she had over Raedler and Huber.
After lunging across the finish line, Shiffrin stared at her time in disbelief when she realized it was not enough to keep her and Johnson on the medal stand. TV cameras captured Shiffrin embracing Johnson and apologizing at the finish line.
“Didn’t quite nail it,” she said after her run. “I didn’t quite find a comfort level that allowed me to produce full speed.
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“So, I’m going to have to learn what to do, what to adjust in the short time we have before the other tech races.”
For Shiffrin, Tuesday’s race is a rocky start to what she hopes will be a redemptive Winter Games for her. Shiffrin was the favorite to win gold in a minimum of three of the six events she entered in Beijing four years ago, but the most accomplished World Cup skier of all time unfathomably came home with three DNFs and without a single medal.
Mere seconds into her defense of her 2018 Olympic gold medal in the giant slalom, Shiffrin lost her edge making a turn, skidded across the snow and missed the fifth gate. She made a similar error at the top of the slalom course in Beijing. It was the skiing equivalent of watching LeBron James go scoreless in an NBA Finals or Tom Brady throw six interceptions in a Super Bowl.
Shiffrin endured more hard times in November 2024 when a horrific crash in Killington, Vermont, sent her somersaulting over her skis and left her with a puncture wound in the abdomen. She expected to power through her recovery in time to return to competition in a couple months, but the post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the crash was far more debilitating than she expected.
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In a first-person account of the ordeal in The Players Tribune last May, Shiffrin described involuntarily stopping in the middle of training runs and not being able to get her body to move like it needed to.
“It was almost as though I was no longer in control of my body,” she wrote.
Shiffrin eventually fought her way back from those setbacks and returned to her previous level. On Feb. 23, 2025, she became the first skier to win 100 career World Cup races. She has continued to stack up victories this season ahead of the Olympics.
Anywhere else, Shiffrin is the greatest slalom skier of all-time, a master of technique who excels at making the tightest possible turns to save precious nanoseconds.
On the Olympic stage, she’s still struggling to recapture that form.
Curling, which first became an organized sport in Scotland, traces its roots to the 1500s. Historians say paintings from the time depict people sliding rocks across frozen ponds. It took a few centuries for the world to appreciate all that feverish sweeping, though: Curling made its Olympic debut in 1924 — but didn’t return as an official competitive event until the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.
Nearly three decades, the United States is guaranteed of winning its first medal ever in mixed doubles curling as Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin takes on Sweden for the gold medal on Tuesday.
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Chances are if you didn’t grow up in Canada (where curling is most popular), you may think of the sport as people in funny pants — we’re lookin’ at you, Norwegians — pushing an oversized puck across a skating rink. Au contraire. Curling requires finesse, strategy and serious athleticism — the sweeping can burn up to 500 calories per hour. And because players use their brains as much as their bodies, people call it “chess on ice.”
The curling competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics begins on Feb. 4. (Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)
(Andrew Milligan – PA Images via Getty Images)
Rules
For starters, players aim to guide heavy, granite stones across a sheet of textured ice toward a target area called the house that is split into four rings. (Consider curling a distant cousin of shuffleboard.) Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding the stones — also called “rocks” — toward the target. Each team has eight stones per end (five in mixed doubles), which is curling’s version of, say, a baseball inning. There are 10 ends in a tournament-style game (eight in mixed doubles).
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This video shows the skill involved, from the movement the thrower uses to deliver the stone, to the sweepers trying to guide it where it needs to go in the target, aka the house.
The stone weighs 38 to 44 pounds. Players use brooms to smooth the ice and ease the stone’s path toward the house. If a player breaks a rule — like nudging the stone with their shoe — they should be “the first to divulge the breach,” according to the WCF. This sportsmanship expectation is part of what players call “the spirit of curling.”
Scoring
The objective is simple: The team that lands the most stones closest to the bulls-eye wins. Players win a point for every stone that 1) lands in the house and 2) is closer to the “button” — or center of the house — than the closest opponent stone. (For example, if Team A has the closest stone and Team B has the second closest stone, Team A can only earn one point, even if the rest of Team B’s stones somehow ended up outside of the curling arena.) Teams can knock an opponent’s stone away from the house — and, through some vigorous sweeping, strategically place some stones as makeshift shields (guards) to protect others.
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It is impossible, however, for both teams to score in an end, which last the amount of time it takes to throw all of the stones. Points are awarded only to the team that did better in each end. (Should a team tie, there are tie-breaker rounds.) The best possible score in an end is 8-0, which happens when one team gets all eight stones closer to the button than its opponent. This is called a “snowman” — curling slang for a perfect game.
Olympic curling stones all come from a tiny island off the coast of Scotland. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/ AFP via Getty Images)
(LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA via Getty Images)
Fun fact: Curling may be the nicest sport of all
Objectively. After each game, the winners traditionally buy the other team a round of drinks. From the WCF website: “Curlers play to win, but never to humble their opponents. A true curler never attempts to distract opponents, nor to prevent them from playing their best, and would prefer to lose rather than to win unfairly.”
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Quick terminology
Bonspiel: A curling tournament. Circles: The round scoring area, 12 feet in diameter, with concentric circles 1, 4 and 8 feet in diameter. Curl: The rotating movement of a stone caused by turning the handle. Delivery: The act of throwing a rock. End: Similar to an inning in baseball; in an end, each team throws eight rocks, two per player in alternating fashion. Tournament-style games run for 10 ends. Front End: The lead and second player on a curling team. Heavy: A stone that is delivered with more than the desired amount of weight or force. House: The round scoring area, 12 feet in diameter, with concentric circles 1, 4, and 8 feet in diameter. Light: A stone that is delivered with less than the desired weight or force. Rink: A curling team that consists of four players: the skip, third (vice-skip), second, and lead. Also refers to the place where curling is played. Rock: Stone. Sheet: The 146-foot-long area of the ice on which the game is played. Skip: The player who calls the ice and determines the strategy. Almost always plays the last two rocks for his team (but may throw in a different order in some games.) Sweeping: Using a brush to polish the ice in an effort to alter the action of the rock.
Since starting the season 15-4, in part thanks to a seven-game win streak down the stretch of November, the Los Angeles Lakers have yet to stack more than three wins in a row. They had another chance to accomplish that feat for the first time in the New Year on Monday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
With injuries sidelining reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 2025-26 NBA scoring leader Luka Dončić, Crypto.com Arena featured a physical contest that included a combined 52 free throws.
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A scrappy Thunder bunch, which leads the league in defensive rating for the second straight season, outlasted the Lakers 119-110, pulling away in the final minute.
Although Oklahoma City (41-13) had dropped its previous two games in the absence of Gilgeous-Alexander, who will be out through at least the All-Star break, and has looked increasingly vulnerable this season, the Thunder are still the defending NBA champions and the Western Conference’s top team.
Plus, they’re 2-0 against the Lakers (32-20), currently the fifth-place team in the West. More than just eight games separate the Thunder and the Lakers in the conference standings, according to LeBron James.
The 41-year-old James was then asked what’s keeping the Lakers from joining the Thunder in that echelon.
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“We can’t sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes, and they can,” he said bluntly. “That’s why they won a championship.”
James scored 14 of his 22 points in the second half of the loss. He also logged 10 assists and six rebounds. Austin Reaves, in his fourth game back from a calf injury, pitched in 16 points off the bench. Marcus Smart finished with 19 points and went 4 of 7 from deep.
But James, Reaves and Smart each missed a 3-point attempt in the final 40-some seconds, as the Thunder held on to win, bolstered by a clutch-time, midrange jumper by Jalen Williams that made it a 115-110 game with 51.9 seconds remaining. Williams had a game-high 23 points, most notably 10 in the final five minutes.
In James’ eyes, shotmaking and 50-50 balls made the difference.
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While the Lakers’ defense has been criticized during the JJ Redick era, including by Redick himself, and they rank 22nd in the NBA in defensive rating this season, James maintained that defense wasn’t the problem on Monday against the Thunder.
James conceded that the Lakers let Isaiah Joe get way too many 3-point looks in the first half and weren’t executing their switches to a high enough level. Joe hit four 3s and scored 19 points.
“But I mean, listen, for the majority of the second half, I thought we was really good defensively,” James said. “We didn’t have that many lapses.”
Redick was even pleased with his group’s effort overall.
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“I think when you play the best teams — and Oklahoma City is clearly — you know, you have to have a really high level of effort and you have to have a really high level of execution,” Redick said, per ESPN.
“It’s got to be both, and I thought for the most part our effort was fantastic. In key stretches of the game, our execution wasn’t great.”
Regardless if it’s execution, effort or energy, these Lakers are too often missing a key ingredient for championship-level success. James called them out after a setback against the defending champs.
LIVIGNO, Italy — Imagine, if you can, being one of the best freestyle skiers in the world. A former gold-medal winner, even.
And then imagine arriving in Italy to defend that gold medal — in your mother’s home country, no less — and finding a slopestyle course with obstacles so daunting that you were only able to complete the tricks you mapped out one out of 10 times in practice.
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That’s the mind space Alex Hall found himself in Monday night: A champion filled with doubts, but in a way that was oddly freeing him of the burden that came along with trying to repeat what he did four years ago in Beijing.
This was not the competition for Hall to try and strategize or manage his way to the podium. It was full send, from the drop-in to the bottom, leaving nothing in the tank.
“I went to bed just knowing, like, the odds of getting a medal are so slim,” he said. “Because everyone’s so good and the run I was going to try and do, the chances of landing that [were small].”
And if that’s the way things were going to turn out, Hall was fine with it. Because even amongst freeskiers, who are a different breed altogether, Hall is about as laid-back as it gets.
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He just loves to ski, man. The competition brings the medals, the opportunities and the money, but when he won the gold in Beijing with a high-risk, high-reward run that’s now the stuff of legend in this sport, he brought it home and put it in a sock drawer.
Birk Ruud of Team Norway takes 1st place, Alex Hall takes 2nd place, Luca Harrington of Team New Zealand takes 3rd place on day four of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Livigno Air Park. (Millo Moravski/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)
(Millo Moravski/Agence Zoom via Getty Images)
Winning and losing? It’s practically the same. In a sport this capricious — one run, judged by people who could never come close to doing what Hall does — you just keep trying stuff and maybe at exactly the right moment it’ll be good enough to win.
“The four years in between [Olympics], it didn’t ever feel like there was a day where I was like, ‘I’ve got to go train so I can get [another] medal’ or ‘I’ve got to go train so I can beat this person,’” he said. “I’m just gonna go ski, and I like skiing, so in a way it felt effortless because you’re just excited to go ski every day.”
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It’s a nice approach to life, isn’t it?
It also turned out to be an incredibly effective approach Tuesday, as Hall backed up his Beijing gold with Italian silver, coming up a mere .53 points shy of Norway’s Birk Ruud, who has been the best slopestyle skier in the world for the last couple years.
“Maybe, in a way, I’m almost more proud of it,” Hall said of the medal hanging around his neck as he made his way through a thicket of interviews. “I’m really proud of myself for keeping up with how good everyone is nowadays. The tricks people are throwing in slopestyle runs now were big air tricks two or three years ago, so the fact that I’m able to stick with the young guns and put a run down that I’m really proud of is pretty cool. Walking away with any medal is a huge success.”
Of course it would have been storybook for Hall to win a second gold, particularly here. His mother is from Bologna, and he has an Italian passport. He spent much of childhood in Europe, learning to ski just across the border from here in Switzerland where his parents were college professors.
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Of all the athletes wearing the Team USA logo at these Games, no one has felt more at home in these surroundings.
“It feels like a place I know and a place I’ve been in,” he said. “It just feels like another day skiing, in some ways, which is so cool and allows you to, like, really sit back and just enjoy it.”
Which, at its heart, is what freeskiing is all about: Competitors rooting for each other to stomp their runs, land their tricks and let the judges sort out the microscopic, barely perceptible differences between a good performance and a great one.
“In our sport, every event is a different winner,” said American Mac Forehand, who finished 11th. “It’s not consistent at all. Just to get on the podium is huge no matter the event.”
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But it does say something about the 27-year-old Hall that he has come up with some of his best stuff twice now on the biggest stage in the sport.
And coming up half a point short against Ruud, an almost perfect technical skier who generally makes this stuff look way easier than it is?
Hall leaves with zero what-ifs.
“None at all because I knew the run I tried was so hard that I’m surprised I even landed it in three tries,” he said. “When you do one of these runs and it’s that hard, you just black out. You drop in and forget everything you did and end up at the bottom. You don’t really remember how it was. I knew there was a slight mistake in there, but I didn’t know how severe it was.”
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The judges did not penalize Hall much at all, and his score of 85.75 held up as second-best despite 10 other competitors getting a chance to displace him.
“We’re always rooting for each other and always want everyone to throw down their best runs,” Hall said. “The run I threw down, it wasn’t as crisp and perfect as the Beijing run, but in the months leading up to the Olympics I knew if I could get any medal I’d be so stoked. And there’s a lot to be said about just being stoked about how you ride.”
Amber Glenn, part of the gold medal-winning American team, uses a section of the song “The Return” by CLANN in her free skate routine. CLANN — a.k.a. Seb McKinnon — noticed, and wondered how exactly this happened.
“So just found out an Olympic figure skater used one of my songs without permission for their routine,” McKinnon wrote. “It aired all over the world… what? Is that usual practice for the olympics?”
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The International Skating Union permitted skaters to use songs with lyrics starting in the mid-2010s, opening up a massive new category of potential songs, but also opening up a raft of rights issues. Performing, say, Bizet’s “Carmen” doesn’t require rights clearance because that work is in the public domain, but performing a Lady Gaga song requires the complex negotiation of rights for performance, broadcast, remixing, remixing with choreography, among other needs.
And sometimes, not every box gets checked. After the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, American pairs skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier were served with a lawsuit for the alleged unsanctioned use of Heavy Young Heathens’ “House of the Rising Sun” in one of their routines. The suit, which also named NBC for broadcasting the performance, was settled later that year for an undisclosed amount.
Since then, U.S. Figure Skating has sought to work proactively with music licensors such as ASCAP and BMI. But the federation notes that the ultimate responsibility lies with the skater and their team to avoid legal entanglements.
In Glenn’s case, that meant a hasty negotiation with McKinnon, though specifics weren’t revealed. “The issue of music rights can be complex and confusing, and it seems like there was a hiccup somewhere in that process,” Glenn said in a statement. “I’m glad we were able to clear things up and I’m excited about the possibility of collaborating with Seb moving forward.”
Other skaters haven’t been quite so fortunate; Russia’s Petr Gumennik was forced to change his music just two days before his individual skate because of licensing concerns. Spanish skater Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté managed to salvage his “Minions” music after a last-second rights issue made worldwide news.
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“It was a dream come true to perform at the Olympic Games, and to have Seb acknowledge my performance and congratulate me afterward made the moment even more special,” Glenn said in her statement. “It’s my sincere hope that I was able to help create new fans of both figure skating and Seb.”
Glenn will skate to McKinnon’s music in her individual program next Thursday.
