Among a horde of tanking NBA teams, the Sacramento Kings stand alone with the worst record in the NBA. It didn’t get any better Thursday.
The Kings extended their losing streak to 15 games with a 131-94 defeat by the Orlando Magic, breaking the franchise record for consecutive losses. That low mark was previously held by two different streaks during the team’s days of operation as the Cincinnati Royals.
Advertisement
Their record is now 12-45.
Sacramento hasn’t won a game since Jan. 16, a 128-115 win over the similarly futile Washington Wizards. To give a sports fan some perspective on how long ago that was, the NFL divisional round started the next day.
Thursday’s loss was the most lopsided of the bunch with a 37-point scoring margin. Five of the 15 were actually by fewer than five points, but the Kings couldn’t get it done.
As a reminder, the Kings fired current New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown after his team suffered a … five-game losing streak.
The Kings will get their next chance to break the streak with a road game against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. After that, their next three opponents are the Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks.
Advertisement
It’s going to get worse before it gets better for the Kings
With those two out, Thursday offered a vision of how the Kings will be operating moving forward. DeMar DeRozan scored 13 points on 3-of-11 shooting. Russell Westbrook had 5 points on 2-of-8 shooting, with 1 assist and 3 turnovers. The bench scored 30 points on a combined 9-of-29 shooting with 8 assists and 9 turnovers.
Advertisement
A bright spot might have been rookie Maxime Reynaud, who started at center in Sabonis’ place and posted 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting with 14 rebounds and 4 assists. The Kings were outscored by 14 points in his 39 minutes on the floor, which was actually tied for the team’s second-best plus/minus among the 10 players who got minutes.
Maxime Reynaud actually had one of the Kings’ better performances against the Magic. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
(Lachlan Cunningham via Getty Images)
It’s tempting to say the Kings won’t even be trying for the rest of the season, but that’s not exactly how it works. Ownership and the executive suite might not mind more of the same, which would guarantee them a top-5 pick in the loaded 2026 NBA Draft, but the players still have plenty of reason to compete. This just happens to be an extremely broken roster right now.
There is now quite some distance between Sacramento and the rest of the NBA in the standings. The Wizards, Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers and New Orleans Pelicans all have 15 wins as of Thursday night, with the Kings three wins clear of their closest “competition” for the lottery’s top position.
AUSTIN, Texas — The Victor Wembanyama wave, much like the inception of a typhoon in the Southern Hemisphere, arrived with ferocity and velocity and in a matter of mere seconds. And in each instance, the Frenchman’s gravitational pull was its epicenter.
Two minutes into the second half Thursday night, Wembanyama found himself stationed on the left wing with two Suns defenders attempting to crowd his vision. Noticing an open Stephon Castle camped a few feet behind the arc, Wembanyama backed his defender down just enough to leave Castle with enough time and space to launch, before flinging a one-armed pass right in Castle’s pocket.
Advertisement
On the very next possession, Wembanyama yelled at the top of his lungs, calling out defensive coverages while Phoenix attempted to generate a good look in his orbit — to no avail. Seconds later, Wembanyama sprinted up the floor, walked into a trailing triple and knocked it down with confidence and aplomb.
Suns head coach Jordan Ott immediately motioned for a timeout, but the irreversible damage had already been done. Wembanyama turned toward a raucous crowd, threw up the “Hook ‘em Horns” as an ode to the University of Texas’ Moody Center, the Spurs’ home for the next few days, and celebrated with his teammates.
“When he’s sharp, whether he’s directly or indirectly affecting the game with his gravity, it sets the table for everybody else,” Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said following San Antonio’s 121-94 win. “It can be hard at times — I’m sure I can’t imagine, but if I tried to I still can’t — a 22-year-old with so many gifts, talents and weapons. To just trust that being sharp fundamentally still leads to greatness.”
The significance of Wembanyama’s performance — he finished with a modest 17 points but added 11 rebounds, five blocks and four assists — is tied to the Spurs’ goals both near and further down the line. Thursday night’s blowout was San Antonio’s first game coming out of the All-Star break, the first official opportunity for the Frenchman to put action to the weekend words he uttered about the competitive faucet he can never seem to turn off. Thursday also signified the start of the Spurs’ second half push that serves a myriad of purposes; for De’Aaron Fox to legitimize his All-Star nod; for Johnson to demonstrate why he remains one of the league’s brightest tacticians; and for Wemby to illustrate why the juxtaposition of his fighting spirit and unique talent make him a natural for the next face of the league.
Advertisement
“It comes from honesty towards myself and the game,” Wembanyama said. “It’s the game I love. I try not to take it for granted and when I’m on that court, I’m trying to win. My younger self, when I was a kid, if he saw myself playing soft he wouldn’t be proud. I’m striving for the younger Vic.”
Suns star Devin Booker played just nine minutes due to a hip issue, and Dillon Brooks missed the game because of suspension, necessary context for what should have been a hotly contested matchup between Western Conference opponents. But around this time last year, Wembanyama’s season was cut short due to deep vein thrombosis. The growth, not only from Wemby but from his teammates as well, is tangible and puts the Spurs in a different headspace as they gear up for a playoff push.
“I think there’s been obvious changes in one year,” Wembanyama said. “Both from an individual and team standpoint. As a team, we have more expectations and are more ready. We’re fighting for something, every game will be meaningful from now on. And personally, there’s no better experience to grow than when your back is against the wall. I did everything I could to get better — no regrets.”
Not that Wembanyama’s five blocks should come as a surprise — he currently leads the NBA in total blocks (106) and blocks per game (2.7). It’s the shots that teams don’t take, the rim attacks and decisions that are altered when he’s merely on the floor, that is the largest indicator of a feared team. When Wembanyama is on the floor, opponents are taking 6% less shots at the rim and 3% less shots from 4 to 14 feet — impacts registering in the 98th and 95th percentile, according to Cleaning the Glass. The shots that do make it through the cracks aren’t that successful, either. Opponents shoot 11% worse on long 2s, 6% worse on short twos and nearly 4% worse as a collective effective field-goal percentage. Wembanyama is either in the 99th or 100th percentile in virtually every defensive advanced metric — and yet he still feels there’s another level to reach. Johnson not so subtly admitted he’s obsessed with the idea of pairing Wembanyama more with reserve center Luke Kornet, which would give the Spurs more cover than a solar eclipse. Best of luck, NBA.
Advertisement
“I can for sure get better,” Wembanyama said of his shot blocking. “I think I’ve been getting better even though the numbers don’t show it, because players avoid [shooting] clearly. It’s getting harder to block shots. But my athleticism, I’m nowhere near my peak. Just consistency, staying focused through every quarter and every game. Having that drive to block shots.”
San Antonio (39-16) now sits just 2.5 games behind Oklahoma City and should feel confident about its chances of closing the gap even further. This team possesses the depth, floor spacing, guard proficiency, rim protection, coaching prowess and star quality that marks a true contender. Internally, the Spurs aren’t fazed by the reigning champs, having emphatically beaten them multiple times already this season. But for Wembanyama — and the Spurs, for that matter — the best is yet to come, which is the worst possible news for 29 other teams.
Major League Soccer is back! The MLS regular season begins on Saturday, February 21 with fifteen matches over the course of opening weekend. Some of the weekend’s biggest matches will include the Los Angeles Football Club hosting Inter Miami CF at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. ET and a Sunday doubleheader featuring the LA Galaxy hosting New York City FC for Sunday Night Soccer at 7 p.m. ET, and a clash between Western Conference rivals the Seattle Sounders FC and Colorado Rapids at 9:15 p.m. ET.
Every Major League Soccer match this season is included with an Apple TV subscription. Unlike in previous seasons, MLS Season Pass will no longer be offered. If you were a past MLS Season Pass subscriber, you’ve probably already received an email about your subscription, but in case you missed it, you’ll be automatically be subscribed to an annual Apple TV plan this year so you won’t miss a match. Existing Apple TV customers don’t need to do a thing, games will be available as part of your plan. 34 games throughout the season will also be available on Fox or FS1.
Advertisement
Throughout the MLS regular season, the 30 teams in the league will play 34 games, 17 home and 17 away, and there will be a pause in play during the World Cup this June and July. The final day of the regular season, dubbed Decision Day 2026, is Saturday, November 7, and it will decide who has made it to the Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs. (A list of all key dates and details about this season can be found here.)
Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch the 2026 MLS season, and get a rundown of the opening weekend match schedule.
How to watch the 2026 MLS season:
Dates: Feb. 21 – Nov. 7, 2026
Advertisement
Channels: select games to air on FS1, Fox, Fox Deportes
Starting with the 2026 season, all 510 MLS games are included with every Apple TV subscription. That means there’s no longer a separate MLS Season Pass subscription to pay for; if you have Apple TV, you have access to MLS matches.
What channels will air MLS games this season?
34 MLS matches will be broadcast on Fox and FS1 throughout the season. You can take a look at the complete 2026 MLS schedule, including broadcast information, here.
MLS Week 1 Schedule
All times are ET.
Advertisement
Saturday, Feb. 21
St. Louis vs. Charlotte, 2:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
Cincinnati vs. Atlanta, 4:45 p.m. (Apple TV, Fox)
D.C. United vs. Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
Orlando vs. New York, 7:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
Vancouver vs. Salt Lake, 7:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
Austin vs. Minnesota, 8:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
Dallas vs. Toronto, 8:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
Houston vs. Chicago, 8:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
Nashville vs. New England, 8:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
LAFC vs. Miami, 9:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
Portland vs. Columbus, 10:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
San Diego vs. Montreal, 10:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
San Jose vs. Kansas City, 10:30 p.m. (Apple TV)
Sunday, Feb. 22
L.A. Galaxy vs. New York City, 7 p.m. (Apple TV)
Seattle vs. Colorado, 9:15 p.m. (Apple TV, FS1)
A complete schedule for the 2026 season is available here.
Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning.
🥇 Golden girls
(Henry Hodge/Yahoo Sports)
Alysa Liu, bursting with joy, executed a virtually flawless free skate on Thursday to take women’s figure skating gold, making her the first American to medal since 2006, and the first to win since 2002.
Advertisement
From Yahoo Sports’ Jay Busbee:
There are no record books to measure such things, but it’s entirely possible that no Olympian has ever smiled as much as Liu did on Thursday night.
She smiled when she stepped onto the ice, she smiled when she spotted Amber Glenn, she smiled through her lutzes and loops and salchows, she smiled when she pointed her left finger to the sky to close out her routine.
And she smiled — and giggled a triumphant laugh — when she skated right up to the rinkside camera and bellowed, “That’s what I’m f***ing talking about!”
That is the entire joy of the Alysa Liu experience — giddiness, confidence, joy, serenity — and gold-medal-winning talent. At an Olympics where so many others have crumbled under the pressure, she literally laughed in pressure’s face.
(Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, in women’s ice hockey: Team USA captured gold with a 2-1 comeback victory over Canada, tying the game on captain Hilary Knight’s goal with two minutes left in regulation before winning on Megan Keller’s golden goal in overtime.
Advertisement
“There was no way we were losing this game. That’s all. Simple as that,” said Knight. “This is the best team I’ve been a part of,” added Keller. “Every single player is top tier, best in the world.”
Back on top: This is the third gold medal for the Americans (1998, 2018, 2026), who went 7-0 in Milan with a ridiculous +31 goal differential and have won eight straight games against their northern neighbors.
(Yahoo Sports)
Medal count: Team USA has won nine gold medals at these Olympics, one shy of its high-water mark of 10 set at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. And women have played an outsized role in this year’s success, winning six of the nine golds and helping win a seventh:
Advertisement
Alysa Liu (figure skating)
Mikaela Shiffrin (slalom)
Breezy Johnson (downhill)
Elizabeth Lemley (moguls)
Elana Meyers Taylor (monobob)
Team USA (women’s ice hockey)
Team USA (team figure skating)
In fact, the only American man to win an individual gold medal at these Olympics so far is long track speed skater Jordan Stolz, who has two (500m and 1000m).
📺 Weekend Watchlist
The Americans are two wins away from their first gold medal since 1980. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
🥇 Olympics, Days 14-16
The Winter Games come to a close on Sunday, with 20 medal events left across Northern Italy. Here are the main events to watch this weekend:
🏒 Final Four: The men’s hockey semifinals are today, with Canada and Finland meeting first (10:40am ET, Peacock), followed by USA vs. Slovakia (3:10pm, NBC). The bronze-medal match is tomorrow (2:40pm, USA), followed by Sunday’s championship (8:10am, NBC).
🥌 History on the line: The American women are in the curling semifinals after Thursday’s clutch victory, putting them one win away from their first medal ever. They face Switzerland today (8am, Peacock) for a spot in either the bronze-medal match (Sat. 8am, Peacock) or gold-medal match (Sun. 5am, Peacock).
🥇 Legends take the stage: Italian short track speed skater Arianna Fontana seeks her fourth medal in Milan and record-tying 15th of her career in today’s 1500m finals (2:15pm, USA). Then Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo goes for his sixth gold of these Games (in six events) in tomorrow’s cross-country 50km mass start (5am, Peacock).
🔥 The grand finale: The Milan Cortina Games officially end with Sunday’s Closing Ceremony(2:30pm, NBC) at the 2,000-year-old Verona Arena, a historic amphitheater that predates even the Colosseum.
How’s this for a doubleheader? The top four men’s teams in the nation face off on Saturday in a potential Final Four preview. First up is No. 4 Arizona at No. 2 Houston (3pm, ABC), followed by No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 3 Duke in D.C. (6:30pm, ESPN).
Advertisement
Meanwhile, for the women: There are five ranked matchups on Sunday, headlined by No. 6 Michigan at No. 13 Iowa (12pm, Fox) and No. 17 Ole Miss at No. 3 South Carolina (12pm, ESPN).
⚽️ MLS Kickoff
The league’s 31st season begins this weekend, with all 30 teams taking the field. The headliner: Son Heung-min and LAFC host Lionel Messi and reigning champion Inter Miami (Sat. 9:30pm, Apple) at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
New way to watch: Starting this season, all MLS games will be available to Apple TV subscribers at no additional cost. You previously needed a Season Pass subscription to watch every game.
Advertisement
⚾️ Spring Training
We are back. Spring training games start today, with 37 total over the weekend across Florida’s Grapefruit League and Arizona’s Cactus League. Today’s opener: Yankees vs. Orioles (1pm, MLB).
World Series favorites: The Dodgers (+225 at BetMGM) are the preseason title favorites, followed by the Yankees (+1000), Mariners (+1300), Blue Jays (+1300), Mets (+1400), Braves (+1600), Red Sox (+1600) and Phillies (+1600).
More to watch:
🏀 NBA: Mavericks at Timberwolves (Fri. 7:30pm, ESPN); Clippers at Lakers (Fri. 10pm, ESPN); Rockets at Knicks (Sat. 8:30pm, ABC); Cavaliers at Thunder (Sun. 1pm, ABC)
⛳️ PGA: Genesis Invitational (Fri-Sun, ESPN+/Golf/CBS) … Aaron Rai (-6) leads after an incomplete Round 1, which was suspended due to rain.
⚽️ Premier League: Manchester City vs. Newcastle United (Sat. 3pm, Peacock); Tottenham vs. Arsenal (Sun. 11:30am, USA) … Second-place City trails first-place Arsenal by just five points, with a game in hand.
🏁 NASCAR: Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway (Sun. 3pm, Fox) … With 28-degree banking at the turns, this is one of the steepest tracks in the Cup Series.
🏉 Six Nations: Week 3 of 5 (Sat-Sun, Peacock) … Only France remains undefeated through two weeks.
Got plans this weekend? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events happening in your city. Get tickets now!
🏀 March Madness comes early
(Yahoo Sports)
Saturday brings a true college hoops unicorn: the AP poll’s top four teams all facing each other on the same day. It’s just the third time this has ever happened during the regular season — and only the fifth occurrence overall, NCAA Tournament included.
Flashback: Like tomorrow, the first instance also featured top-ranked Michigan facing Duke. “If you’d like to transport back to ’92, that game was massive,” notes CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander. “Intentionally scheduled as a championship rematch from the previous season’s natty. The game aired on Raycom (!!) and was sponsored by Pizza Hut.”
“Back to the Future” is a series of images captured using vintage Graflex cameras, paying tribute to the type of camera that would have been used 70 years ago when Cortina previously hosted the games in 1956. In a modern twist, these cameras have been adapted to record images on smartphones, enabling live transmission of the content captured.
Advertisement
Livigno — An athlete practices during ski cross training at Livigno Air Park.
(Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Cortina d’Ampezzo — A two-man bobsled whizzes past as a security guard watches on at Cortina Sliding Centre.
(Pauline Ballet/Getty Images)
Milan — The crowd at Milano Ice Skating Arena looks on during the Free Dance.
(Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Bormio — A general view of the Men’s Team Combined Downhill at Stelvio Alpine Skiing Centre.
⚽️ MLS trivia
(Rich Storry/Getty Images)
Inter Miami begins its title defense this weekend, as they try to become the first back-to-back MLS champions since 2011-12.
Question: Which team won those two consecutive titles?
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
MILAN — Midway through a long bus ride, Zeev Buium occupied himself scrolling through the music on his phone.
The American ice hockey defenseman was searching for the perfect goal song for the U.S. team to use at the 2025 World Junior Championships.
Advertisement
Previous U.S. hockey teams had converted an array of pop hits, classic rock songs and techno bangers into high-energy goal celebration anthems. Buium said that he and his teammates had discussed trying to find “something less generic, something more meaningful, something we hadn’t done before.”
The song that Buium kept coming back to was a chart-topping 1973 rock anthem by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Buium’s teammate at the University of Denver, Lukas Olvestad, hooked him on it by incessantly blaring it from his speakers during house parties.
“How about ‘Free Bird’?” Buium asked his U.S. teammates on the bus, not knowing how they would feel about a song released more than a quarter century before any of them were born.
“Luckily the boys liked it,” Buium said.
Advertisement
At Buium’s request, USA Hockey started the song at the 4:45 mark to highlight Free Bird’s iconic hard-rocking guitar solo rather than its mellow, bluesy opening. The distinctive goal song played nonstop during the the U.S. team’s run to a gold medal at those World Junior Championships, earning enthusiastic reviews from American hockey players and fans in the way that “Party in the USA,” “Chelsea Dagger” or “Another One Bites the Dust” seldom did.
More than a year later, “Free Bird” has gone from World Juniors to the Olympic stage. The U.S. men’s and women’s national teams both voted to adopt the Lynyrd Skynyrd anthem as the song that blasts over the arena loudspeakers whenever they score a goal.
Thirty-three times, the gold-medal-winning U.S. women found the back of the net over the course of seven consecutive victories in Milan. Thirty-three times, American crowds responded by pumping fists, waving flags, chanting U-S-A and dancing or mimicking playing the guitar in their seats, though the song was barely audible above the din after Megan Keller’s overtime goal lifted the U.S. to gold over Canada.
“Free Bird” has been the soundtrack to 18 goals from the U.S. men, including Quinn Hughes’ overtime game winner against Sweden on Wednesday night. The American men will have the chance to cue up “Free Bird” a few more times when they face Slovakia in the semifinals on Friday night in Milan.
Advertisement
“This is all player-driven,” USA Hockey manager of communications Melissa Katz said. “After how much it caught on during the [World Junior Championships], it was a no brainer to keep the momentum rolling with that goal song. From our under-18 teams to our Olympic teams, they’ve embraced ‘Free Bird’ over the last year.”
The enthusiasm for “Free Bird” can best be measured by the assortment of hockey-themed “Play Free Bird” T-shirts, hats and other merchandise available to purchase. Or you can check out the social media response to Keller’s golden goal.
“Someone turn Free Bird up as loud as it can go,” tweeted one fan, alongside three American flag emojis.
“Inject this into my veins while Free Bird blasts in the background,” another wrote, alongside slow-motion video of Keller’s epic goal.
American forward Joy Dunne said that it was a no-brainer for her and her teammates to vote to use “Free Bird” as their goal anthem this year given the fan response.
Advertisement
“We love the song, we hear the fans going crazy and we definitely appreciate it,” Dunne said. “It makes for an awesome atmosphere to play in, that’s for sure.”
American forward Brady Tkachuk echoes that, though he admits he appreciated the “Free Bird” celebrations better from the stands than from the bench.
“It’s tough to hear on the ice,” Tkachuk said, “but when we were at the women’s game, it gave me chills.”
It has also been a thrill for Buium to hear “Free Bird” at the 4 Nations Face-off and the Olympics. Like Tkachuk, he said he “got chills” watching the fans get into it or seeing people in the crowd with “Play Free Bird” across their chests.
Advertisement
Asked why he thinks it’s such a perfect fit as USA Hockey’s goal song, Buium said, “I think it’s because it represents what the U.S. is all about. We’re all Free Birds.”
“Hopefully it’s something that sticks for a long, long time,” he added.
The Los Angeles Rams are promoting pass game coordinator Nathan Scheelhaase to offensive coordinator, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Scheelhaase is replacing former Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur, who left to become the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.
Per Schefter, Rams quarterback’s coach Dave Ragone will also serve as co-offensive coordinator.
Advertisement
Scheelhaase’s promotion puts him on track to have a strong shot at landing a head-coaching job in the next few years. Scheelhaase was a finalist for the Cleveland Browns head-coaching position before they decided to hire former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken. Scheelhaase also interviewed for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head-coaching job before they hired Mike McCarthy.
Despite head coach McVay controlling the play-calling duties, four of the Rams’ past five offensive coordinators have landed head-coaching jobs in the NFL.
Scheelhaase has spent the past two seasons with the Rams, first as an offensive assistant and passing game specialist, then as pass game coordinator.
This is the first time Scheelhaase has served as an offensive coordinator since 2023 at Iowa State under now Penn State head coach Matt Campbell. He worked at Iowa State for four years in roles including running game coordinator, running backs coach and wide receivers coach before taking over as offensive coordinator.
Advertisement
Before his coaching days at Iowa State, Scheelhaase coached at his alma mater, the University of Illinois. He spent three years there, first in football operations, then as the running backs coach and as an offensive assistant in his final year. Scheelhaase was a former quarterback at Illinois before he transitioned to coaching.
The Rams are coming off a season in which they ranked first in total and passing yards, highlighted by a career year from quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams.
Stafford won MVP after throwing for 4,707 yards and a career-high 46 touchdowns and a career-low 8 interceptions, despite coming into the year with a back injury.
Advertisement
Nacua had 129 catches, 1,715 yards, 10 touchdowns and was a finalist for offensive player of the year. Adams added 60 catches for 789 yards and led the league with 14 touchdowns, despite missing three games with a hamstring injury
Longtime University of Tennessee sportswriter Wes Rucker was killed in a car crash on Interstate 40 in Knoxville on Thursday. He was 43.
Rucker, who had worked for 247 Sports covering Tennessee and was writing for WBIR, was involved in a chain-reaction crash in the westbound lanes of the highway. According to the Knoxville Police Department, a driver rear-ended a vehicle to set off a wreck that involved five vehicles.
Advertisement
“The investigation has revealed that a vehicle was stopped for traffic when it was rear-ended by another vehicle, resulting in minor damage,” the police department said in a statement. “Another vehicle then struck the second vehicle, setting off a chain reaction. Seconds later, a large pickup truck ran into and on top of an involved vehicle, fatally injuring the adult male driver of the vehicle it collided with.”
Rucker and his wife, Lauren, had a son, Hank, and Lauren is due to give birth to a girl this spring. In a post on WBIR’s website, the station said, “Lauren has asked WBIR to pass on her thanks for the prayers and support. She wants everyone to know how wonderful he was as a husband, father, son, brother and friend.”
Tributes to Rucker poured in across social media after news of his death emerged on Thursday evening. Tennessee men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes opened his news conference Friday with remarks about Rucker.
“It’s heartbreaking, it really is, just heartbreaking,” Barnes said. “Our hearts and prayers go out to Lauren, son Hank and the one that’s on the way. We just ask that God will place a holy hedge of protection around his family, his entire family. Wes was a wonderful person.”
It’s hard to believe, but the Milan Cortina Olympics are coming to an end. The Closing Ceremony is on Sunday in Verona, Italy, where Team USA will be led by two of its brightest stars.
It announced Friday that U.S. women’s hockey hero Hilary Knight and ice dance icon Evan Bates will carry the American flag during the ceremony.
Advertisement
Knight, fittingly known as “Captain America,” is coming off a dramatic win over Team Canada in the gold-medal game. The U.S. was trailing 1-0 with a bit more than two minutes left in regulation on Thursday. That was, before the 36-year-old Knight scored a game-tying and record-breaking goal to force overtime.
She now has 15 goals in her Olympic career, the most any U.S. women’s hockey player has recorded. That third-period strike lifted her above Natalie Darwitz and Katie King-Crowley, who both piled up 14 Olympic goals in their playing days.
She set the U.S. women’s hockey all-time Olympic goals record at the perfect moment, and she set the stage for a spectacular finish that saw Megan Keller light the lamp in OT with a game-winning goal for the ages. Together, they helped the American women win their third-ever Olympic gold medal, and their first since the 2018 Games in PyeongChang.
Still, while bittersweet, the silver remains monumental for Chock and Bates, who have won the past three ice dance world titles and now have an ice dance Olympic medal after skating together for 15 years.
Their run started in 2011, and they married in 2024.
This year’s Games have been packed to the brim with exciting moments and breathtaking storylines. But it’s natural that two of Team USA’s most veteran performers will serve as flag bearers during the Closing Ceremony.
The 2026 MLB season is nearing its beginning, so you know what that means — it’s time to start (or kick into overdrive!) your fantasy baseball draft prep! The Yahoo Fantasy Baseball draft kit is here to help you build the best squad possible! Whether you’re mock drafting or getting in on the real thing, we’ve got you covered.
This page will serve as a one-stop shop for all our great draft content from our loaded team of analysts — Scott Pianowski, Fred Zinkie and Corbin Young. You’ll find rankings, position previews and more below, updating daily with more content as we make our way through draft season.
Pianowski groups each position into tiers with dollar values for salary cap leagues, helping you get a better sense of who to target in each phase of your draft.
… And more rankings advice to come!
🤩 Mock Drafts
Practice makes perfect (or, close to it!) and we’re practicing right along with you.
📝 Positional Previews
What to expect from every position in 2026 and some key draft targets — check out our rundown for each of your roster spots!
… More positional advice still to come!
👨🏫 More Expert Analysis
… There is still so much more to come here in the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit. We will be updating this hub every day with new analysis, predictions, tips and more all up until Opening Day. So keep it locked here as we get you ready to crush your fantasy baseball drafts!
The fantasy baseball community loves their advanced stats. Like the new bat tracking data — with bat speed, attack angle and fast swing rate — they provide inputs to the real-life and fantasy outputs that matter. That said, it’s easy for our heads to spin when examining all the advanced stats available on FanGraphs, Baseball Savant and more.
With so many advanced stats available for fantasy baseball, it can be overwhelming for fantasy managers. I still recall when I heard about BABIP (batting average on balls in play), wOBA (weighted on-base average) and barrel rate, which led to more wonderings about the acronym or phrase. Thankfully, the sites that create these advanced stats tend to have definitions about what goes into that metric to help us digest them.
We’ll touch on a few categories for advanced stats in fantasy baseball to hopefully help new and seasoned fantasy managers. The goal of this article is to highlight the common and valuable advanced stats for hitters and pitchers to provide a starting point for beginners and a path to diving deeper into a player’s profile, given the bevy of advanced metrics for fantasy baseball purposes. Before we dive in, it’s important to compare these advanced stats with the league and player’s career norms to help provide a baseline of how much these matter.
Plate Discipline for Hitters
We want to go beyond walks and strikeouts for hitters to examine their plate discipline. It might seem a bit granular, but we can examine swing and contact rates, especially whether they’re inside or outside the zone. The swing rates matter because we can identify whether hitters tend to chase pitches outside the zone, which can lead to higher swinging-strike rates and eventually strikeouts. It’s also helpful to analyze the zone and overall swing rates because they show us whether a player could be patient or aggressive at the plate.
Advertisement
The visual below shows the league averages across the primary plate discipline metrics. When we see O (outside) and Z (zone), they refer to swings and contact rates inside or outside of the zone.
Here’s a look at league wide plate discipline over the past five seasons.
These swing rate metrics have a mixture of people charting the data and Statcast cameras throughout the baseball stadium, depending on the data source. Like any advanced stat, one doesn’t hold weight over another, and they paint a picture for a hitter’s profile together. For instance, a hitter might be patient with low swing rates and doesn’t chase, yet they struggle to make contact. Sometimes we see patient hitters who don’t chase with lower zone and overall contact rates. If that’s the case, we want them to hit the ball hard and in the air. Theoretically, if a hitter makes a high amount of contact, it should provide a higher floor for them, though the contact quality matters.
Some hitters who don’t chase often, yet make league-average contact while hitting the ball hard, include Will Smith, Juan Soto, Trent Grisham, Seiya Suzuki and Wyatt Langford. Ideally, we want hitters who fit those molds instead of hitters with high contact rates who struggle to hit the ball hard. Examples of those high-contact hitters with low exit velocities include Luis Arráez, Steven Kwan and Jacob Wilson. Though those hitters can provide high batting averages, they tend to be one-category contributors, or maybe two, if they hit atop the lineup.
Advertisement
Statcast Data for Hitters
It’s wild to think that the Statcast data could be free because football advanced metrics tend to land behind a paywall. We can find plate discipline metrics in the Statcast data, though we typically focus on the barrel rates, hard hit metrics and the new bat-tracking data. Launch angles can be seen via groundball, line drive and flyball rates. A hitter’s launch angle between 10-25 degrees can be categorized as a line drive. Groundballs have launch angles below 10 degrees, with flyballs between 25 and 50 degrees.
It’s nice when a hitter hits the ball hard (over 95 mph), but the launch angles also matter. An example would be a hitter who hits the ball hard, but flashes a heavy groundball approach, likely leading to lower barrel rates. If a hitter often hits groundballs, we want them to destroy balls when they elevate them via line drives and flyballs. To define barrels, a hitter must hit the ball at an exit velocity of 98 mph or higher with a launch angle between 25 to 30 degrees. Barrels per plate appearance correlates well to home runs (0.550), so hitters who barrel up the ball tend to generate more power and home runs.
Here’s a chart that helps identify the barrel zone for batters.
When we pair the plate discipline, we can find potential breakouts or fades because they either struggle or thrive in plate discipline and hard-hit metrics. It’s a high-risk, high-reward profile for a hitter if they hit the ball hard while struggling to make contact. Two other exit velocity metrics to consider on Statcast include Exit Velocity 50 or EV50 and average exit velocity on flyballs and line drives (EV on FB/LD). EV50 is defined as the average of the highest 50% of the hitter’s batted balls, potentially giving us a more reliable metric than average exit velocity.
Advertisement
If we have hitters who tend to have lower launch angles, we want them to crush batted balls on flyballs and line drives. We know that groundballs tend to be at a lower average exit velocity, so we can find optimism for hitters like Christian Yelich, Yandy Diaz, Brett Baty, James Wood, William Contreras and Bryan Reynolds, who have low launch angles (high groundball rates) while hitting the ball hard in the air when they elevate it.
The visual below shows hitters with the lowest launch angles in 2025, with at least 100 batted-ball events.
Here’s a chart detailing the batters with the lowest launch angle in MLB last season.
This goes back to our discussion about how context matters, and one advanced stat shouldn’t be the endpoint. Optimal launch angles, high-end exit velocities and launch angle consistency tend to lead to fruitful outcomes.
Advertisement
Control and Whiffs for Pitchers
Strikeout minus walk rate (K-BB%) has long been one of the more proven metrics for a pitcher’s skill. What if we could add a layer to that? One way involves looking at balls and swinging strikes. Swinging-strike rate is calculated by swings and misses divided by total pitches thrown. Meanwhile, whiff rate on Statcast is the percentage of swings-and-misses divided by swings.
Each pitch has a different threshold for average, above-average and near-elite from a swinging-strike or whiff rate. I prefer to use the swinging-strike rate because it aligns with the ball rate and the overall swinging-strike rate. The top-three notable pitches with a league-average swinging-strike rate at 15% or higher include sliders (16.1%), splitters (17.7%), and changeups (15.6%). Meanwhile, sweepers (14.3%) and curveballs (13.5%) were close behind, but typically not massive bat-missers based on the league norm.
Alex Chamberlain’s pitch leaderboards give us the league averages by pitch from a plate discipline standpoint, as seen below.
Here’s a look at league average benchmarks for pitch plate discipline.
Among fastballs, the league-average four-seamers elicited a 10.5% swinging-strike rate, with cutters at 11%. Unsurprisingly, sinkers generated a 6.2% swinging-strike rate, which is not a top priority for swinging strikes and whiffs. The league average swinging-strike rates typically fluctuate around half a percentage point from year to year.
Advertisement
One final piece to consider with the swinging-strike rate involves the sample. If a pitch generates 10 swings and misses (whiffs) out of 30 pitches thrown, we want to be cautious with that pitch type continuing to elicit a 33.3% swinging-strike rate. So if there’s a lowly used pitch, there will be some volatility, though that’s where the pitch characteristics, movement profiles and locations matter.
Generally, pitchers with poor control tend to find themselves as relievers. If a starting pitcher struggles with control, then we want them to have high strikeout skills, or it’s a risky profile. Examples of starting pitchers with a risky profile include Luis Gil, Spencer Arrighetti, Charlie Morton and Lucas Giolito from last season.
To find pitchers who can elicit swings and misses, here’s a look at the eight starting pitchers with two pitches that generated a swinging-strike rate at 20% or higher in 2025 with at least 50 pitches thrown: Kyle Bradish (curveball, slider), MacKenzie Gore (cutter, changeup, slider), Cade Horton (changeup, sweeper), Shohei Ohtani (slider, sweeper), Reese Olson (changeup, slider), Cole Ragans (changeup, slider) and Blake Snell (changeup, slider). These are the kinds of high-strikeout and high-upside starting pitchers we want to target, assuming we don’t have significant injury risks.
Pitch Movement Profiles
Many like to cite the “stuff” metrics like Stuff+ and other similar stuff models. However, I like to dig into the inputs that go into the stuff metrics. Examples of Stuff model inputs include pitch movement profiles (horizontal and vertical), release points and more. That said, often we can examine the individual pitch movement profiles and figure out which pitch moves horizontally or vertically more than the average of that pitch type.
Here’s a look at the Red Sox ace’s horizontal movement on his pitches vs. average inches by season.
However, it’s worth noting that pitches with tons of horizontal or vertical movement profiles don’t automatically mean they grade highly in Stuff models. Furthermore, we’ll highlight that pitches that tend to have more vertical movement typically generate more whiffs. On the flip side, typically pitches with more horizontal movement can lead to weaker contact. If a pitch possesses tons of downward movement compared to an average one, we might guess it should elicit more whiffs and weak contact. If that’s not the case, and the pitch gives up hard contact with fewer whiffs, we can speculate on poor locations for that given pitch.
Advertisement
For four-seamers, we want to look for pitchers with high amounts of induced vertical break (IVB), like Nick Pivetta, Tobias Myers, Nestor Cortes Jr., Ryne Nelson and Ryan Pepiot. If it’s a slider, changeup or splitter, we want to focus on pitchers who generate tons of downward movement like Chris Sale’s slider, Garrett Whitlock’s slider, Logan Webb’s changeup or Cristopher Sánchez’s changeup.
Pitcher Release Points and Arm Angles
Statcast recently introduced arm angle over the past few seasons, giving us a window into different arm slots for pitchers. Similar to the conversation around Stuff models and the individual pitch movement profiles, the vertical and horizontal release points can help us at a more granular level to find any inputs that could be impacting a pitcher’s command, pitch locations and movement profiles. For instance, if a pitcher’s horizontal release point moves farther away from the midline of their body, we could expect possibly more horizontal movement, unless this horizontal release adjustment coincides with a vertical release change.
The visual below shows George Kirby’s career arm angles by season for reference:
Here’s a look at George Kirby’s arm angle by season.
Additionally, if a pitcher uses a higher arm angle, we might not find as much horizontal pitch movement, though there will be outliers. Where the pitcher release points matter typically become highlighted after a pitcher’s control improved or regressed, with fewer or more whiffs, and the batted-ball results on a certain pitch were better or worse. That type of analysis will be found in my regular work, as we tend to dive into the weeds to uncover additional advanced stats to guide the player-level analysis.
Advertisement
ERA Estimators
There were articles written about Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) and Expected FIP (xFIP) in 2010. I’d like to think we’ve come relatively far over 15 years later in the advanced stats and ERA estimators. FIP looks at strikeouts, walks, hit by pitches and home runs allowed. We already discussed how there’s more nuance in examining pitchers from a starting pitcher standpoint. Meanwhile, xFIP takes FIP a step further to account for a league average in home run per flyball rate. The tricky part with scaling to league averages involves players having their own norms based on their skill set and advanced metrics.
Advertisement
Another common ERA estimator is Skill-Interactive Earned Run Average or SIERA, which adjusts for balls in play instead of eliminating those factors like FIP or xFIP. Research from 2011 showed that SIERA can be more predictive than FIP or xFIP, as it considers balls in play like groundballs, line drives, flyballs and pop-ups. At this point, we have exit velocity data, among other baseball advanced stats available, so why not discuss Expected ERA or xERA?
According to Statcast, xERA is the pitcher’s version of Expected Weighted On-Base Average (xwOBA). xERA and xwOBA account for strikeouts, walks, hit by pitches, exit velocities and launch angles, crediting and suggesting that pitchers and hitters can impact balls in play. Statcast notes that xERA isn’t predictive, but an indicator that a pitcher may be able to suppress contact quality. I find the process of examining a pitcher’s skills before looking at the ERA estimators helps to support or wonder whether the player can sustain their success or if regression might hit. It’s the theme of examining the inputs that affect the outputs and expected metrics.
Some of the best pitchers have the better ERA estimators, including Shohei Ohtani, Chris Sale, Garrett Crochet, Bryan Woo, Kyle Bradish, Emmet Sheehan and Paul Skenes. Since the strikeout skill metrics correlate well to those ERA estimators, we can guess they’re likely legitimate starting pitchers.
Bat Tracking Metrics
The days of only citing hard-hit metrics have passed, as now we have bat-track metrics, including bat speed and fast-swing rate. Bat speed correlates well with hard-hit percentage (0.554) and barrels per plate appearance rate (0.464). The correlation between bat speed and home runs was 0.328. Meanwhile, bat speed doesn’t correlate well with batting average (0.083) and expected batting average (0.014), though it does correlate with expected slugging percentage (0.355).
Advertisement
That tells us that bat speed should translate into barrel rate and hard-hit metrics, which theoretically makes sense. Hitters who swing the bat fast tend to hit the ball hard, assuming they make enough contact and swing fast while hitting the ball. A hitter’s bat tracking profile would be more volatile if they swing fast with a high bat speed and struggle to make contact. Some hitters who fit that profile include Jhonkensy Noel, Colson Montgomery, Matt Wallner, Alexander Canario, and Christopher Morel.
The visual below shows the hitters sorted by the top 30 in bat speed, with other bat tracking metrics included.
Here’s a view of the top-30 batters in baseball last season by bat speed metrics.
Another notable bat tracking metric to monitor involves fast swing rate, which accounts for the percentage of swings at 75 mph or higher. That’s not an arbitrary cutoff, but an important one at 75 mph since the league average bat speed hovers around 72 mph. Hitters with a high percentage of fast swing rates have a mixture of elite power hitters and some noisy names. Those elite power hitters with high fast swing rates include Giancarlo Stanton, Oneil Cruz, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Kurtz, Aaron Judge and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Statcast Bat Tracking Leaders. (Photo by Corbin Young)
Finally, let’s define squared up and blasts under the bat tracking category. Statcast defines squared up balls as coming from a swing that attains at least 80% of the maximum possible exit velocity. You might be wondering how they define or estimate the maximum exit velocity on a swing; it includes bat speed and pitch velocity.
Advertisement
This is where the advanced stats become hairy because Statcast mentions that squared-up balls typically come from the sweet spot of the bat (about 4-9 inches from the head of the bat). That’s notable because Statcast also has a sweet spot percentage, which includes the percentage of batted balls hit in the sweet spot of the bat.
Furthermore, when there’s a squared-up ball with high bat speed, it becomes a blast, which tends to lead to optimal results. A high bat speed goes beyond a fast swing rate. Statcast references an 82 mph bat speed as a threshold to create a blast, assuming the hitter squared up the ball. If these bat tracking metrics make our heads spin, focus on bat speed and fast swing rate, since those translate well into the other power skill metrics like barrels and hard-hit percentage. These bat tracking metrics help us to dive deeper into the nuances of real-life and fantasy baseball.
