For multiple decades, Bob Knight led Indiana University’s men’s basketball team to unparalleled success. Knight won three national championships, one NIT title and 11 Big Ten Conference titles over his 29 seasons as the team’s head coach.
As acknowledgement of Knight’s excellence, Indiana University announced Monday it will build a bronze statue of Knight as a way to immortalize his accomplishments.
Advertisement
The statue of Knight will be displayed at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, where Indiana’s men’s and women’s basketball teams play their home games. Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall opened in 1971, Knight’s first year coaching Indiana, and already houses statues honoring the 1976 national championship team. Knight’s statue will “be displayed prominently alongside” those statues, per a school release.
That 1976 national championship team was special, as Knight led it to a perfect 32-0 record during the 1975-76 season. That team remains the last Division I men’s college basketball team to turn in an undefeated season.
During his 29-year run at Indiana, Knight put up a 662–239 record. That, combined with his national championships, led to Knight being inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
Knight’s time as Indiana’s head coach ended in controversy, as he was fired shortly after being accused of choking one of his former players. After that story emerged, then-Indiana University president Myles Brand put Knight on a “zero-tolerance” policy. After multiple complaints about Knight’s conduct, Brand fired Knight in 2000. Indiana students were outraged, marching in protest following the firing. Knight took a year off from coaching before heading to Texas Tech, where he spent his final seven seasons as a head coach. Knight put up a 138-82 record with Texas Tech before retiring in 2008.
Advertisement
For many years following his firing, Knight held a grudge against Indiana. That fence was finally mended in 2020, when Knight attended his first game at the school since his firing in 2000. His presence was met with a rousing ovation.
Indiana University did not reveal a timetable for Knight’s statue, but promised to release more information on the project — which is being designed by Hanlon Studios — in the coming months. The project is being fully funded thanks to an anonymous men’s basketball supporter, the school said.
Given Team USA’s history, Ben Ogden entered the cross-country sprint Tuesday with extremely low expectations. Cross-country skiing hasn’t been Team USA’s best event, with Bill Koch being the only male to medal in the sport at the Olympics for the U.S.
But Koch got some company Tuesday, as Ogden pulled off a silver-medal finish in the cross-country sprint. Ogden finished the event with a time of 3:40.61. He finished just behind Norwegian legend Johannes Hosflot Klaebo, who won his second gold medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics and his seventh Olympic gold medal overall. Klaebo posted a winning time of 3:39.74 in the event.
Advertisement
While Ogden didn’t take home the gold, it was a historic medal for the 25-year-old. With the performance, Ogden became just the second U.S. male to earn a medal in cross country. It was Team USA’s first medal by a male cross-country skier since 1976.
Cross-country skiing has a lengthy history at the Winter Olympics, and Team USA hasn’t made a big impact in the sport. Since cross-country skiing was introduced at the Olympics in 1924, Team USA had combined to medal just four times prior to Tuesday. Team USA’s women had accounted for three of those medals, with Koch being the only male U.S. athlete to medal in the sport.
Prior to Ogden’s silver, here is the brief history of Team USA’s cross-country performance at the Olympics:
Advertisement
Bill Koch, silver medal, 1976 men’s 30k
Jesse Diggins and Kikkan Randall, gold medal, 2018 team sprint
Jesse Diggins, silver medal, 2022 women’s 20 and 30 km
While the U.S. has struggled in the sport, it appears the country’s luck is starting to turn. Ogden’s win gives Team USA four cross-country medals since the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. After a century of struggles, the Americans are starting to find their footing in the sport.
Given that, perhaps Ogden’s silver medal Tuesday should have been expected. Ogden turned in a modest 12th-place finish in the freestyle sprint at the 2022 Olympics. While he didn’t come close to the podium, that performance did mark the best sprint finish by a U.S. man in the Olympics at that point.
Ogden obviously smashed that performance Tuesday. In doing so, he not only won his first Olympic medal, but accomplished something Team USA hasn’t experienced in 50 years.
DirecTV’s Entertainment tier gets you access to loads of channels where you can tune in to college and pro sports, the Winter Olympics, and more. Channels include ESPN, TNT, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS Sports Network, and, depending on where you live, local affiliates for ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.
Whichever package you choose, you’ll get unlimited Cloud DVR storage and access to ESPN+’s new streaming tier, ESPN Unlimited.
DirecTV’s Entertainment tier package is $49.99 for your first month. But you can currently try all this out for free for 5 days. If you’re interested in trying out a live-TV streaming service for football season but aren’t ready to commit, we recommend starting with DirecTV.
Despite not adding to their medal count, Team USA had a productive day at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics on Monday. Madison Chock and Evan Bates put themselves in strong position to medal after an impressive rhythm dance performance, the U.S. women’s hockey team continued to dominate the competition in the preliminary round and Team USA’s mixed doubles curling team advanced to the gold-medal match.
Thanks to that mixed doubles curling team, the U.S. is guaranteed to add to its medal count Tuesday. A win over Sweden nets the gold, but a loss sends Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin home with silver medals.
Advertisement
Elsewhere, the “Quad God,” Ilia Malinin, will take the ice Tuesday for the men’s short program. Malinin’s performance in the team portion of the men’s short Saturday was shaky, as he actually finished behind Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama in the event. Malinin already shook off the rust from that performance, propelling Team USA to the gold medal in the team event after an exceptional free skate Sunday. Tuesday, however, will give Malinin a chance to fully bounce back in the men’s short.
To close out the day, women’s luge and mixed team ski jumping will get underway before the U.S. women’s hockey team squares off against Canada. It will be Team USA’s biggest test yet, as Canada is the only other undefeated team left in Group A.
But before all that happens, there were a number of early morning events Tuesday.
Here are the top stories of the day so far:
Advertisement
1. Mikaela Shiffrin experiences heartbreak again, but Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan take bronze for Team USA in combined ski
Breezy Johnson proved Sunday that she is a threat in the downhill. Johnson picked up one of Team USA’s two gold medals at the 2026 Olympics — so far — in the event, beating Emma Aicher of Germany by just just four-hundredths of a second.
On Tuesday, Johnson proved that performance wasn’t a fluke. She cruised to the lead in the downhill during the team event, finishing with a 1:36.59 time. That was enough to propel Team USA into the lead.
With Johnson’s portion out of the way, it was up to Mikaela Shiffrin, a slalom great, to deliver the gold medal. But after failing to medal in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Shiffrin missed out on the podium again.
Advertisement
Appearing hesitant on the course, with rounder turns than normal, Shiffrin’s time in the slalom was just the 15th fastest of the day, and it dropped her and Johnson to fourth place in the event. They clocked out more than three-tenths of a second behind gold medalists Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber of Austria. Fortunately for Team USA, though, Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan grabbed bronze. Moltzan followed up Wiles in the downhill with a clean run in the slalom.
2. Italy takes gold in speed skating mixed relay, Team USA falters
The host country scooped up its second gold at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, upsetting Canada in the short track speed skating mixed team relay.
Advertisement
It was a narrow victory for Italy, which posted a time of 2:39.019. Canada finished just behind with a time of 2:39.258, and Belgium wasn’t far behind them, taking bronze. For Belgium, that marked the first medal the country has earned so far at the 2026 Olympics.
With the win, Italian speed skater Arianna Fontana made history, becoming the first woman to medal at six consecutive Winter Olympics. Fontana now has three golds, four silvers and five bronzes since the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Team USA failed to reach the final. Though the team recovered from a Corinne Stoddard fall to advance in the quarterfinal, it could not overcome another fall from Stoddard in the semifinal.
3. Sweden dominates cross-country women’s sprint
Move over, Jonna Sundling, because Sweden has a new cross-country gold medalist. Swedish skier Linn Svahn took home the gold in the cross-country women’s sprint Tuesday, finishing with a time of 4:03.05. Svahn finished just ahead of Sundling, who took the silver medal with a time of 4:04.64. Sundling won the gold medal in the event during the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Finishing in third … was another Swede. Maja Dahlqvist put up a time of 4:07.88, giving Sweden a clean sweep of the medals at the event.
Advertisement
American Julia Kern finished in sixth place, posting a time of 4:43.41.
4. Ben Ogden takes silver in cross-country men’s sprint
Ben Ogden didn’t win the gold medal in the cross-country men’s sprint Tuesday, but he did pull off something that hasn’t been done by Team USA in the sport in half a century. With a silver medal, Ogden became the first American man in 50 years to earn an Olympic medal in a cross-country skiing event. The last individual to pull off the feat was Bill Koch, who won the silver back in 1976. Ogden finished behind a legend. Norwegian Johannes Hoesflot won the event, giving him his second medal of the Milan Cortina games and his ninth Olympic medal overall. Of those nine medals, seven have been gold.
5. Alex Hall’s gold-medal defense falls short in slopestyle
Alex Hall won gold in freeski men’s slopestyle four years ago in Beijing, and Americans had won six of the nine total medals in the event since it was added to the Olympic program in 2018. This time around, though, Hall was the only member of Team USA to make the podium, and he was dethroned in the process. Norway’s Birk Ruud, who came into the Games as the world’s top-ranked slopestyle freeskier, took gold, whereas Hall’s impressive second run helped him secure a silver medal. As for his fellow Americans, however, Konnor Ralph finished ninth in his Olympic debut and Mac Forehand, a medal hopeful, struggled to navigate rails and placed 11th.
Advertisement
Highlight of the morning
Stevenson Savart is Haiti’s first-ever Olympic cross-country skier. The 25-year-old was the country’s flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony. While he didn’t medal, he made national history and wrapped up his groundbreaking run in this year’s Games to the tune of cheers.
If you’re no stranger to fantasy sports, you’re likely coming off a successful (or unsuccessful) fantasy football season. Perhaps you also play fantasy basketball or fantasy hockey and are enduring the rigors of those seasons. If all of the above apply and you’re ready for your next challenge, or you’ve just been anxiously awaiting fantasy baseball, we’ve got some good news.
Yahoo Fantasy baseball returns in 2026 with new features designed to help fans optimize their lineups, commissioners manage their leagues and the entire Yahoo Fantasy baseball community stay better connected.
Advertisement
New features
A new team screen calendar view gives fans a single weekly scan of their team, enabling them to see which day of the week their pitchers are scheduled to start. Launching early this season, this feature will help fans more easily spot gaps in their lineups and plan for the week ahead.
An updated draft settings tool enables league commissioners to manage draft times and formats, as well as set draft orders, directly from the Yahoo Fantasy app.
Fantasy Feed — which launched for the football season — will be available for the baseball campaign. Fantasy Feeds enable fans to follow, react to and talk with other fans about every big play from the games that matter most to their fantasy season.
Matchup of the Week — which also launched in the fall — highlights one must-watch league showdown every week. Fans who win the Matchup of the Week earn a custom badge to flex on their leaguemates.
Ever had a few friends who wanted to play but not enough to fill a fantasy baseball league? You can instantly invite up to seven people to join you in a free public league. All you have to do is enter a free public draft room and tap the “Add Friends Pre-Draft” button to invite people to join your draft! (This feature is currently only for public leagues.)
Want to lessen the load of having to meticulously set your fantasy baseball lineup, day in and day out? With the tap of a button on desktop or from the Yahoo Fantasy app, the free Start Active Players feature will set your lineup for you, filling it with healthy players who have a game on that specific day/week and benching those who are off and/or injured.
Advertisement
If you’re ready to take your game to the next level, you can get something even better …
Yahoo Fantasy+ premium features help you win from draft day to the playoffs. Subscribers win their leagues 81%‡ more often and will also now have access to a trio of popular features that were available for football season, including:
Instant Mock Draft: Practice your draft in seconds. Test different strategies, positions and roster constructions as many times as you want, anytime, instantly.
Draft Kits: A personalized cheat sheet with rankings, tiers and projections tailored specifically to your league. Additionally, player insights surface real-time expert analysis directly in those cheat sheets. Exclusively in the Yahoo Fantasy app.
Assistant GM: A virtual assistant that starts your best players and alerts you if you need to make a move before the action starts.
‡ Based on 2024 Yahoo Fantasy Sports LLC data.
Now’s your chance to gain an edge — unlock premium draft tools, player projections and more with Yahoo Fantasy Plus.
Make the most of this fantasy baseball season
If you’ve played fantasy sports before, great — welcome back! If you’re new to fantasy baseball, we’ve got a very useful and informative Fantasy Baseball 101 that will give you everything you need to know before playing.
Advertisement
Pumped to get your team? Drafts are open now or you can practice with mock drafts to get ready for the real thing. Yahoo Fantasy analysts are also ready to help you win your league, kicking off draft prep season with our top-250 rankings so you can start mapping out which players to target. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our fantasy baseball content.
We will be delivering all kinds of advice leading up to the season, including positional previews, draft strategies, breakouts, sleepers, players to fade, bold predictions and much more from top-notch analysts, including Scott Pianowski, Fred Zinkie and Corbin Young.
Once drafts are in the books and the first pitch is thrown on Opening Day, our analysts will be with you all season long with waiver wire targets, trades to pull off, lineup tips and more. And for personalized advice, Yahoo Fantasy+ offers a wealth of in-season tools — and several other membership perks — to give you an extra edge when it comes to roster moves. All of this will help you stay ahead of your leaguemates on your quest to take home a fantasy baseball championship!
Note: The default scoring in all newly created fantasy baseball leagues will be head-to-head points. This is the standard across all new leagues, but private-league commissioners can change their scoring settings if they so choose, while those in public leagues will also have head-to-head category and rotisserie scoring as options as well.
Fantasy baseball remains a staple for MLB fans, matching the everyday excitement on the field that has truly become a worldwide phenomenon. If you love baseball, if you count down the days from the end of the World Series to when pitchers and catchers report, this is the game for you. You’ll get to build your team through the draft, targeting a mix of stars, solid starters, rookies and role players. Then ride the highs and lows of the baseball season, from Opening Day all the way to the final out as your squad goes for the title.
If you’ve never played fantasy baseball before and want to know more about how it works, don’t worry. We’ve put together this how-to guide that has all the information you need to play and win. See why this game within the game is so much fun.
Featured sections
What is fantasy baseball?
When it comes down to it, fantasy baseball is a collection of players assembled on a team, and their accumulated real-life stats get converted into fantasy points. If you’re able to score more fantasy points or win more categories than your opponent, then you win that particular week’s matchup. If you’re playing weekly matchups and win enough times throughout the season, then you can secure a spot in the fantasy playoffs and potentially become a champion.
Advertisement
Maybe you don’t get to celebrate like the World Series champions, with a parade through your city’s streets and thousands of fans cheering you on. But with a fantasy baseball championship comes the reward of getting to remind your league mates who the best is with some friendly trash talk during the offseason. You might even get a prize for winning it all, depending on your league style. Not too shabby, huh?
There are many different ways to play fantasy baseball, and it’s easy using Yahoo’s default settings. Or, you can customize the scoring settings to suit your league’s tastes. But one thing is the same: you, as the manager, must draft your team first (more on that below).
Trades could come into play, too. That’s when you and another manager in your league agree to swap players to suit your mutual needs for the rest of the season.
All this happens throughout the season as you operate as a de facto general manager. This regular dedication can mean starting the right player for a day or week (depending on whether you’re in a daily or weekly league format) to accumulate fantasy points and statistics that propel you to wins in weekly competitions against opponents.
Don’t feel that this game is being played on a computer. Enjoy watching the actual MLB games and look at how the scoring translates to fantasy as you follow your team’s progress on your personal device or through our very user-friendly Yahoo Fantasy app. You’ll see that your team compiles stats for home runs, runs, RBI, wins, saves and many other categories. As you get more experience, you’ll see how stars like Aaron Judge and Tarik Skubal help you across several categories, and thus are more valuable to your team.
Advertisement
Some leagues play for more than just bragging rights. They can set a monetary reward for the champion or the top finishers in the league, staggered based on final placement. For private leagues, the commissioner works with league members to determine what’s at stake and how the end-of-season awards are distributed. Yahoo can even help with holding the funds and paying out the winners for Private Prize Leagues. Some leagues even agree upon a punishment for the last-place team, and those can range from funny to embarrassing to, well, both. So don’t finish last!
What if I don’t have enough people to play?
Don’t worry if you can’t get a group together to play fantasy baseball — there are options to play for free or for cash in public leagues on Yahoo. Want to keep it casual with no monetary stakes involved? Playing for the first time and want to give it a test drive? Join a free league and have some fun without all the pressure.
If you ever had a few friends who wanted to play but not enough to fill an entire league, our feature, Draft With Friends, is the perfect solution! You can instantly invite up to seven people to join you in a free public league. All you have to do is enter a free public draft room and tap the “Add Friends Pre-Draft” button to invite people to join your draft! (This feature is currently only for public leagues.)
Advertisement
If you’re confident and want to up the ante, join a Public Prize League by paying an entry fee. This fee goes towards cash prize payouts for first, second and third place.
What are the different scoring formats in fantasy baseball?
Players on your fantasy team’s active roster put up stats in the categories tied to your league settings, and your format dictates your scoring. There are three formats in which people typically play fantasy baseball.
Try one format and see if there are any tweaks you’d like to make. Or change formats altogether. That’s what’s fun about fantasy baseball — there are different ways to play to suit what you enjoy the most. The main formats to play are:
This format is similar to fantasy football in that there are weekly matchups against opponents from your league.
In private leagues, you can increase or decrease the number of teams based on how many people you want to play in your league. It’s ideal to have an even number of teams for H2H leagues, but there’s an option to play with an odd number (as long as you have five or more teams).
Now let’s get more specific about the types of head-to-head scoring:
Categories or One win: Fantasy managers move players back and forth from their starting lineup to their bench on a daily basis, starting Monday and running through the final games Sunday, with teams compiling statistics in the same 10 categories in H2H Category and One Win leagues — five for batters and five for pitchers. Those categories are runs, home runs, RBI, stolen bases and batting average for batters. And wins, saves, strikeouts, earned run average and WHIP (walks/hits per inning pitched) for pitchers.
Advertisement
H2H Categories is a cumulative style where your record is how many categories you’ve won and lost in a week and over the course of the season. The goal is to win at least six of the 10 categories by the end of each week. Note: you can also consider using more or fewer than 10 categories.
H2H One Win (Private Leagues only) is identical to H2H Categories, except only 1 result is added to the W-L-T record per week.
Head-to-Head Points and Head-to-Head Weekly Points: In these formats, there are point values assigned to every statistic in 17 separate categories; both the hitting and pitching point designations for each stat are listed below and account for scoring.
Advertisement
Batter Stat Categories and Point Values
Pitcher Stat Categories and Point Values
These two options — one with daily roster management and the other with weekly, when players lock every Monday — are a combination of Points and the H2H formats above, in that each matchup, the teams compile points.
Ultimately, teams are assigned wins and losses each week, and the standings are kept for each league. A predetermined number of teams make the playoffs, which begin Week 24 and continue until one team is crowned champion at the completion of Week 26 and the MLB season.
Default scoring in all newly-created leagues will be Head-to-Head Points. This will be the standard across all new leagues, but private-league commissioners can change their scoring settings if they so choose, while those in public leagues will also have Head-to-Head Category and Rotisserie scoring as options as well.
In this format, similar to H2H Points, there are point values assigned to the 17 separate categories listed above and account for scoring. Points are added up to determine the standings — there are no playoffs in this format.
This is the original format that was founded in the 1980s. Active players’ stats are compiled for each fantasy squad, and then teams are ranked in each category based on their cumulative numbers, with the standings determined by how highly the players rank in all categories combined — there are no playoffs in this format. These are the 10 categories, divided evenly between pitching and hitting.
Advertisement
Batter Stat Categories: Runs (R), Home Runs (HR), Runs Batted In (RBI), Stolen Bases (SB), Batting Average (AVG)
Pitcher Stat Categories: Wins (W), Saves (SV), Strikeouts (K), Earned Run Average (ERA), (Walks + Hits)/ Innings Pitched (WHIP)
So, if your team has the most home runs in a 10-team league, that would be worth 10 points. If your squad has the fewest homers, you would receive 1 point, and so on, for how you rank in each of the categories.
How do you draft a fantasy baseball team?
There are some dates on the calendar that you always circle in anticipation: Halloween, your Birthday, Opening Day of the MLB season and … Draft Day! That’s the day everyone in your league convenes to pick their respective teams. If you’re lucky to be near one another or get that many people in the same place at the same time, there are few things better than a live draft. If your league is scattered all over the country — or in some cases the world — Yahoo Fantasy has you covered. You can draft online from your computer, phone or personal device. For commissioners, we also have tips on getting your league ready to draft.
You can also practice by partaking in a mock draft to get ready for the real thing. It’s a valuable resource before going into a live setting because you want to get comfortable with the draft format (more on that below), plus get a feel for the board and where players are being selected. You can mock out of any draft position to see what type of team you can get after having the No. 1 pick, No. 2 pick and so on.
Advertisement
If you’re looking for a baseline expectation or range of where certain players typically get drafted, Yahoo Fantasy’s draft analysis tool helps understand each player’s average draft position (ADP). Some players will go later, and others will go early, so mocking will provide a sense of the market value when it’s time to draft.
The Yahoo default positions for each team in a 10-team league are: a catcher (C), first baseman (1B), second baseman (2B), third baseman (3B), shortstop (SS), three outfielders (OF), two utility players (Util), two starting pitchers (SP), two relief pitchers (RP), four pitchers (P), five bench spots (BN) and four injured list spots (IL). Players are moved in and out of the starting lineup based on how managers want to deploy their teams, according to league rules determining daily or weekly transactions.
The most common way to select teams is through what’s called a snake draft. In a 10-team league, after the order is determined, teams start drafting from No. 1 through No. 10, and then in the second round start at 10 and count backward toward No. 1 again. Then repeat the process until all the teams have been selected. The default positions listed above go through 23 rounds, but that can be increased based on your league’s wishes.
If you’d like a more challenging way to draft, your league can elect to try a Salary Cap Draft, where all teams start with a predetermined budget, usually $260. Instead of going around and picking players, the managers in your league get to nominate players and assign them a salary as long as it’s within their remaining budget. While it would be impossible to roster Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto on the same team in a snake draft format (both are among the consensus top-10 players, according to Yahoo Fantasy rankings), in a Salary Cap Draft, managers can load up on stars and leave a few dollars for less-productive players to fill out the rest of their roster. It takes longer to draft this way, but there is more strategy in managing a budget to fill out a roster.
Advertisement
Fantasy baseball just got more fun and easier than ever
Yahoo Fantasy baseball returns in 2026 with new features designed to help fans optimize their lineups, commissioners manage their leagues and the entire Yahoo Fantasy baseball community stay better connected.
New features
A new team screen calendar view gives fans a single weekly scan of their team, enabling them to see which day of the week their pitchers are scheduled to start. Launching early this season, this feature will help fans more easily spot gaps in their lineups and plan for the week ahead.
An updated draft settings tool enables league commissioners to manage draft times and formats, as well as set draft orders, directly from the Yahoo Fantasy app.
Fantasy Feed — which launched for the football season — will be available for the baseball campaign. Fantasy Feeds enable fans to follow, react to and talk with other fans about every big play from the games that matter most to their fantasy season.
Matchup of the Week — which also launched in the fall — highlights one must-watch league showdown every week. Fans who win the Matchup of the Week earn a custom badge to flex on their leaguemates.
Want to lessen the load of having to meticulously set your fantasy baseball lineup, day in and day out? With the tap of a button on desktop or from the Yahoo Fantasy app, the free Start Active Players feature will set your lineup for you, filling it with healthy players who have a game on that specific day/week and benching those who are off and/or injured.
Advertisement
If you’re ready to take your game to the next level, you can get something even better …
Yahoo Fantasy+ premium features help you win from draft day to the playoffs. Subscribers win their leagues 81%‡ more often and will also now have access to a trio of popular features that were available for football season, including:
Instant Mock Draft: Practice your draft in seconds. Test different strategies, positions and roster constructions as many times as you want, anytime, instantly.
Draft Kits: A personalized cheat sheet with rankings, tiers and projections tailored specifically to your league. Additionally, player insights surface real-time expert analysis directly in those cheat sheets. Exclusively in the Yahoo Fantasy app.
Assistant GM: A virtual assistant that starts your best players and alerts you if you need to make a move before the action starts.
‡ Based on 2024 Yahoo Fantasy Sports LLC data.
Yahoo Fantasy baseball just got more fun and easier than ever to play for the 2026 MLB season with several new features!
After your draft is complete, the fun begins! It’s time to start your quest to win that fantasy championship. There are going to be tough decisions on who to add off the waiver wire and who to drop. You may need to pull off a trade or two along the way. Our analysts will provide top-notch advice all season long to help your chances. And for personalized advice, Yahoo Fantasy+ offers a wealth of in-season tools to give you an extra edge when it comes to roster moves — on top of that, there are also several exclusive perks with our partners valued at more than $250 with your membership.
Advertisement
While you’re hard at work, don’t forget to take some time to let your leaguemates know who’s the best. At the end of the day, it’s all about having fun (and winning). Good luck in your fantasy baseball leagues, and join or create a league today!
We’re in the age of advanced metrics, Statcast data and pitcher “stuff” being the top headlines in real-life and fantasy baseball. Fastball velocity has been increasing each season, with an average velocity of 93.6 mph — the highest in the Statcast era (since 2008). We’ve seen fastball velocity gradually rise, averaging over 93 mph for four straight seasons after hovering between 92-93 mph throughout the 2013 to 2021 seasons.
With more “stuff” models and advanced data telling us non-fastballs might be more optimal, we’ve seen the percentage of fastballs fall to 54.8% in 2025, with a consistent decline since 2019. For context, 2019 was the first season where the league-wide fastball usage was below 60%.
Advertisement
So, what pitch types increased the most over the past few seasons?
Sweepers and sliders have taken the league by storm, with the usage hovering between 20-22% over the past four seasons (2022-2025). When we filter by sweepers specifically, it went from a 2% usage in 2021 to 4% in 2022, then boomed to 6-7% from 2023 to 2025. Sweepers have been the most significant pitch usage increase, with cutters and splitters being notable for a slight increase of 1-2 percentage points over the past few seasons.
This league-wide data tells us teams continue to chase strikeout skills and stuff. We’re in an era of real-life and fantasy baseball where it’s difficult to rely upon pristine command without the strikeout skills and stuff to sustain value. Teams and players continue to reflect on the data, evolve and make adjustments, as we should in fantasy baseball.
More positional previews
Proactive Starting Pitcher Picks
George Kirby, Mariners (Yahoo ADP 68.4)
George Kirby had been durable before 2025, then dealt with right shoulder inflammation to begin the season. He missed the start of the season and made his 2025 debut in late May. Kirby lowered his arm angle by eight degrees (29 degrees) in 2025 when his arm angle typically sat around 36 degrees. That could be related to the shoulder inflammation coinciding with a more comfortable and lower arm slot:
George Kirby’s Arm Angle by month. (Photo by Corbin Young)
Kirby’s lower arm angle in 2025 led to the slider sweeping three inches more toward his glove side in 2025 compared to 2024. Besides Kirby’s slider, the four-seamer lost over two inches of induced vertical break while adding nearly an inch of arm-side run. Kirby’s arm angle dropped mainly from the vertical release point tumbling by over 2.5 inches and the horizontal release moving farther from his midline.
Advertisement
Theoretically, those arm angle changes for Kirby would lead to more horizontal pitch movement as we saw in 2025.
Kirby typically rocked elite control, with a career ball rate at 31%, which jumped to 34% in 2025, likely related to the shoulder injury. He finished the season healthy and saw an increase in his swinging-strike rate (12.4%), mainly via his knuckle curve (19% swinging-strike rate) and splitter (17.9% swinging-strike rate). However, it’s worth noting that Kirby ditched the splitter usage against left-handed hitters in 2025 (3.6%), down from 15.2% in 2024, so we dealt with a smaller sample.
Kirby still possesses high-end skills, with an xERA (3.36) nearly one run below his actual output in 2025. There’s a slightly discounted draft price for Kirby in 2026, and we’ll want to invest in him.
Advertisement
Kyle Bradish, Orioles (Yahoo ADP 79.6)
Kyle Bradish made it back healthy in late August 2025 after recovering from Tommy John surgery with an internal brace. It’s a small sample of six starts, but Bradish performed well with the expected ERA (2.89) and strikeout skills looking near-elite. That’s evident in Bradish’s 15% swinging-strike rate, mainly from the slider (21.7%) and curveball (23.4%) headlining the arsenal. Bradish was one of eight starting pitchers with two or more pitches with a swinging-strike rate above 20% in 2025.
Kyle Bradish Swing & Miss % by Season. (Photo by Corbin Young)
Bradish’s slider and curveball pitch movement profiles in 2025 looked similar to 2024, when he was on the brink of a breakout season before the injury. He has a consistent and optimal attack against right-handed hitters, with three more pitches (slider, sinker, four-seam) allowing a wOBA under .200 in 2025, similar to the outcomes in 2023 and 2024. Bradish weirdly threw more four-seamers (29.6%) to left-handed hitters after lowering the usage in 2024 (17.5%). That’s odd because left-handed hitters have been attacking the four-seamer, with a .457 wOBA (.464 xwOBA) in 2025, .703 wOBA (.612 xwOBA) in 2024, and .397 wOBA (.416 xwOBA) in 2023.
Advertisement
Expect Bradish to examine the data and adjust the pitch mix against lefties in 2026.
Even if the swinging-strike rate regresses to somewhat between 2025 (15%) and the career average (11.4%), Bradish profiles as an above-average to high-end starting pitcher based on the skills. That’s the type of pitcher to target in fantasy baseball drafts.
Starting Pitcher Fades
Bryan Woo, Mariners (Yahoo ADP 34.7)
It seemed like Bryan Woo’s arm might fall off in 2025, but he led the Mariners in innings, ahead of Luis Castillo. Unfortunately, Woo ended the season injured with a pectoral injury in mid-September. Woo wasn’t on the ALDS roster, then pitched in relief in the ALCS, though he wasn’t sharp in his 4.1 innings of work.
Advertisement
Woo is a WHIP asset, with 0.90 in 2024 and 0.93 in 2025, as he limits hit rate or BABIP. Meanwhile, Woo maintained near-elite control, with a career 31% ball rate. He has shown an increase in his ability to miss bats, with a 13.2% swinging-strike rate in 2025.
Bryan Woo Swing & Miss % by season. (Photo by Corbin Young)
There used to be a narrative around Woo struggling against left-handed hitters. However, Woo has been throwing more changeups against lefties (12.4% in 2025 and 15.9% in 2024). Woo is a command artist, and he peppers the changeup low and away from left-handed hitters, and probably tunnels well with his sinker, which has a similar movement profile.
Woo has shown he can handle a heavy workload, though there’s still some injury risk at the draft cost.
Advertisement
Brandon Woodruff, Brewers (Yahoo ADP 133.8)
We spoke about Bradish’s small sample success, which might be ironic as we’re mentioning Brandon Woodruff as a starting pitcher fade. Woodruff missed nearly two full seasons after he underwent surgery in October 2023 on his throwing arm for the anterior capsule. The average timeline to return from this surgery was around 16 months for elite baseball players, according to a 2023 Study. It’s worth noting that the sample remains small, but that provides a rough timeline for other players, especially pitchers, who rely on throwing for their profession.
Brandon Woodruff’s 5-game rolling average. (Photo by Corbin Young/Fangraphs)
Woodruff found success with an average velocity under 93 mph (92.9 mph) in 2025 after a career average of 95.5 mph. There’s a chance that Woodruff’s velocity increases somewhere between 2025 and the career norms. Woodruff’s changeup was dropping two inches more and losing an inch of arm-side fade, with the lower velocity in 2025. Regardless, Woodruff’s changeup led his arsenal with a 20% swinging-strike rate.
Advertisement
Besides the lower velocity across the board and consistent changeup whiffs, he added a cutter in 2025; like a harder version of his slider. Woodruff found success with the cutter, especially against right-handed hitters, generating weak contact (.126 wOBA, .118 xwOBA). It could be a pitch classification issue, though Woodruff’s cutter looks like an intentional change to throw a harder slider based on the movement profile and pitch locations.
Brandon Woodruff cutter breakdown. (Photo by Corbin Young)
The main risk would be volume for Woodruff after missing nearly two seasons before returning in 2025. Most projections have him around 150 to 160 innings after he logged under 70 innings in 2025. If the velocity ticks up in Spring Training, then the injury optimism will rise, though we want to temper expectations on Woodruff returning to a near-elite starter. There is admittedly an upside scenario where Woodruff also evolves with the lower velocity and stuff.
Cam Schlittler, Yankees (Yahoo ADP 124.6)
There was some fortune in Cam Schlittler’s favor with a 3.72 xERA in 2025, nearly one run higher than his actual outcomes. Schlittler had mediocre control, with a 34% ball rate, yet a decent 12.1% swinging-strike rate. Although Schlittler has three pitches with double-digit swinging-strike rates, the four-seam (12.1%), cutter (10.4%) and sinker (11.1%) led the arsenal. That suggests Schlittler’s arsenal might be underwhelming from a whiff standpoint.
Advertisement
Schlittler’s four-seam possesses mediocre induced vertical break (16.3 inches) and below-average extension (6.4 feet, 39th percentile), which he locates in the upper third of the zone. The curveball generates above-average downward movement and horizontal sweep, a pitch Schlittler weirdly throws often (20.9%) to left-handed hitters with mediocre outcomes (.296 wOBA, .277 xwOBA). Typically, breaking pitches fare better against same-handed hitters.
Cam Schlittler cutter breakdown. (Photo by Corbin Young)
Meanwhile, Schlittler’s cutter tends to elicit weak contact (.192 wOBA, .202 xwOBA) against right-handed hitters, as he locates it low and away. However, Schlittler’s cutter doesn’t generate whiffs, evidenced by an 11.6% swinging-strike rate to right-handed hitters. He’ll need to find a more consistent approach to both sides of the plate, with only one solid offering to righties and lefties.
The draft market has been valuing Schlittler’s skills higher than the skills suggest, though there’s a chance we’re undervaluing the potential for a step forward. If a pitcher doesn’t have high-end stuff, lacks an above-average fastball and the secondaries don’t have above-average movement profiles to elicit whiffs (or weak contact), I tend to have caution with over-investing in this type of profile.
Advertisement
Starting Pitcher Sleepers
Kris Bubic, Royals (Yahoo ADP 208.7)
There’s probably some bias as a Kris Bubic truther heading into 2025. Bubic finished the season with a 3.65 xERA, 33% ball rate and 13.5% swinging-strike rate. The skills supported the breakout as a starting pitcher, though Bubic finished the season with a left rotator cuff strain in late July, causing him to miss the rest of the 2025 season. Bubic’s health concern has already been built into the early discounted draft price.
Kris Bubic vertical movement. (Photo by Corbin Young)
When we talked about Schlittler earlier and what we look for in breakout pitchers, Bubic checks those boxes. Bubic possesses an above-average four-seamer, generating 18.1 inches of induced vertical break, with 16 inches being around average. That, paired with high-end extension (85th percentile) while locating the four-seamer in the upper third of the zone, leads to an optimal combination for a fastball. We hear about those “rising” fastballs, and that’s what Bubic’s four-seamer theoretically does.
Advertisement
Bubic has a near-elite changeup that he peppers low and away from right-handed hitters, adding four inches of downward movement, which typically aligns with more whiffs from a vertical movement standpoint. Specifically, against right-handed hitters, Bubic’s changeup induced a 21.6% swinging-strike rate in 2025, better than 2024 (19.2%).
Kris Bubic average spin rate. (Photo by Corbin Young)
Let’s highlight a nerdy note about Bubic’s changeup. The changeup dropped more (four inches) and maintained velocity. How did that happen? Bubic probably threw the changeup with a different grip because the spin rate dropped by over 150 RPM, aligning with the additional inches of downward movement. Theoretically, that leads to more pitch separation between the four-seamer and the changeup, making it more challenging for hitters to cover the zone, as seen in the visual below.
Kris Bubic pitch movement profile. (Photo by Corbin Young)
Take a chance on Bubic again in 2026 because there’s enough to like in his pitch movement profiles, approach and strikeout skills to replicate or take a slight step forward. The data supports Bubic’s semi-breakout from 2025 to buy back into him in 2026.
Advertisement
Ranger Suárez, Red Sox (Yahoo ADP 156)
The Red Sox signed Ranger Suárez in mid-January for five years and $130 million to add depth to their rotation. Suárez hasn’t shown the ability to handle an ace-like workload of 175-200 innings, but that’s not the likely expectation. He typically misses a month or so with an injury each season, though it’s hard to complain about 150 innings for someone who’s somewhat of a quality start machine. Suárez logged a quality start in 48% of his starts over the past four seasons (2022-2025).
Suárez goes deep into games via his heavy groundball approach, evidenced by his career 51% groundball rate, with the sinker leading the arsenal in groundballs (63-64%). Since Suárez pitches to contact, especially weak contact, his strikeout skills have been underwhelming with a 9.8% swinging-strike rate in 2025, identical with his career norm.
Ranger Suárez Vertical Movement. (Photo by Corbin Young)
Although Suárez’s entire arsenal doesn’t generate whiffs, his changeup has been deadly, eliciting a 17.7% swinging-strike rate in 2025. Suárez’s changeup continues to drop an above-average rate (40-41 inches) over the past two seasons, as he commands the pitch low and away from right-handed hitters. The changeup serves as Suárez’s best pitch against right-handed hitters, allowing a .214 wOBA (.251 xwOBA) in 2025.
Advertisement
The Red Sox love cutters, throwing them at the second-highest rate in 2025. Suárez has a cutter, but it’s one of his worst pitches from a movement and results (weak contact) standpoint. That’s evident by Suárez’s cutter allowing a .387 wOBA (.305 xwOBA) against right-handed hitters, which he threw 20.7% of the time. Since the Red Sox love cutters, I wonder if they make a tweak to Suárez’s cutter.
From a fantasy roster construction standpoint, Suárez can eat quality innings while providing a solid floor, which we can pair with potential high-upside options at starting pitcher.
HOUSTON — Shortly after the final buzzer sounded in the Hornets’ 109-99 road triumph over the Rockets on Thursday — their eighth straight win and longest streak since 1999 — the Charlotte conglomerate retreated to its corridors.
One by one, each player marched into the locker room with stoic expressions on their faces. No shouting, no taunting, no celebrating. A number of individuals departed to get some postgame weightlifting in, others hung back to wind down. Had it not been for the soft sounds of high fives being doled out by head coach Charles Lee, one would have assumed they had just suffered an embarrassing loss, not added another chapter into their book of resurgence.
Advertisement
In this moment the culture shift — the painstaking task Lee has worked tirelessly at for nearly two years since he took the job — was palpable. This Charlotte team is not like the others. Where hopelessness and despair used to reside, there’s now an expectation of efficiency, execution and perfection. Historic winning streaks aside, the Hornets have much larger goals written on their to-do list. They’re trying to rewrite their perception.
(Hayden Hodge/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
“I think they’re playing well,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters prior to Detroit’s narrow 110-104 win in Charlotte on Monday, a heated contest that ended the Hornets’ nine-game winning streak. “I think they go about it in a different way than we do, but you see the confidence and belief growing. They’re capable of winning and beating good teams. The most difficult thing in this league is learning how to win and you can see that whether it’s close games or fourth quarters, they understand what it takes and have guys making plays when they’re needed.”
The Hornets, who were a bleak 11-22 at the beginning of 2026, have turned the page rather quickly, winning 14 of 21 games this month. But it’s what they’ve been able to accomplish in the past couple weeks that is truly remarkable. Since Jan. 22, Charlotte is second in the league in point differential, scoring 121 points per 100 possessions, and is allowing just 108.8 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass — giving them the league’s No. 2 unit at both ends of the floor.
And it’s not simply that the Hornets are winning games, it’s who and how they’re blasting through opponents that has the league at attention now. Despite falling to Detroit last night, they’ve won nine out of their last 10, taking down Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver, Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers — otherwise known as the top five teams in the Western Conference. We’re talking about a Charlotte team that had a 27.5 win total projection in October, according to BetMGM, folks. They’re now 25-29 as a play-in team and just 5.5 games back of sixth. None of this is normal.
All roads lead back to Lee, the former Bucks and Celtics assistant that arrived in 2024 with a fresh set of ideas and implementation tactics. During the preseason, Lee preached about the changes he wanted to see with his players, reducing individualism and adhering to a collective concept. More player and ball movement, encouraging drive-and-kicks, paint touches and, most importantly, a barrage of 3s.
“You definitely gotta have the groundwork,” guard LaMelo Ball told Yahoo Sports. “For anything to build up to the top, you have to have that bottom row solid and together, you know?”
The proof is in the pudding. The Hornets have effectively eschewed shots at the rim and midrange (26th and 24th, respectively, in rim rate and midrange frequency) in favor of a full-out perimeter pile-on. Of Charlotte’s field goals, 45.2% come from behind the arc, which ranks third in the NBA, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Advertisement
“It’s very important that we all trust each other and believe in one another,” Lee said. “Completely committed to trying to do all the right things that are going to help us build winning habits. It’s not just me, it’s my staff, the front office, and I think the players end up carrying it out. They hold each other to a high standard and, collectively, that’s what’s helping us elevate.”
What gives them the edge, though, given their evident offensive profile, is how deliberate the Hornets are. A quick glance at their roster, particularly their starting five, could leave one to assume that this is a fast-paced team that plays to their athleticism. But according to Second Spectrum, Charlotte is just 25th in pace. It’s near-impossible to get them to play at any other speed.
The Hornets are 23rd in average time to shoot per InPredictable, a number that drops to 29th after forcing opponent turnovers, 26th after a defensive rebound and dead last on offensive rebounds. This team plays at its own tempo, grinding down the shot clock until the best shot is taken. By the time Charlotte takes a shot — they’re fourth in effective field-goal percentage during this span — opposing defenses are typically worn out having been forced to track a flurry of half-court movement. The Hornets lead the league in distance traveled on offense, up from fourth last season.
Advertisement
None of this, however, comes as a surprise to Lee. Before arriving in Charlotte, Lee had already built a reputation as one of the brightest minds in the game, obsessed with winning and improving at the margins. It’s not an uncommon sight to see Lee during a timeout yelling with a clipboard in his lap, urging more from a group already on its way to victory. The 40-year-old is never satisfied, having seen what it takes to win — with two championships on his résumé with Milwaukee and Boston. That respect factor extends to Ball, the leader of this young group, and, in turn, the rest of the roster.
It’s difficult to envision many head coaches who could get the buy-in from a team’s star player who has been benched multiple times and removed from the starting lineup altogether on a few occasions. But Lee has proven to be unafraid of tough conversations, and he and Ball have been able to move on from prior frustrations — when Ball’s future was potentially in question after a rough start. They’ve built a stronger bond because of it.
“We all got a good bond,” Ball said. “Me, him, the coaches, the players, everybody. The whole staff. We just feel like one big family for real.”
Advertisement
That buy-in from Ball has become a top-down effect. Lee’s insistence on sharing the ball has resulted in drops in field-goal attempts from the likes of Ball, Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges — and increases in true shooting percentages for the latter two (Ball’s has remained the same). A significant chunk of that is tied to the presence of rookie Kon Kneuppel, the sharpshooting phenom with playmaking and shot creation chops having a historic rookie season, but the Hornets work because everyone touches the ball. They’re not tied to a heliocentric system as they have been in the past. Charlotte is league average in terms of passes and assists per game, but ranks in the top five in secondary assists — the pass before the pass.
The offensive empowerment from Lee distilled to those four creates a system where adding in Moussa Diabate, an elite, athletic, two-way force (who is a terror on the offensive glass) yields a juggernaut. There’s a unique blend of on-ball creation, off-ball relocation, athleticism and floor spacing. According to PBP Stats, that lineup is a monstrous +146 in 230 minutes together on the floor, scoring an eye-popping 143.1 points per 100 possessions while holding opponents to just 109.3 points per 100 possessions. Consider this — of the top 20 five-man groups in on/off differential, the Hornets’ five is the only one that has played at least 300 possessions together. Every other one is operating on a limited sample size. Cohesion and connectivity.
Advertisement
Miller’s improvement in his third season also cannot be understated as a high-volume wing learning how to create value at both ends of the floor. Charlotte is +6.7 in his minutes, 82nd percentile among wings. Ditto for Diabate, who is swallowing nearly 15% of the Hornets’ missed shots, 91st percentile among bigs. The team corrals around 38% of its own misses with him on the floor — phenomenal.
Given the style of play under Lee and the Hornets’ future flexibility — Charlotte owns all of its first-round picks for the next seven years — it’s not a stretch to suggest that this could become one of the most attractive destinations over the next few years. From a financial standpoint, as an over-the-cap, under-the-tax team, the Hornets also will head into this summer armed with their full mid-level exception and a number of movable contracts — in the event that another superstar (Giannis?) becomes available. Who says small markets have to be boring?
“It feels good,” Lee said. “As an organization trying to build winning habits, be obsessed with daily improvement, it shows that all the work you’re putting in everyday is going towards something. We’re glad that we can start changing the trajectory of where we’ve been before.”
Despite Seattle’s preseason win total of 8.5 (-125 to the under at BetMGM) and the 12th-best odds to make the postseason in the NFC (+170) before the season began, one bettor loved the Seahawks to not only make the playoffs and win the NFC but also win Super Bowl LX.
Yahoo Sports was first to report a Nevada bettor at BetMGM wagered $50,000 on three separate Seahawks-related futures back in August — $150,000 in total.
Advertisement
The three bets:
$50,000 on the Seahawks to win Super Bowl 60 at 60-1 odds to win $3 million
$50,000 on the Seahawks to win the NFC at 28-1 odds to win $1.4 million
$50,000 on the Seahawks to make the playoffs at +185 odds to win $92,500
The Seahawks clinched a postseason berth a few weeks ago to win the first $50,000 bet and beat the 49ers 13-3 in Week 18 to secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
After Seattle’s victory over the Rams on Jan. 25, that bettor cashed his second ticket worth $1.4 million.
The bettor came back in to Vegas last weekend to hedge his Seahawks Super Bowl bet, wagering $725,000 on the New England money line at +195 odds at BetMGM. That bet would win more than $1.4 million and ensured that the bettor would win roughly $1.5 million on the Super Bowl and be up nearly $3 million on all his wagers — no matter the outcome of the big game.
Yahoo Sports also confirmed Circa Sports in Nevada took two large wagers on the Seahawks at 75-1 odds to win Super Bowl 60 with “seven-figure liability” from a new customer in late August as well.
The fantasy football season ends in Week 17, up to five games before the end of certain player’’ football seasons. For players like Rhamondre Stevenson, that can be 28% of their entire year! Week 18 and the NFL playoffs may not be one-to-one in comparison, but many stats can shift the story for next year’s fantasy drafts. Analyst Joel Smyth goes over his 10 fantasy findings from what’s changed after fantasy champions were decided.
23.4
Fantasy PPG for Kenneth Walker III in the NFL playoffs. The Super Bowl MVP’s end-of-season hot streak continued into the playoffs as the Seahawks counted on him heavily once Zach Charbonnet went down with injury. In his final six games of the season, Walker averaged 128.5 scrimmage yards. If Charbonnet is not fully healthy to begin the 2026 season, Walker can secure a high workload and boost his stock in Seattle once more — that is, if he decides to re-sign with the team in free agency (the team could also choose to franchise-tag the RB).
Advertisement
3.4
Fantasy PPG for TreVeyon Henderson in his four playoff games. A slight 20 points fewer than Walker’s playoff run in a larger sample. Since Stevenson returned to his full snap share in Week 13, Henderson averaged under 10 fantasy points and saw his volume and snaps decrease. Stevenson is signed in New England long-term, posted great efficiency numbers and is consistently reliable. It’s looking more and more like Henderson will have to fight to receive even half of the Patriots’ RB workload next season.
70.3%
Of snaps played for Stevenson in the NFL playoffs. Rookie snap counts usually rise throughout the season, but with Stevenson being the safe and more productive option, Henderson — the Patriots’ early-round selection in the 2025 draft — saw his snaps drop from the regular season. Stevenson showed that he was not only getting playing time as a reliable role player, but also because of his talent, as he averaged the fifth-best mark in yards after contact per carry.
Advertisement
1.17
Yards per route run for Luther Burden III in his final three games of 2025. Yards per route has become popular as it’s an accurate indicator of a young player’s future, even noted by NBC commentator Cris Collinsworth during a broadcast due to Burden’s remarkable regular-season number. However, although the rookie posted elite numbers on his limited snaps throughout the season, his end-of-the-year total dropped from third to seventh when including his final three weeks. Still an incredible achievement, but pump the brakes slightly on a team full of talent.
16.5
Fantasy PPG for Colston Loveland in his four games since Week 17. The brakes fully fell off to end the year with the rookie tight end, who ended the fantasy season with a league-winning performance. The Bears TE had a 31% target share in his final month, equalling 48 targets. He can be dangerous in his sophomore season at a position where it’s hard to find true upside.
Advertisement
18.1
Fantasy PPG for Brock Purdy, including his final three games of 2025. After averaging 21.5 points in his eight healthy games during the fantasy season, managers in the fall may picture Purdy as the overall QB2 rather than the borderline QB1 he’s been throughout his career. Adding in Week 18, his NFL playoff run and now an injured George Kittle pushes him back down to his career average.
12
Total carries for Rico Dowdle in his final two games of 2025. It was a rough end to the year for Dowdle, but at least his volume was still there in the regular season. But his RB1 role ended with the end of the fantasy season. With Chuba Hubbard getting healthier, the Panthers shifted focus to their higher-paid RB, as Dowdle scored only once in his final eight games of the year.
Advertisement
6.9
Fantasy PPG for RJ Harvey in his final three games of the season. Once J.K. Dobbins went down, fantasy managers holding onto Harvey were given hope once more, and he came through with 15.3 fantasy PPG from Weeks 11 to 17 without Dobbins to help boost your starting lineup. The issue for next year is that it wasn’t the full story; when including the final three games, that 15.3 drops to a less exciting 12.5.
2.72
Yards per route for Zay Flowers with Lamar Jackson this season. Most think of 2025 as a rough year for Flowers, scoring only three touchdowns during the fantasy season and playing several games without his star QB. Adding in Week 18 and isolating only games with Jackson tells a different story. His 2.72 yards per route would rank third among WRs, behind only Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, as his dominant Week 18 performance would’ve helped him finish as the fantasy WR13 on the season. A key stat to note for draft season next fall.
Advertisement
15+
Half-PPR fantasy points in each of the final four games for Jacksonville’s Parker Washington. The young WR came through for fantasy managers when it mattered most in Weeks 16 and 17, but it didn’t stop there. Even with Jakobi Meyers and Brian Thomas Jr. on the field, Washington’s presence was felt the most, as Trevor Lawrence targeted the slot specialist 41 times over the last month of the season, totaling 454 yards and three scores. He’s had mini-spurts of success throughout his career, but none bigger than his final month heading into next season.
