Tag: Fox Sport News

Wondering how you’re going to fill the fantasy sports void until football is back? Are your fantasy hoops and hockey teams leaving much to be desired? Well, one option you might be overlooking is joining a fantasy baseball league.

TL;DR benefits of joining a fantasy baseball league

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Now that you’re ready to play

While baseball can seem daunting — mainly because of its 162-game schedule over six-plus months compared to just 17 weeks for football — there are ways to replicate what brings you joy from the gridiron onto the baseball field.

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]

We’ve rounded up some tips to lighten the load if you’re considering joining a baseball league for the first time or coming back after taking last season off.

You’ll get fantasy action every day — not just Sunday

For those who love fantasy football, that same passion from Sundays can come on a daily basis — all because of baseball’s calendar. Feel the rush of Shohei Ohtani digging in against Bryan Woo because either (or both) are on your fantasy team. Enjoy the show when Juan Soto shuffles into the batter’s box against Zack Wheeler. No matter the outcome, get instantaneous updates on your Yahoo Fantasy app, showing where you are in the standings or your head-to-head matchup.

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No need to wait a week to get those competitive juices flowing. Just pick it up again with the next day’s games.

There are several baseball formats to consider, but to keep things simple, Head-to-Head Points leagues — the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball default setting for all newly created leagues — are the most like football. Head-to-Head Points is available in both Private and Public Leagues, making it easy to quickly join a league and get a similar experience to football!

What’s especially fun about these leagues is that fantasy managers get the same weekly outcome of a win or a loss. While you’re managing your lineup throughout the week, the result could come down to a home run in the final game on Sunday night, a streaming starting pitcher who strikes out 10 hitters and gets the win or even a reliever who picks up a save to tip the matchup.

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It’s easy to get in the game, too. You just need to make a few decisions and you’re off and running.

First up, pick your format — again, head-to-head points leagues are the most like football.

Next, do you have a group that’s ready to play? If not, that’s no problem. There are free public leagues as well as public prize leagues — in the latter, you pay an entry fee and play for cash prizes awarded at the end of the season. In either case, you never have to worry about finding people to play or a day and time that works for the whole group to draft. You get to pick what works for you.

You can also Draft Now With Friends! 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.)

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There are also Live Draft Lobbies, where on-demand drafts are available every day, and you can join a league and make picks the instant all spots are taken.

Both free public leagues, as well as public prize leagues, will be filled with Yahoo players until 12 teams join.

If you want to play with something on the line beyond pride, Public Prize leagues are a great option, but you won’t be able to join with anyone you know, just to keep things fair.

Now, if you do want to have some skin in the game against your friends, family or acquaintances, we suggest creating or joining a Private Prize league and inviting whoever you want.

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Then, you just get ready for draft day, where you can even make all your picks from your phone. Some leagues draft immediately, while others wait for a later date. Your call.

Fantasy Baseball Draft Rankings

Ways to streamline fantasy baseball

Customize your settings in private leagues

One of the benefits of a private league is that there are many options to customize the roster and scoring settings to your desires. Commissioners have the ability to set limited positional requirements or fewer bench spaces, which means you won’t have to sweat as many roster decisions day-to-day or week-to-week. It will also make the waiver wire more fun and active since there will be more available options.

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If your leaguemates really like offense, you could consider hitter-only (that means no pitchers) leagues. If you do want to keep pitchers in the game, you could opt to limit the number of active spots, or set it up for all pitchers without starter or reliever designations. It’s your league’s call.

If trading isn’t your thing — and you want to limit those conflicts — leagues can skip them altogether.

If daily management feels like a lot, you have the option of going to weekly lineups to mirror football and make the roster decisions a lighter lift. You can also consider limiting the number of weekly moves each manager can make, so there’s less pressure to grind on the waiver wire every day.

There is also the option of ending a private league’s season earlier. Head-to-Head leagues can start a four-team playoff that ends the season as early as Aug. 2 (the end of Week 18 of the season). So, those fantasy football players who don’t want crossover between sports can be accommodated.

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New features make it more fun and easier than ever to play

There are new features for 2026 designed to help fans optimize their lineups, commissioners manage their leagues and the entire Yahoo Fantasy baseball community stay better connected.

• 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.

Rest easy with Start Active Players

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.

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If you’re ready to take your game to the next level, you can get something even better …

Gain an edge with new Yahoo Fantasy+ features for baseball

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.

Get the ball rolling today

You can easily get started with Yahoo Fantasy. Enjoy that fun and excitement that will make the season fly by and bring football back before you know it.

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Join or create a fantasy baseball league today and get ready to play ball!

Alright, we’re at the NBA All-Star break and it’s time to talk about the players who’ve been coming through for fantasy basketball teams this year. Not the guys you thought would be good — the guys who are good.

I’m putting together my Fantasy All-Star team based purely on production through Feb. 11, with the starting five coming from some of the best few rounds and the reserves being a compilation of value picks who have delivered through 17 weeks.

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The Starting Five

G: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC – SGA went top-three in basically every draft and he’s somehow exceeded even those expectations. He appears most often on the top-500 Public League teams (29%) — a clear indication he’s one of the most profitable fantasy assets yet again. Averaging 30 a game has become routine and he’s still getting 6.4 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 stocks while shooting 55% from the field. Beast.

G: Tyrese Maxey, PHI – Maxey has carried the Sixers for much of the season by putting up career numbers in points, assists, stocks, rebounds and FT%. He’s been a top-six option in High Score and a top-three asset in 9-cat and points leagues. Maxey is right behind SGA in appearing on the best teams in fantasy basketball at 26.6%.

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F: Victor Wembanyama, SAS – Wemby hasn’t put up the video game numbers at the same rate as last season, but the production is still elite. At just 22, he’s the only player in the league averaging at least 24 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks per game. He’s a fantasy cheat code who is only bested by less than a handful of players.

F: Jalen Johnson, ATL – One of the early steals of draft season. Johnson’s ADP was around pick No. 25 in the preseason, yet he’s performing as a top-15 player in 9-cat formats and a top-five player in High Score and points leagues. Trading away Trae Young was great for his fantasy value, as Johnson’s point-forward skillset was subsequently unleashed. With 10 triple-doubles on the year, fantasy managers can expect many more in the second half of the season.

C: Nikola Jokić, DEN – Yes, the Joker missed 16 games, but he’s still far and away the best player in fantasy. He’s averaging 69 fantasy points per game in High Score and is averaging a triple-double for the second year in a row. And it’s not just those key counting stats — he’s uber-efficient and still racking up steals. It’s hard to imagine a world where Jokić is not worthy of a consensus No. 1 pick.

Honorable mentions: Jamal Murray, Jaylen Brown, Scottie Barnes

The Reserves

G: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, ATL – NAW’s glow up has been crazy. With an ADP outside of 120, he’s been one of the Most Improved Players in the league. He actually went undrafted in 67% of drafts, and he ranks in the top 75 in High Score and points leagues while being top 50 in 9-cat. Like Johnson, he’s also benefiting from Young getting traded to Washington.

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G: Keyonte George, UTA – George was going around pick No. 113 overall in drafts. He’s now putting up 23.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.1 steals per night. Unfortunately, George is dealing with an ankle injury and a very public tank job. However, I’m holding off moving him, as I think he’ll be less rested than some of his other veteran teammates.

F: Kon Knueppel, CHA – The rookie went fourth overall in the real draft but went undrafted in 81% of Yahoo fantasy leagues. Congratulations if you landed Knueppel, because he has league winner written all over him. Now he’s averaging 18.9 points on 48/43/90 shooting splits. He’s also putting in work as a rebounder and playmaker. He’s already hit 183 3s and is on pace to break the rookie record by a mile. Charlotte’s fun again, which is wild to say and Knueppel’s a huge reason why. It’ll be a tight Rookie of the Year race between him and former Duke teammate, Mavericks G/F Cooper Flagg.

F: Kawhi Leonard, LAC – Kawhi was going super late relative to his current value because nobody trusts his knees anymore. Fair! But aspiration drama aside, Leonard’s been available, playing in 41 games so far. Leonard is on a heater, absolutely torching opponents for 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.1 steals per game. The Clippers could manage his minutes now that they had a fire sale at the deadline, but still, it feels like now is a good time to sell high on Kawhi.

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C: Alperen Şengün, HOU – Şengün was a bit of a settle pick here; I was between him and Jalen Duren and Şengün’s numbers are just better. He has some warts for 9-cat, but the raw production, along with his commitment to playing better defense, is paying off for fantasy managers in High Score and points leagues.

Honorable mentions: Deni Avdija, Trey Murphy III and Michael Porter Jr.

Who else do you think is worth adding to the Fantasy All-Star team for the 2025-26 season?

President Donald Trump pardoned five former NFL players for various criminal convictions, including drug trafficking and perjury.

The players who received clemency were Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Joe Klecko, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon. White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson announced the decisions on social media.

“As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again,” Johnson wrote in her post. “So is our nation.”

“Grateful to @POTUS for his continued commitment to second chances,” she added. “Mercy changes lives.”

Johnson held up the pardon document for Newton in an accompanying photo, saying that Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones personally gave the news to the two-time All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowler.

Newton, who won three Super Bowl championships with the Cowboys during his 14 NFL seasons, pleaded guilty in 2001 to a federal drug trafficking charge after officers found 175 pounds of marijuana and $10,000 after searching his vehicle during a traffic stop. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

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Lewis played for the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns, winning a Super Bowl and earning All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors during his nine-year career. He was named NFL offensive player of the year in 2003 after rushing for 2,066 yards. In 2004, Lewis pleaded guilty to a conspiring to possess charge for using a cellphone to set up a drug deal. He was sentenced to four months in prison.

Klecko was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023 for his 12-year NFL career, 11 of those seasons played with the New York Jets. He pleaded guilty to perjury in 1993 for lying to a federal grand jury that was investigating insurance fraud charges. Klecko served three months in federal prison.

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Henry played for the Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans and Denver Broncos in seven NFL seasons and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2002. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine in 2009. Henry was alleged to be the “money guy” in a cocaine trafficking ring from Colorado to Montana. He was eventually sentenced to three years in federal prison, but was released from custody after two.

Cannon was the NFL’s No. 1 overall draft pick in 1960 out of LSU and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008. He was selected by the Los Angeles Rams, but he played for the Houston Oilers and Oakland Raiders in the AFL before ending his 11-year pro career with the Kansas City Chiefs. Cannon admitted to counterfeiting in 1983 after several bad real estate investments left him in debt. He served 2 1/2 years in prison. Cannon died in 2018 at 80 years old.

HOUSTON — New Clippers guard Darius Garland stood a few feet away from the bench in street clothes attempting to blend in with the group, while coaches urged the players to keep pace with a Rockets team that was struggling out of the gates. A few minutes later, Garland shuffled over behind the stanchion, watching his team play while being interviewed by a sideline reporter. On both occasions, both during the first-quarter timeout and after, Garland’s focus was on everything happening in front of him.

The 26-year-old isn’t an imposing figure by any means; he is soft-spoken and mild-mannered by nature. But his presence could be felt. Garland represents a number of things for the new-look Clippers — the departures of James Harden and Ivica Zubac, the dismantling of one of the NBA’s hottest teams and a paradigm shift for the franchise.

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“It’s not easy,” veteran Nic Batum told Yahoo Sports after the team’s 102-95 loss to the Rockets on Tuesday. “Especially when you trade away big pieces. But the thing we got back is pretty huge as well. You still gotta do your job, but it’s going to be an adjustment for sure.”

Tuesday evening’s setting painted a quiet picture against the backdrop of a rather noisy trade deadline and season overall. The coming weeks and months — with the Clippers still under league investigation for possible cap circumvention related to Kawhi Leonard — could prove pivotal for the future course of the franchise. And over the next few days, the entire basketball world will convene at Intuit Dome for All-Star Weekend, once again thrusting this franchise into the national spotlight.

But at least for now, in the eye of the storm, basketball is their focus.

“We love to hoop,” Leonard said with a rare smile after a 19-point fourth quarter in a 105-102 win over the Rockets on Wednesday on the second night of a back-to-back in Houston. “Guys kept their heads in the game and they wanted to compete and that’s what we did. … Every win is important for us whoever we’re playing, because of the seed we’re in right now. We’ve got to move up in the rankings, try to get out of the play-in. That’s our season for us.”

Leonard’s heroics (he finished the game with 27 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals) pushed the Clippers to an impressive 3-1 record since the Feb. 5 trade deadline — a period that was supposed to mark a pivot away from previous outside expectations. Back-to-backs against the same opponent on the road are a rarity in the NBA schedule, but they allow for a team to reinforce their immediate goals. For Lue, a championship-winning coach with over 15 years of experience, roster turnover isn’t a foreign concept, and his objectives won’t change because of who is or isn’t taking the floor.

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“Just gotta get a feel for what the new guys do,” Lue said. “How they play, try to let them be themselves in the confines of what we do offensively and defensively. … Our expectations are still to win and win at a high level. Come out and compete every single night and play hard. No matter who’s on the floor.”

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In terms of the new-look personnel — inserting Brook Lopez and Derrick Jones Jr. (and Kris Dunn, until Garland returns) — Los Angeles’ identity is being carved out on the defensive end. The Clippers sit fourth in defensive efficiency since the deadline, allowing just 107.3 points per 100 possessions. Extremely small sample size, yes, but there’s no reason to suggest a major dropoff at that end of the floor as the Dunn-Jones-Leonard-John Collins-Lopez group adds more games under its belt. It’s everything you could ask for in a lockdown lineup; Dunn as a physical point of attack defender; Jones and Collins as athletic passing lane disruptors; Lopez as the backline and Leonard as the end-all, be-all versatile irritant. They’re causing havoc at all levels, generating turnovers on nearly 20% of opponent possessions. The Clippers forced 39 Rockets turnovers in 48 hours. They’re pesky, annoying and in your face.

“We’re able to blitz and cause chaos,” Lue said. “Shoot the gap for steals, turn them over and get out in transition. Being physical and into bodies, protecting the paint and understanding the game plan. When we turn teams over, we’re a different team.”

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There’s a lot to be desired offensively, though. Nothing is ever guaranteed from one season to another in this league, but in the blink of an eye, the Clippers went from an emerging offensive juggernaut to this, with all due respect. A healthy Garland should help with more juice in pick-and-rolls and optimal shot creation for teammates. Bennedict Mathurin, who was part of the trade that sent Zubac to Indiana, also gives the Clippers another shot-creator, in addition to being a solid point-of-attack defender.

But the lone constant, Kawhi, is still pretty damn good. Leonard is having a renaissance campaign, the fifth-most impactful player per 100 possessions, according to the LEBRON metric, behind Nikola Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama and Cade Cunningham — MVP candidates. Leonard is quietly posting an absurd 28/6/4 statline on the cusp of a 50-40-90 year. According to Stathead, Leonard is the only player in the NBA with those averages on that efficiency — not to mention a .619 true shooting percentage. There were reports circulating that teams made calls about his availability after the departures of Harden and Zubac but were quickly shut down. Even at 34, he’s shown to be a bona fide go-to scorer, lockdown defender and closer.

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Who knows what the Clippers’ immediate future looks like with a Leonard-Garland pairing. The decision to move on from Harden isn’t without risk, even if Los Angeles obtained a younger player who hasn’t reached his prime yet. Will this move prove to be a domino effect in attracting more talent? Again, we’re still talking about the team that sent a future Hall of Famer home in the middle of a road trip and hasn’t received a verdict on alleged financial wrongdoings.

There’s a lot going on in Clipperland right now, which makes the upcoming All-Star Weekend that much more interesting.

MILAN — This time last year, the most decorated alpine skier in history was trying to force herself to ski again. Mikaela Shiffrin was attempting to return to the slalom and giant slalom races, and found herself unable to do what she’d been doing all her life.

“I could barely even finish a run,” she recalled recently, “not because of crashing, but because when I told my body to go, it just wouldn’t.”

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Just a few months before, in November 2024, she was on her second run in Killington, Vermont, and on the cusp of capturing her 100th World Cup victory. No other alpine skier, male or female, has more than 86, and here was Shiffrin, about to break into triple digits.

But she clipped a gate midway through her run, setting off a crash that sent her pinwheeling into the slope’s netting. She doubled over in agony, unable to ward off the pain radiating through her abdomen.

“It’s honestly kind of difficult to explain what the pain felt like,” she later wrote in The Players Tribune. “But the closest I can get would probably be, it was like … not only was there a knife stabbing me, but the knife was actually still inside of me.”

She was extricated from the slope by sled, and later examinations revealed she had suffered significant abdominal injury, nearly puncturing her colon. But while her body healed, her mind continued to struggle. The diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder from the crash reverberated for months afterward as she attempted to manage the panic and fear that accompanied her return to the slopes.

“Everybody needs to understand with these struggles that they don’t work linearly,” Shiffrin recently said. “They don’t work in the way you think they’re going to, or expect they’re going to. … Time helps. Exposure helps. It doesn’t work to just back away from your fears, but it works to take them on in bite-sized pieces.”

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Killington isn’t the only slope that holds ghosts for Shiffrin. There’s also the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre, host of the alpine events for Beijing’s 2022 Olympics. Shiffrin went into the 2022 Games a two-time gold medalist, victorious both at Sochi (slalom) and Pyeongchang (giant slalom). But at Beijing, she failed to even finish in three of her six events, her best individual finish a ninth in Super G.

“I don’t want Beijing to be the reason that I’m scared of the Olympics. And for the past few years, it has been a little bit,” Shiffrin told Olympics.com last fall. “When Cortina comes along, we’ll just take it day by day, take it as it comes.”

She arrived at the Milan Cortina Games with as much momentum as she’s had in years. She finally managed that 100th World Cup victory in February, and since then she’s added seven more, including a victory in slalom in the Czech Republic just days before the Olympics’ Opening Ceremony. That combined success, that validation of her belief in herself, has given her a new, more optimistic mindset heading into the Games.

“Especially after the past two seasons, with battling a couple different pretty serious injuries, I’ve had two fairly incomplete seasons,” Shiffrin said recently. “So, to be at this point right now … heading into the Olympics, but also from the perspective of just having a really successful World Cup season, I’m really excited about that.”

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But then came the team combined ski on Feb. 10 where Shiffrin not only lost the lead Breezy Johnson staked her in the downhill but finished 15th overall in her slalom run — nearly a second behind first place. A mediocre ski from Shiffrin would have notched her and Johnson gold. Instead they dropped all the way off the podium to fourth place.

How will she rebound from the rocky start?

She has a few days, as the giant slalom is Sunday. And she also has the lessons of four years ago to fall back on.

“The one thing you can expect from the Olympics is that things are just not really going to go according to your plan,” Shiffrin said. “So you’ve got to roll with the punches and have a really good open mind.”

New England Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs pleaded not guilty to assault charges during an arraignment in Dedham District Court in Massachusetts on Friday.

Diggs, 32, is accused of felony strangulation or suffocation, in addition to a lesser assault and battery charge. He is alleged to have assaulted a private chef over a pay dispute at his home on Dec. 2.

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The 11-year NFL veteran was released on personal recognizance and will be due back in court April 1 for a pre-trial hearing.

Outside the courthouse, Diggs’ attorney, Mitchell Schuster, said his client was “completely innocent.”

“He is completely innocent of these false allegations,” Schuster said, via the Providence Journal. He added that full facts being revealed will “paint a very different picture.”

According to court documents filed in December, the alleged victim began working as a live-in chef for Diggs in July 2025. In November, Diggs allegedly told the chef she would not have to work during the week of Nov. 7-14 and that he needed her to vacate her room because he was having guests at his home. However, the chef believed she was still to be paid for that week because she did not request that time off.

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Diggs and the chef had been exchanging texts over the pay dispute when he allegedly entered her room on Dec. 2, became angry and then “smacked her across the face,” according to the police report. He is also alleged to have “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck.” Told that he still needed to pay her and had to sign off on the payments, Diggs said those were “lies” and he walked out of the room, the report said.

One week later, the chef returned to Diggs’ home to retrieve her belongings and was allegedly told to address the payment issue with his assistant. The assistant said Diggs asked the chef to sign a non-disclosure agreement before being paid. She refused to do so, according to the report.

The chef made a statement to police six days later, but said she did not want to press charges against Diggs, nor did she want to file a restraining order. The following week, after receiving messages from someone believed to be Diggs’ girlfriend saying involving the police wasn’t necessary, the chef decided to move forward with charges, according to the police report.

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Diggs was then charged with one felony count of strangulation or suffocation and one misdemeanor count of assault and battery, according to court documents.

The four-time Pro Bowler was originally scheduled to face arraignment on Jan. 23, but a judge granted a request by Diggs’ lawyers to postpone proceedings until February due to the receiver’s professional obligations.

In his first season with the Patriots, Diggs registered 85 receptions for 1,013 yards and 4 touchdowns, helping the team reach the Super Bowl. During his 11-year career, he has also played for the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans.

MILAN — Every four years, we casual Americans become instant experts in a whole array of winter Olympic sports. We decide we know curling strategy, we debate skiers’ lines down precipitous slopes, we instantly judge snowboarders on moves that would leave us in traction. And man, do we have thoughts on figure skating judges.

Here’s the thing, though: While the Olympians and aficionados can safely ignore pretty much all of our two weeks’ worth of blather, the opinions on figure skating judging stick.

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Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates skated the routine of their lives on Wednesday night in figure skating’s ice dance event … only to watch in horror and heartbreak as judges controversially deemed the routine of France’s  Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron a more worthy one. Chock and Bates ended up with a silver medal — a titanic achievement, of course, but a “bittersweet” one, in Chock’s words, when you think you ought to have won gold.

On CBS News, Chock called for “transparent judging” to help viewers understand what’s happening. “I think it’s also important for the skaters, that the judges be vetted and reviewed to make sure that they are also putting out their best performance,” she added, “because there’s a lot on the line for the skaters when they’re out there giving it their all, and we deserve to have the judges also giving us their all and for it to be a fair and even playing field.”

The figure skating establishment appears to be shrugging this off as just one of them skating deals, yet another in a long line of what-are-you-gonna-do judging frustrations. It’s not as egregious as the Salt Lake City skating scandal of 2002, when a French judge conceded that she’d been pressured to favor a Russian pairs duo that eventually won gold … right?

“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations,” the International Skating Union said in a statement. “The ISU has full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.”

But the fire continues to smolder outside of figure skating’s traditional territory, and the casual fans who are getting a close look at this are asking, rightfully: Just what the heck is going on with the judging in figure skating?

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Granted, Americans come into this with no small anti-judge bias. Judging as a means of determining a victor just doesn’t sit well with most American viewers, whether it’s gymnastics, figure skating or the Westminster Dog Show.

At the risk of going full Daytona 500, in America, we don’t care much for ties, and we don’t dig on judged sports. If a tie is like kissing your sister, a judgment loss is like kissing a dog, and not even your dog. We like to settle our sporting events on the court, on the field, on the ice … and we don’t like our sports left in the hands of a faceless cabal passing irrevocable judgment.

(Yes, we have instant replay. But we don’t decide the entire Super Bowl on it.)

The issue with judging, of course, is that it’s done by judges — flawed, biased, persuadable, even manipulable human judges. The ISU has attempted a range of fixes in the wake of the 2002 scandal, from eliminating the highly imperfect and inconsistent “6.0” system to making judges’ names public to increase transparency. The ISU Judging System drills down to an element-by-element level, eliminating outliers and averaging scores,

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For the most part, the changes work, but if critics want ammunition, well … it’s there if you look at the numbers. Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron finished with 225.82 to Chock and Bates’ 224.39, a difference of 1.43 points. However, in the free dance program, the French duo totaled 135.64, while the Americans finished with 134.67. Again, extremely close, extremely debatable. But keep digging.

In scores documented by SkatingScores on Twitter, five of nine judges scored the USA duo higher than the French one in free dance. Eight of nine judges gave Chock and Bates at least 130.97 points. The lowest score for the Americans? A 129.74 … from the French judge. Hmmm.

Now, consider the French scores. All extremely strong, yes, but the strongest score? A stunning 137.45, again from the French judge. HMMMM.

Put another way: France’s Jézabel Dabois ranked the United States 7.71 points worse than the French duo. This isn’t quite an Indiana-over-Oregon-level differential, but it’s still pretty substantial. Add to that the fact that Spain actually ranked the United States’ routine third, behind France and bronze-medal winner Canada, and you can see why many U.S. fans are saying certain judges are full of merde.

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For another perspective, though, check out this data visualization by Sportico’s Lev Akabas:

The immediate point is that the French judge absolutely jobbed the Americans, yes. This sure looks like sandbagging to bring down the Americans’ overall score and help the French team to the gold. Statistically speaking, even if many of the French judge’s individual element scores were thrown out — and they were — there’s still the potential for an artificial manipulation of the final score. And when you’re talking tenths and hundredths of a point, every score matters.

But the larger point of this graph is equally relevant — bias is rampant across national borders. So much so that SkatingScores’ “Bias-O-Meter” shows that virtually every judge showed bias toward the skaters from their home countries. (Aside: The fact that a “Bias-O-Meter” even exists, and is statistically valid, shows exactly how gnarled the judging situation is in figure skating.)

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What’s the answer? Perhaps AI can handle this, assuming it doesn’t hallucinate a third skater on the ice. Perhaps a more rigid form of judge recusal — kicking out judges when a skater from their home nation is on the ice, for instance, would be a solid start. Or, hell, just go to a worldwide voting system on the phone. No way that could be manipulated, right?

The maddening aspect of all of this is that it’s welling up just as skating is enjoying a resurgence in the United States. Between the two-time gold medal-winning team, the Quad God and the Big Three, America’s Olympic figure skating looks as good as it has in decades. This isn’t the time for the sport to get mired in familiar, avoidable controversies.

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Viewers deserve better. Chock and Bates deserved better. And figure skating as a sport deserves better. That’s not a judgment, that’s straight fact.

MILAN — Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal to gain reinstatement to the skeleton competition at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games has been denied.

Heraskevych filed an urgent appeal Friday morning with the Court of Arbitration for Sport over his disqualification from the Olympic Games for refusing to change a helmet honoring fellow athletes who died during Russia’s invasion of his home country.

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Heraskevych, according to a CAS statement, argued that the decision to ban him from the Olympics is “disproportionate, unsupported by any technical or safety violation and causes irreparable sporting harm to him.”

Heraskevych registered the appeal with the CAS’s ad hoc division, which is on site in Milan and can rule on cases in less than 24 hours. The CAS appointed a sole arbitrator to “consider the matter with urgency.” Early Friday evening in Milan, the appeal was denied.

“The Sole Arbitrator, whilst fully sympathetic to Mr. Heraskevych’s commemoration, is bound by rules in the IOC Athlete Expression Guidelines,” CAS wrote in a statement. “The Sole Arbitrator considers these Guidelines provide a reasonable balance between athletes’ interests to express their views, and athletes’ interests to receive undivided attention for their sporting performance on the field of play.”

The CAS statement went on to note that the sole arbitrator “notes that the goal of this is to maintain the focus of the Olympic Games on performances and sport, a common interest of all athletes, who have worked for years to appear in the Olympic Games, and who deserve undivided attention for their sporting performances and sporting success.”

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Heraskevych had already missed the first two runs of the men’s skeleton competition on Thursday after the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation ruled that he could not compete and the International Olympic Committee withdrew his accreditation. He requested the right to make provisional supervised runs until the CAS can reach a decision. Now, Friday’s men’s skeleton in Cortina will go on without him.

Heraskevych’s helmet displaying the images of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches first became an issue on Monday when he wore it during a training run. The IOC explained to his coach and Ukrainian officials that the helmet violates rules stating that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”

When Heraskevych made clear he intended to wear the helmet anyway, the IOC offered him the option to wear a black armband or black ribbon instead of the helmet. IOC president Kirsty Coventry also traveled to Cortina to sit down in person with Heraskevych on Thursday morning in hopes of brokering a compromise.

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“The IOC was very keen for Mr. Heraskevych to compete,” it said Thursday in a statement. “This is why the IOC sat down with him to look for the most respectful way to address his desire to remember his fellow athletes who have lost their lives following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Coventry reiterated Friday when speaking to reporters that the basis for the disqualification of Heraskevych wasn’t the content of his message. It was the fact that he insisted upon displaying it while he competed.

“I think that in some ways he understood that but was very committed to his beliefs, which I can respect,” Coventry said. “But sadly it doesn’t change the rules. And the rules were that for certain spaces — the field of play, the ceremonies, the Olympic Village — should be spaces where athletes are safe from both sides and where there is no messaging of any kind.”

When he spoke with reporters on Thursday, Heraskevych said he did not consider racing with another helmet because he believes he’s “not violating any rules.” Heraskevych pointed to “big inconsistencies” of athletes from other countries being able to express their political views during press conferences but him not being able to do so while competing.

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“U.S. figure skater, Canadian freeskier, Israeli skeleton athlete who is also here today, they didn’t face the same things,” Heraskevych said. “So suddenly, just a Ukrainian athlete in this Olympic Games will be disqualified for this helmet.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Heraskevych for sacrificing his Olympic dreams to honor his countrymen. In a social media post, Zelenskyy said that 660 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed since the Russian invasion began.

“We are proud of Vladyslav and of what he did,” Zelenskyy said. “Having courage is worth more than any medal.”

The NFL season is over, so it’s time to turn our attention to the NBA. When betting the NFL, the hope with every pick is to bet early on Tuesdays, have a strong number by kickoff and bank on a sharp market to be efficient. The process and results matched. After sweeping three bets on the Super Bowl, the season ended 41-25, hitting 62% of my bets (with average odds of -115), and ending plus-14 units.

The plan for the NBA is mightily similar. I want to beat the closing line in an attempt to gain positive expected value.

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Let’s break down NBA All-Star Weekend with a detailed approach to +EV betting that will be a weekly staple when the NBA returns from break.

Explaining theoretical hold, how to calculate it and why it matters

Theoretical hold in sports betting refers to the average rake rate or house cut the casino/sportsbook expects to make in a given market. We know books make their money on the house edge obtained by placing a vig on bets customers place. In the most basic sense, if a bettor is hitting 50% of his or her bets on the standard -110 odds, he or she is going to be a losing bettor because of the juice, which requires a 52.38% hit rate to break even.

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To calculate the theoretical hold, we take all betting options in a market, convert the odds into implied probabilities represented in percentages, sum the total (which will always be north of 100%) and subtract 100%. The leftover percentage of the summed implied probabilities is the expected house cut. So, when applying this to a game spread or total, we typically see -110 on each bet side. If a -110 correlates to a 52.38% implied probability, then the sum total of two -110 bet options is 52.38 + 52.38 = 104.76%. Subtract 100%, and the book expects to make 4.76% in these standard two-way markets.

Quick aside: the reason why it is theoretical is because sportsbooks’ actual handle on a game is rarely 50/50 on both sides, so in a given market, it depends on which side wins and which betting side took the action. But the house edge of 4.76% still exists.

Applying that to NBA All-Star markets

When looking at the All-Star Weekend betting markets — for markets like 3-Point Contest winner, Slam Dunk Contest winner and All-Star Game MVP — there is a large spike in this theoretical hold. If we convert the current odds on all eight possible 3-Point contenders into implied probabilities, sum the total and subtract 100%, we find a theoretical hold in this particular market to be 13.6%. That means the house cut is expected to be nearly three times that in a standard game market.

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When the house cut rises, the bettor’s value decreases. Edges need to be bigger in higher hold markets to justify a bet being placed and to obtain positive expected value. In All-Star weekend, it is hard to know who is going to give maximum effort, let alone identify a true edge by studying player vertical for the Slam Dunk contest, or shot-form consistency metrics and release angles for the 3pt Contest. Understanding what theoretical hold is, how to calculate it and how to evaluate the number generated allows you, as a bettor, to evaluate that specific market and if it is worth exploring for edges.

Players I like

Despite this not being a market I chose to bet into, as a high-level NBA bettor and a massive NBA fan, I am happy to offer a few suggestions on players I like. I understand people will negate the need for a true edge on a small and entertaining bet. So here are the players I would most consider:

Devin Booker, 3-Point Contest winner (+550): Booker is having a down year from an efficiency standpoint, but he is a perfect candidate to target. This is Booker’s third time competing, and he already notched a win. Booker has a textbook release that is fit for this contest.

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Looking at other candidates: Norman Powell was an instant cross off for me because the release point on his shot is at the top of his vertical, which is difficult to replicate on 30 shots in just 60 seconds. Jamal Murray and Kon Knueppel are making their debuts; no thanks grabbing a first-time competitor with the nerves that are sure to hit. Bobby Portis has the longest odds and offers the biggest payout, but, to put it nicely, I am not sure why he is even in this contest.

Carter Bryant, Slam Dunk Contest winner (+190): No, he is not related to Vince Carter or Kobe Bryant, but hopefully, he pays homage to those former winners. Carter Bryant is nearly a lab-built dunk participant. He has a 40-inch vertical, he is 6-foot-6 with just under a 7-foot wingspan. The measurables are ideal for this contest — Carter Bryant combines a mix of explosiveness and size to finish some awesome dunks. Look him up on YouTube, and you’ll see compilation videos of his dunks with titles like “He’s a Freak.”

Jaxson Hayes was my first easy elimination from this list. His size makes him too big to dunk with finesse. Hayes finished a midgame breakaway dunk through his legs in live action this season — go look it up. It sounds great in theory, but aesthetically, it is underwhelming for a contest.

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All-Star Game MVP Victor Wembanyama (+425): Wemby is the talk of the town heading into his first All-Star Game. Last year, he tried to use game theory optimization alongside teammate Chris Paul in the Skills Competition by not even attempting shots and throwing three balls off the racks to qualify as shots and not waste time. While he was disqualified for doing so, Wembanyama is looking for edges and is outspoken that he is going to try.

The big advantage Wembanyama has is that he is a starter who promises effort and has a build that is guaranteed for an incredibly efficient game. Sure, he will probably shoot five-plus 3-point attempts, but those might be his only non-dunks. He will gobble up rebounds and maybe add some defensive stats and assists. Giannis was always my All-Star MVP favorite, and he took one home a few years ago, going 16-of-16 on easy dunks.

The best way to bet All-Star Weekend

Now that you have my picks, I will let you in on the best way to bet on the events.

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There are 16 participants in Saturday’s contests, and you can add four possible candidates for All-Star Game MVP. That’s 20 players who can be put into an All-Star Weekend draft. Find a group of four and draft the participants until all the names are taken. You will have a collection of five contestants each, and if you have the winner in any specific market, you win, let’s say, $20 from each of your friends.

If you have Devin Booker, and he wins the 3-point contest, your three friends give you $20 each for a total of $60. Do this for each contest and winner. There are game-theory approaches on taking multiple dunkers in a shorter field or aiming for a diversified set of candidates. By doing this, you have a stake in the action and eliminate house edge and the market holds that are three times worse than game-to-game markets.

If the goal is skin in the game but not a +EV bet, then the All-Star draft accomplishes that.

With the fresh fantasy baseball season approaching, it’s time to get you some tiered rankings from my Shuffle Up series. Use these for salary cap drafts, straight drafts, keeper decisions or merely a view of how the position ebbs and flows. Today’s assignment is third base.

Additional positions will follow regularly through next week.

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[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]

The numbers are unscientific in nature and meant to reflect where talent clusters and drops off. Assume a 5×5 scoring system, as usual.

More Tiered Rankings

The Big Tickets

Ramírez already has nine toes in the Hall of Fame, and he’s routinely one of the 10 best players in baseball. But you get queasy when you look at the rest of the Cleveland lineup, most of the same names from the team that was 28th in runs scored a year ago. Ramírez is also stepping into his age-33 season, which makes me careful with his stolen-base projection. In short, love the player, hate the setup. I’ll want my first offensive pick to be tied to a loaded offense, and Ramírez won’t have that.

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Given all the fanfare attached to Machado when he hit the majors as a teenager, it’s a little funny to appreciate him now, in his boring veteran days. Machado has essentially given us a full season in 10 out of 11 campaigns, building a nice floor. He’s likely to hit for a plus average along with 25-30 homers and 10-15 steals. Third base isn’t particularly deep, either. Machado makes sense at his current 32.0 Yahoo ADP.

Injuries wrecked the last two seasons for Riley, but he’s still just 29 and faces no restrictions as camp opens. His batting-average dip the last two years makes sense given the strikeouts, but he’ll hit 30 homers in a full season and provide decent run production. Riley’s ADP now sits in the high 60s, which is probably too big a correction.

Legitimate Building Blocks

It’s a sort of homecoming for Suárez, who already has 439 Great American Ballpark starts under his belt (.260/.347/.504, with 101 homers). His head should be a lot clearer removed from the Seattle marine layer — his slash in that ballpark was a messy .211/.311/.406. Suárez’s career stats show a bump in the second half, so be patient if he has a slow start. Last year’s finish was muted by Seattle’s park, but he was a .307/.341/.602 monster after the break in 2024, with 20 homers, and he had 29 second-half homers back in 2019.

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Chapman is probably a better real-life player than a fantasy one — you get nothing for his angelic defense, and his solid OBP skills are mildly baked into his fantasy value. You’ll give up something in average here, but he’ll pop 25 homers or so and mix in a handful of steals, a skill that’s revived since he left Toronto for San Francisco. Not all of your picks have to be screaming of possible upside; Chapman can likely be a solid par with a Yahoo ADP of 144.2.

Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down

It’s been a bumpy couple of years for Marte, who was suspended in 2024 and demoted to the minors last year. The Reds have shuffled him in the field, too — Marte will open this year as the starting right fielder, and he might see time in center. It’s important to remember that he was once a top-25 prospect and he’s merely entering his age-24 season. His 162-game pace over three seasons hashes out to 18 homers and 21 steals, and he’ll probably be the team’s No. 2 batter to open the year.

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It’s fair to worry about Montgomery’s average, which was .239 with the White Sox last year and just .246 during 376 games in the minors. But Montgomery at least does exciting things when he does make contact, conking 21 homers in just 255 at-bats with Chicago. His Baseball Savant page is full of validation, with plus marks in expected slugging, hard-hit rate, barrel rate and bat speed. Montgomery feels like a cinch for 30-plus homers and he’ll get extra volume as the No. 3 hitter in Chicago. Picking him might require some batting average care later, but we can manage that.

It was curious to see Polanco hit a career year at age 31, and in Seattle, no less. Most of his Baseball Savant sliders are supportive, decent plate discipline and good contact numbers. He might open the year as the cleanup man for the Mets. I’m interested.

Some Plausible Upside

Murakami will probably see time at first and third base for the White Sox. He was a take-and-rake player in Japan, slashing .273/.394/.550 over eight seasons but striking out as much as 180 times in a season. His stock peaked after a 56-homer season in 2022, and injuries cost him half a season in 2025. If you have the freedom of daily transactions, look to isolate the lefty Murakami against right-handed opponents.

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Esteemed colleague Fred Zinkie lists Correa as one of his third base sleepers, and I know from experience that disagreeing with Fred is not a +EV strategy. But I’d like to point out that Correa’s Yahoo ADP is about 60 spots higher than his global ADP, and he’s always going to carry batting-average and injury risk, in addition to the zero you’ll get in the stolen base column. This is also the weakest Houston lineup we’ve seen in a while; the Astros were 21st in runs scored last season.

Bargain Bin