#draft-strategy

#draft-strategy

Whether you are trying fantasy baseball for the first time or are an experienced vet, the 2026 ESPN fantasy baseball draft guide has everything you need to help you crush your drafts. From rankings and mock drafts to sleepers, breakouts and who you should -- or should not -- draft, we've got you covered from every angle, all in one convenient place. This draft guide will be updated frequently, so keep checking in for more insight, analysis, and projections.

The most likely aspect that'll come over for Parker from a schematic standpoint is the two-high safety look. It's a versatile approach that doesn't tip the secondary's plan pre-snap and forces the QB to make post-snap reads as defenders can rotate into all sorts of different coverage looks after the snap in both man and zone. From a coverage standpoint, their most utilized coverage was Cover 3 over the two years Parker coached the Eagles (32.1% on average).

A few fans kept repeating the same idea: Trade the second first-round pick, move out of 25 and pick up a 2nd and 3rd. It didn't matter whether they liked the players I mocked at 14 or 25. It didn't matter how the board fell. The loudest reaction was that Dallas should automatically turn pick 25 into more draft capital. When I pulled up the draft value chart, the numbers told a very different story.

The Nationals are set to hire Justin Horowitz as an assistant general manager, as first reported by Joe Doyle of Over-Slot Baseball. Previously the Pirates' director of amateur scouting, Horowitz will now work under Washington's new president of baseball operations, Paul Toboni. Toboni, like Horowitz, has a background in amateur scouting. In fact, Horowitz worked under Toboni in the Red Sox's amateur scouting department for several years. That's surely no coincidence.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is undeniably awesome. So is Victor Wembanyama. Yet, in a traditional snake draft, getting both is essentially impossible given both are found firmly in the first round. There is a draft format, however, that absolutely allows you to pair SGA and Wemby. Or Nikola Jokic and Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo... you get the idea. Salary cap drafts afford you the ability to assemble compelling collections of superstars.

The most difficult players to project before an NBA season are the rookies, because so much is based upon how prepared they are for the speed, power and explosiveness of the NBA game. There is no other league in the world that can truly compare with what the young players will face when they make it to the league with Jerry West's silhouette on the logo.