Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft, 2.0: 12 teams, 3 rounds, pick-by-pick analysis

One month ago, Scott Pianowski did his part to start the fantasy baseball mock draft process by detailing the first-round options for 2026. I’m going to take things one step further by breaking down the initial three rounds of a 12-team draft.

Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season

Round 2 of Mock Draft, 2.0. (Photo by Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports)

Team 12 is excited to blend a balanced contributor (Acuña) with a pure power hitter. Slugging 45 homers in his first full season was impressive. It will be even more impressive if Caminero can repeat the feat while playing half his games at Tropicana Field.

Grabbing Henderson after a down year seems like a wise move for Team 11 after they opened with a pitcher. After all, he still swiped 30 bases in 2025 and produced 37 homers and 118 runs the previous year.

After selecting Skenes, Team 10 was looking for a balanced contributor with upside. Tatís fits the bill as a potential 30-30 player who is still trying to recapture the form he showed before missing all of 2022.

Chourio’s production leveled off last season, which wasn’t a terrible outcome for a 21-year-old sophomore. He could take the next step and threaten the 30-30 club in his age-22 campaign.

Coming off his initial 30-30 season, Carroll would have been a top-10 pick if not for surgery to repair a broken hamate bone.

Rare power, an emerging lineup and a hitter-friendly park are a trifecta of reasons to grab Kurtz in Round 2, and his power skills are a great compliment to Team 7’s first pick of De La Cruz. Lowering his strikeout rate will be the next step to superstar status.

Team 6 is deploying the “position scarcity” plan that was recently detailed in my draft strategies article. By grabbing the top third baseman (Ramírez) and the best catcher, they have set themselves up to pick from the deeper pools at other positions.

After starting with Skubal, Team 5 was looking for a balanced contributor as their first hitter. Enter Chisholm, who offers the bonus of being eligible at two scarce positions.

Team 4 would have preferred more of a balanced contributor to pair with Soto, but they instead opted for the best remaining hitter and will address steals later. Schwarber has remarkably averaged 46.75 homers, 107.25 runs and 108.5 RBI over his four years in Philly.

Team 3 reached a bit on Alonso, since his power potential is the perfect complement to Witt’s high batting average and steals total. Alonso shouldn’t skip a beat after moving from the New York Mets to Baltimore.

Team 2 has a pair of rock-solid hitters. Guerrero’s good-but-not-great power skills are less of an issue when he’s paired with Ohtani, who is coming off consecutive 50-homer seasons.

Turner is quietly productive every year, and Team 1 opted for his consistency over the upside of some younger options.

Round 3 of Mock Draft, 2.0. (Photo by Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports)

With the long wait from pick 25 to 48, Team 1 decided to jump into the pitcher market. Sánchez and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have pulled away from the pack to emerge as the popular SP4 and SP5 draft options.

Knowing that Team 1 was unlikely to take two pitchers on the turn, Team 2 waited and took the leftover hurler. That turned out to be Yamamoto, who would rank ahead of Sánchez on many draft boards if not for concerns of a six-man Dodgers rotation.

With a lifetime .961 OPS, Alvarez is one of baseball’s best pure hitters. After starting with a shortstop (Witt) and first baseman (Alonso), Team 3 decided to take a chance that the 28-year-old could bounce back from an injury-plagued 2025 season.

Neto fell into the lap of Team 4, who was looking for some speed after starting with Soto and Schwarber. Neto will be selected shortly after Turner in most drafts. His 162-game pace in 2025 included 32 homers, 32 steals and 104 runs scored.

Lindor was one 2024 stolen base away from three straight 30-30 seasons. The Mets’ sparkplug lasted a little longer than usual in this draft; though he’s reportedly on track to be ready by Opening Day, he’s recovering from surgery to repair a broken hamate bone.

Team 6 continues to avoid the deeper hitting positions and instead opts to draft their ace. Opinions vary on Woo, with some valuing him as much as Sánchez and Yamamoto, and others wanting to first see a repeat of his breakout 2025 season (2.94 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 198 SO).

Team 7 has adopted a strategy to fill their infield first, as Marte joins Kurtz and De La Cruz. With three outstanding hitters, they can next turn their attention to pitching before plucking from the wide range of outfield options in the later rounds.

Gilbert could be undervalued, as his strikeout rate jumped in an injury-impacted 2025 season. He thrives at his pitcher-friendly home park and should be good enough on the road to give Team 8 a mid-level ace.

Sale remains as skilled as nearly any pitcher, but his injury history and age make him a boom-or-bust option for his age-37 season. After drafting two five-category stars (Rodríguez, Chourio), Team 9 takes their first risk.

Team 10 is borrowing from a fantasy football strategy, by stacking their top-two hitters from the same team. If Tatís has a terrific season, Machado will benefit from more RBI opportunities.

Would you rather roster Crochet and Harper or Acuña and Hunter Brown? That is the debate that will keep Team 11 up at night, as their Round 1 decision to draft Crochet forced them to pass on the remaining aces in Round 3.

Who says that you can’t build a great roster with the last pick? Team 12 has a pair of potential superstars in Acuña and Caminero, and Brown could be a top-five starter.

  • Team 1: Aaron Judge-Trea Turner-Cristopher Sánchez

  • Team 2: Shohei Ohtani-Vladimir Guerrero Jr.-Yoshinobu Yamamoto

  • Team 3: Bobby Witt Jr.-Pete Alonso-Yordan Alvarez

  • Team 4: Juan Soto-Kyle Schwarber-Zach Neto

  • Team 5: Tarik Skubal-Jazz Chisholm Jr.-Francisco Lindor

  • Team 6: José Ramírez-Cal Raleigh-Bryan Woo

  • Team 7: Elly De La Cruz-Nick Kurtz-Ketel Marte

  • Team 8: Kyle Tucker-Corbin Carroll-Logan Gilbert

  • Team 9: Julio Rodríguez-Jackson Chourio-Chris Sale

  • Team 10: Paul Skenes-Fernando Tatís Jr.-Manny Machado

  • Team 11: Garrett Crochet-Gunnar Henderson-Bryce Harper

  • Team 12: Ronald Acuña Jr.-Junior Caminero-Hunter Brown

Brooklyn Nets jersey history No. 45 – Michael Cage (1997-99)

The Brooklyn Nets have 52 jersey numbers worn by over 600 different players over the course of their history since the franchise was founded in 1967 as a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), when the team was known as the “New Jersey Americans”.

Since then, that league has been absorbed by the NBA with the team that would later become the New York Nets and New Jersey Nets before settling on the name by which they are known today, bringing their rich player and jersey history with them to the league of today.

To commemorate the players who played for the Nets over the decades wearing those 52 different jersey numbers, Nets Wire is covering the entire history of the franchise’s jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team.

And for today’s article, we will continue with the eighth of 13 people to wear the No. 45 jersey, big man alum Michael Cage. After ending his college career at SDSU, Cage was picked up with the 14th overall selection of the 1984 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers.

The West Memphis, Arkansas native played the first four seasons of his pro career with LA. He also played for the Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Philadelphia 76ers before he was dealt to the (then) New Jersey (now, Brooklyn) Nets in 1997 for the final two seasons of his career.

During his time suiting up for the Nets, Cage wore only jersey No. 45 and put up 1.3 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets jersey history No. 45 – Michael Cage (1997-99)

Golf roundup: South Korea’s Sungjae Im holds 36-hole Valspar lead

South Korea’s Sungjae Im rolled in a 7-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole on Friday to grab the 36-hole lead at the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla.

Im, who entered the day with a two-shot lead, drifted down the leaderboard by going out in 1-over 37 on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club. However, he regained momentum with consecutive birdies on hole Nos. 11 and 12 before sticking his tee shot tight on the difficult 180-yard par-3 17th.

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Golf recap from PGA’s Valspar Championship, Champions Tour, LIV