#player-evaluation

#player-evaluation

If the Heat could acquire Young with a package that is built on Tyler Herro and Simone Fontecchio, I'm not sure how the fans could be mad at that. At the same time, I'm not sure how the front office could strike that down. If this were a feasible offer that could get a deal done, this comes down to a Tyler Herro vs. Trae Young conversation, and not necessarily one about assets/draft capital anymore.

Alexis Lafreniere is a bust. As a huge fan of Lafreniere (he is my favorite player on the New York Rangers), it's taken me far longer to say that than most. I held out hope through an up and down first season. I held out hope through a rough second season. In the 2022 postseason, I was the first one to point out his seemingly improved play. In 2024, I was the first person screaming that this was the start of a breakout for the young forward.

His vision between the tackles stands out first, as he consistently identifies creases early, presses his leverage effectively, and understands how to manipulate second-level defenders to create extra yardage. That vision is paired with an electric first step following the mesh point, allowing him to capitalize before the lanes close. And while the former Alabama State-to-Arizona product isn't a back who needs perfect blocking surfaces to be productive, his ability to get north quickly and generate momentum through contact has translated to the professional level.

The Washington Commanders are struggling to find positives from a season that quickly went down the road to disaster. However, one NFL analyst believes the flashes displayed by wide receiver Treylon Burks since joining the club are worth another go-around in 2026. Burks had plenty of interest after his abrupt departure from the Tennessee Titans. They set him up to fail. Injuries didn't help his cause, either.

The Commanders didn't expect Quan Martin to fall flat. All the offseason hype was centered on the 2023 second-round pick making a monumental leap this season, potentially even entering breakout status and surging into the conversation among the best young safeties around the league. That has not gone according to plan. Martin has been way short of the required standards this season.

These days, the best defensive midfielders in the world tend to be specialists who stay deeper in the engine room. But this was never the case 30 years ago: midfielders tended to chip in to do a little of everything, getting forward when needed and tracking back in reverse. As the role of a DM evolves, it's not unusual that some of the best players in the world right now play at the base of a midfield, given that it's a position that you need vision, awareness and a high IQ so let's delve into what makes a world-class no.6 in 2025.

Ireland striker needs to prove his worth to Italian club before the end of the year if he is to stay in Serie A for rest of the season Like any footballer in any league right now, if Evan Ferguson was asked how he thought he was doing and what his hopes for the future were, he'd reply with, "I'm just taking it game by game". But the 21-year-old appears to be running out of games in his time as a Serie A player with AS Roma.

Much of the buzz surrounding the Phillies this winter has concerned their efforts to re-sign one or both or Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto. Since either of those free agents might well end up leaving Philadelphia for another team, the Phils have also been doing their due diligence on other major free agents or trade targets, including Tatsuya Imai and Ketel Marte.

Adding Tucker would be a significant game-changer for the Blue Jays. Last season with the Chicago Cubs, Tucker slashed .266/.277/.464 with 22 home runs in 597 plate appearances for a 136 wRC+. This was a down year for the outfielder as he's good for about 30 home runs a season, albeit his wRC+ was just slightly below his career wRC+ of 138.

De La Cruz showed promise early in his career with Miami, hitting .269/.318/.430 with 18 homers, 27 doubles and a pair of triples in his first 574 plate appearances from 2021-22. He popped 19 homers in 2023, but poor glovework and an OBP barely north of .300 made him a roughly replacement-level player. De La Cruz had a better start in '24, connecting on 18 long balls through his first 454 turns at the plate.

Morel finished the 2024 season with a 50 OPS+ in 49 games with the Rays, hitting three home runs and driving in only nine runs. For the season, he slashed .196/.288/.346 with an 81 wRC+ and -1.0 fWAR.

Austin Reaves has improved each season he has been in the NBA, peaking last season at 20.2 PPG, 5.8 APG and 4.5 RPG as the third option on a Lakers team where the first two options shifted midseason from LeBron James and Anthony Davis to Luka Doncic and James. This season, the 27-year-old Reaves has been the second option to Doncic while James has been sidelined, and he has also played three games as the first option when Doncic was out as well.

Many Rangers fans felt at the time of the Mika Zibanejad trade that the Rangers made a mistake. Brassard had been crushing it for the Blueshirts and Zibanejad had a couple of good seasons but hadn't truly broken out yet. Fast forward to today, and Zibanejad has been one of the most valuable Rangers ever. How do we come to terms with Mika Zibanejad's career, though? This is a player who never truly competed for any major award, never made it to the Stanley Cup Final, and at this point in his career is someone fans look at as a potential negative if his decline is real.

"There's no secret sauce," Roy said. "We have a lot of good players and we're going to rotate some guys. Some guys are going to be in and out of the lineup."

Grisham has gone from fourth outfielder to the top center fielder in the class within six months. He picked a great time for the best season of his career. Grisham connected on 34 home runs, doubling his previous season high. He pushed his already strong walk rate to a career-high 14.1% clip while cutting his strikeouts (23.6%) to the lowest mark in four years. The end result was a .235/.348/.464 slash line across 581 plate appearances.

Keep in mind that there's plenty of time between now and the start of the draft on April 23 in Pittsburgh. Beyond multiple months of football still ahead, some players could decide to head back to school, while others could surprisingly declare early. We also have predraft events such as all-star games and the combine, which will shake up boards. And every team's needs will continue evolving as they move toward the upcoming offseason.

Using a high draft pick on an injury-prone player, or any player who misses a lot of games, can ruin a fantasy season in a hurry. The same is true of using a high pick on a player who is set to see their minutes decrease from last season. Savvy fantasy managers are able to sniff these type of situations out in advance, and stay away from those players on draft day. Here are five big names to avoid in your drafts this season.

Hard-working game by our guys. We were in control of the game, and then we took the penalties. That is a pretty talented power play over there. It's our own fault for taking the penalties. We have to be more disciplined in those situations. We let them back in the game. Like everybody on the team, I thought the effort was really good tonight.

After a long offseason with plenty of twists and turns, the Miami Heat are going to return to the basketball court on Saturday night when they take on Orlando in San Juan to open up preseason play. Given it's preseason, we should see a vast array of players getting minutes. And while the 15-man roster seems to be locked down, that doesn't mean rotational minutes are set in stone.

Plenty of Toronto Maple Leafs will be haunted by the name Mitch Marner, but fair or not, Matias Maccelli may inspire the most comparisons of all. Both are smallish wingers. While you should expect a mammoth gap in actual production, each forward boasts sometimes-dazzling passing skills. Critics may at times even complain that passing is too often their first, second, and last options. Heck, they both even have alliterative names starting with an "M."

It is one of those preseason games. Montreal worked hard and played a simple game. We kind of complicated things at times. That is what you get sometimes in preseason games. They are. It lacks intensity. That can drive a coach bananas, but I understand. There was some good stuff, too. I was happy with some of it. I look for structure stuff. I look for routes, and things like that - our systems.

As always, these games are difficult to evaluate; played at the beginning of the hockey schedule, it's a group of young players who have never played together facing opposition who have also never played together, leading to some chaos and a lack of structure. With that caveat out of the way, here are some of my impressions from the weekend:

Many things will define the 49ers' season. Such is the nature of this complex game of football. But perhaps no factor not star players, injuries, or field-goal kicking will be as crucial to determining success or failure as the play of the 49ers' defensive rookies. The Niners drafted six of them this past spring, and three were asked to be starters right out of the gate. And what did we see from the kids on Sunday in Seattle?

If you want to be confused about how good an NBA player is, send them to New Orleans. One of the most poorly-run franchises in the league has built rosters year after year that do not fit together. When you add in that the team has also dealt with a shocking number of injuries, you get an environment that obscures player evaluations like a full solar eclipse.

That's how much USC gained during its 59-20 victory over Georgia Southern on Saturday. One-hundred thirty-two points are a lot of points. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times) That's how much USC has scored in its two games this season, including its blowout victory over Missouri State the week before. If you want to believe the Trojans are better than they were in their previous two seasons, there are developments that could further convince you that you're right.

The Cardinals have maintained this season is primarily about evaluating young players. It felt like a potential make-or-break year for Jordan Walker, in particular. Walker was viewed as an impact bat when he was a prospect. He impressed with a .276/.342/.445 showing with 16 homers as a 21-year-old rookie. That promising debut feels like an increasingly distant memory. Walker regressed to a .201/.253/.366 line in 51 major league games last year.

Though it's difficult to call a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee underrated, that label applies to the newest center in Springfield, Massachusetts. As of 2021, Howard was one of 26 players in NBA history with at least five first-team All-NBA nods. The other 25 were named to the league's 75th Anniversary Team that year. Howard was not.

Every year, after the NFL draft, everyone is talking about "steals" and "reaches." The "steals" are the players that the football-watching public thinks went way later than their talent warranted. And the "reaches" are the players we thought went way higher than they should've. It turns out: we're only half right. A 2021 study by Timo Riske of Pro Football Focus looked back at six years of draft data and identified the players who went significantly higher or lower than the consensus of publicly available draft rankings. What he found is that the players who were "reaches" did underperform, on average, compared to the other players drafted at the same pick in other years.

Stats experts contend there's no such thing as a consistent clutch player in any sport. Players who come up big at the buzzer or final whistle are typically the ones who do it at any time of the game. But anecdotes and memories stick with us. And in those make-or-break moments, we know who we want to take that shot.

It's hardly ideal that Elliott was playing on Saturday, but if you're a veteran being asked to play serious snaps in a third preseason game, you might as well make flash plays. Elliott was a game-wrecker in the middle against the Chargers' second and third-string offensive lines. If he was on the roster bubble, he should have played his way off it Saturday.