Tristan H. Cockcroft is senior writer for fantasy baseball and football at ESPN. Tristan is a member of the FSWA Hall of Fame. He is also two-time LABR and four-time Tout Wars champion.
The 2026 season reaches the quarter pole as, barring any postponements between now and then, three quarters of the scheduled games will be in the books once seven games become official on Thursday. These points in the year serve a good opportunity to review your standings, roster strengths and shortcomings, and that's especially true at this advanced stage, with the stretch run now here.
Speaking of addressing fantasy rosters, the trade deadline in ESPN leagues arrives Friday (Aug. 14), at noon ET. All trades must be accepted by both sides in advance of that deadline in order to become official.
MLB returns to the Field of Dreams site this week, with the Philadelphia Phillies and Minnesota Twins playing Thursday at the revamped ballpark in Dyersville, Iowa. It's a home game for the Twins, then the two teams will have a Friday travel day before completing their three-game series at Minnesota's Target Field on Saturday and Sunday.
The Field of Dreams ballpark has undergone improvements since the last MLB game there in 2022, not to mention there have been only two official MLB games played there, so park factors are challenging to forecast. Measurements are fairly standard relative to other MLB parks -- 335 feet down the foul lines, 380 feet to the power alleys and 400 feet to dead center field -- which almost exactly meet the league-average dimensions to those points.
The center field measurement is the one below the league average, however, and the ball appeared to have slightly more carry at Field of Dreams. For projections purposes, it has a 4% boost to home runs and 2% to run scoring, which classifies it as a neutral park with a marginal benefit to power hitters.
There's a good chance that Blake Snell will rejoin the Los Angeles Dodgers rotation during Week 19, as the lefty boosted his pitch count to 73 in his most recent of four minor league rehabilitation starts on Aug. 4. He could be activated to start Monday or Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals.
Speaking of Snell's Dodgers, they play a high-profile, four-game weekend series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Three of the most prominent starting pitchers in the game are projected to start during that series: The Dodgers' Tarik Skubal (Sunday) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Friday), and the Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski (Saturday).
The Seattle Mariners, three games back in the AL West and 1.5 back (but trailing four other teams also on the outside looking in) in the wild-card race, continue a critical stretch in their schedule. They're in the midst of a 20-day, 18-game stretch during which time they face nothing but current playoff teams. T the portion in which they'll play entirely on the road, as their Week 19 has them playing three games at New York's Yankee Stadium and three at Houston's Daikin Park (they'll then play three games at Milwaukee's American Family Field to begin Week 20).
