Yahoo Fantasy Plus identifies 3 of 2025's top pitcher sleepers — how much potential do they offer at ADP?
In case you haven't heard the exciting news, Yahoo Fantasy Plus has some major upgrades for this fantasy baseball season, giving subscribers new tools with deeper insights for a competitive edge.
Among the improvements, you can access new, detailed maximum and minimum projections in points leagues to better predict a number of things when it comes to your draft prep, including which potential picks might offer overlooked fantasy value.
[Unlock premium draft tools & player projections with Yahoo Fantasy Plus]
Using the Fantasy Plus Experts Consensus model, we've identified three starting pitchers whose ADPs are 150 or above with the highest consensus projected fantasy points for 2025. AKA, the starting pitchers with real sleeper appeal.
We've also included a wealth of data, both free (consensus projected fantasy points and 2025 season stats) as well as exclusive to Yahoo Fantasy Plus (consensus maximum/minimum fantasy points projections and highest/lowest expert rank) to give you a sample of all we have to offer.
Andy Behrens has analyzed the data and reveals if he believes each player is a fantasy value at ADP.
The 3rd-highest fantasy points total at pick 150 or above among starting pitchers using Fantasy Plus projections
Projected fantasy points: 570
Consensus maximum fantasy points projection: 795
Consensus minimum fantasy points projection: 334
2025 Yahoo Fantasy consensus projections
IP
W
ERA
WHIP
K
160
9
4.02
1.29
171
Rankings overview
Composite expert rank: 196
Highest overall rank: 157 (Andy Behrens, Yahoo)
Lowest: 273 (Dalton Del Don, Yahoo)
Yahoo ADP: 221
Gore is a former top-of-the-ranks prospect who's been of interest to dynasty managers for the better part of a decade. While it might feel as if he's been around forever, he actually just turned 26. He's only now coming into his prime. Still, Gore deserves placement in his draft neighborhood because he was elite last season in certain areas (9.8 K/9), but he was dreadful in others (1.42 WHIP). Basically, he was either the game's worst great pitcher or its best bad pitcher. Hard to say.
Bottom line: Gore is a resident of the pitching tier in which I do most of my shopping, so I'm all-in. He cut his rate of home runs allowed by more than half last year, from 4.6% in 2023 to 2.1%, while also managing to toss a career-best 166.1 innings. If he can approach 180 frames in 2025, he's going to deliver his first 200-K campaign. Also, Gore didn't have the best of luck on balls-in-play last season (.340 BABIP), so there's obvious room for improvement in his ERA and WHIP. If he takes just one more step in his development, he'll enter the ace conversation.
The 9th-highest fantasy points total at pick 150 or above among starting pitchers using Fantasy Plus projections
Projected fantasy points: 552
Consensus maximum fantasy points projection: 747
Consensus minimum fantasy points projection: 297
2025 Yahoo Fantasy consensus projections
IP
W
ERA
WHIP
K
151
10
4.07
1.20
155
Rankings overview
Composite expert rank: 186
Highest overall rank: 138 (Del Don)
Lowest: 212 (Daniel Marcus, Rotowire)
Yahoo ADP: 184
Pfaadt put himself firmly and irrevocably on the fantasy radar back in 2022 when he delivered the highest strikeout total the minor leagues had seen in over 20 years. He continued piling up Ks after graduating to the majors, but the fantasy ratios haven't been great (5.06 ERA, 1.30 WHIP). It's understandable that Pfaadt hasn't been drafted as a sure thing in our game, because he entered the spring fighting for a place in Arizona's rotation. He's been terrific in exhibition play to this point, seemingly doing enough to lock down his spot.
Bottom line: Pfaadt has a deep arsenal of pitches with a Wiffle ball sweeper, so it's easy to imagine him as a future fantasy star. However, it's equally easy to imagine him as one of those guys who never quite puts all the puzzle pieces together to form the complete image of an ace. We have to take fliers on pitchers like this because the K-rate basically forces our hand. As with Gore, it's clear that Pfaadt has the potential to deliver 200-plus Ks if he levels up in his prime years. Pretty much every measure of expected ERA looked much better than his actual ERA last season (4.71), so the potential payoff is certainly worth the risk at his current Yahoo ADP (184). This is what a sleeper pitcher looks like ahead of the breakout.
The 11th-highest fantasy points total at pick 150 or above among starting pitchers using Fantasy Plus projections
Projected fantasy points: 644
Consensus maximum fantasy points projection: 843
Consensus minimum fantasy points projection: 356
2025 Yahoo Fantasy consensus projections
IP
W
ERA
WHIP
K
163
12
3.73
1.23
178
Rankings overview
Composite expert rank: 158
Highest overall rank: 103 (Marcus)
Lowest: 189 (Del Don)
Yahoo ADP: 153
Well, here's hoping we can all agree that the season delivered by López in 2024 was something of a baseball miracle, never to be repeated. He's a good pitcher on a good team, but nothing in the 31-year-old's repertoire or his professional history suggests he's a guy who should deliver another sub-2.00 ERA. Last year, his expected ERA (3.94) was nearly two full runs greater than actual (1.99). This is not to say, of course, that he was secretly bad. López struck out 148 hitters over 135.2 innings last season while allowing only 10 home runs. His slider is an elite pitch by any measure. López can regress a fair amount in the season ahead and still produce at a useful level in fantasy.
Bottom line: As long as you recognize that López is not about to deliver another season that looks like his outrageous 2024 campaign, it's fine to still have an interest. Atlanta is going to be a contending team and he's a locked-in starter with an excellent K-rate. Lopez has experienced a few velocity hiccups this spring, but nothing too worrisome or uncommon. There's not much in his profile suggesting he should be a proactive target for fantasy managers, but he's certainly not someone you need to place on the do-not-draft list, either. If he finds his way onto your roster at or after his ADP (153), it's perfectly fine. It feels wrong to call him a sleeper, but he might be a nice enough value.
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Chelsea's 2024–25 campaign undoubtedly ended on a high. They clinched their first major honour since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover after defeating Real Betis 4-1 in the Europa Conference League final, and secured Champions League qualification for the first time under their ownership with a 1-0 win away at Nottingham Forest on the final day to finish fourth in the Premier League. Advertisement However, the season also had its lows. They were uncharacteristically knocked out of both the FA and Carabao Cups in the fourth round by Brighton and Newcastle, and won just two of 10 Premier League games between December 22 and February 22 — a stretch that included their heaviest loss of the season, a 3-0 defeat away at Brighton. So, how should their season be viewed overall? On the latest episode of Straight Outta Cobham, with help from listeners, Matt Davies-Adams and Liam Twomey discussed how Chelsea's 2024–25 season should be graded. A partial transcript has been edited for this article. The full episode is available on the Straight Outta Cobham feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Matt: We asked listeners to grade Chelsea's 2024-25 campaign, and lots of them got in touch with us. We had a couple of A grades from Yahoo and Andrew. Yahoo said, 'We achieved the Champions League and won a trophy, what more could we want in season one with Enzo Maresca?' Andrew said, 'We hit all the objectives, and unlike the last two seasons, have shown some sign of improvement.' Alan graded it a B and said, 'It would be higher if the football hadn't been such a struggle to watch at times and if we hadn't dropped five points against Ipswich. I can't argue with the end result, though, and stability will hopefully bring progress.' There were also a couple of slightly lower grades which came in. Four Aces said, 'I'd give it a C+, it was decent but it came down to the last game in the league and the second half in the Conference League final. It could have gone very differently.' GCP graded it a C- and said, 'Bare minimum given the level of investment and the relative standard of the league. I think the squad was good enough to get another 15 points. I want to see evidence of Maresca getting the best out of players other than Cucurella.' Advertisement B or B+ feels about right to me, Liam. Obviously, it could have been very different had things not gone the way they did right at the end of the campaign, but you can't say that Chelsea haven't achieved what they set out to at the start of the season. Albeit I like that caveat from Alan that the football was difficult to watch at times, and we'd be lying if we said it wasn't, wouldn't we? Liam: Yeah, but I think you also have to view it in the context of, 'Remember what the football was like under Graham Potter in that wasteland of a season two years ago?' That's still the personal low point for me in a decade of covering Chelsea. And then last year, I know people remember some of the thrilling, more goal-happy games under Pochettino, but there were also some pretty sterile possession games against low blocks. Admittedly, that wasn't a completely new thing this season, and yes they scored 13 more goals under Poch in 2023-24, but they also conceded 20 more goals. So when I look at the step forward this season, it's primarily defensive and primarily in terms of structure. And yes, that isn't going to get Maresca any brownie points with fans for entertainment, but I think it's an essential step for Chelsea to actually become a better team. Overall, I'd grade it a B. To me, a B is a solid pass, like job done… at least it was for me at GCSE. But certainly a B in the Conference League because that was par for the course, they had to win that. Even Real Betis, the best team that they faced, were significantly less talented and that showed in the final, but they still took care of business. And it looked for a while like they might not in the Premier League, even though the first half of the season lined up brilliantly for them. Until the turn of the year, there was no one making a play for second, never mind fourth. And I know Aston Villa and Newcastle finished strongly, and Man City finally got their act together to some degree and made it competitive. But Chelsea had this big advantage that they then blew away essentially in the space of two or three miserable months. But they pulled themselves together when they needed to, they found that grit, and they finished really strongly. So they deserve credit for that. But when you're looking at the season in totality with the way the campaign panned out, and looking at the other teams, I didn't think there was much of an excuse for Chelsea not to make the top five. So to finish fourth meant job done. Chelsea can move on now and look to strengthen this summer, look to have a good showing in the Club World Cup, and we'll see where it goes from there. But it was a solid and encouraging first season for Enzo Maresca. You can listen to full episodes of 'Straight Outta Cobham' for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. (Top Photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
