RSOB Chapter 4: The BABS Player Profiling System
New to “Ron Shandler’s Other Book”? Read the Introduction. The foundation of BABS is a basic accounting concept – the balance sheet. On the left side are your Assets; on the right are your Liabilities. For batters, your Assets are Power, Speed and Batting Average. For pitchers, your assets are Pitching Effectiveness (a proxy for ERA…
Read MoreRSOB Chapter 3: The Broad Assessment Balance Sheet
New to Ron Shandler’s Other Book? Read the Introduction. For decades, we have been told that the goal in fantasy baseball is to assemble a group of players whose aggregate statistics exceed those of all the other teams in the league. In fact, that is the actual verbiage in the Official Rotisserie Baseball League Constitution. But…
Read MoreRSOB Chapter 2: How Psychology is Out to Get You
New to Ron Shandler’s Other Book? Read the Introduction. For the sake of argument, let’s say that you buy into everything I wrote in the last chapter. (I won’t delude myself into thinking that everyone is drinking my Kool-Aid.) Let’s say that you agree that player projections are garbage… um, flawed. Still, our brain plays its…
Read MoreRSOB Chapter 1: How the Stats are Out to Get You
From Ron Shandler’s Other Book 2016: The Manual of Baseball Roster Construction. “This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.” — Nuke Laloosh, Bull Durham The structure of the game of baseball lends itself to analysis. The result…
Read MoreRSOB Introduction: My Conversation with YOU
From Ron Shandler’s Other Book 2016: The Manual of Baseball Roster Construction. ME: Hey, welcome. YOU: C’mon Ron, do we really need another fantasy baseball annual? What? Already with the questions? How about a little “Hi Ron, how ya been? We’ve missed you at Baseball HQ but it’s nice to see you’re still doing the Forecaster…
Read MoreAbreu, Pierre named to Rotisserie Hall of Fame
While the the baseball universe waits impatiently for Wednesday’s always-controversial Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame announcement, the fantasy industry has named its 2016 picks for the Rotisserie Hall of Fame: Bobby Abreu and Juan Pierre. Eligibility for the Roto Hall is based on lifetime and peak Rotisserie dollar earnings, and number…
Read MoreAlbert Pujols moves to #7 in Lifetime Rotisserie Earnings
Albert Pujols posted a 40-95-.244 season in 2015, his highest home run total since 2010. That was worth $20 in Rotisserie dollars, enough to move him up from 9th to 7th overall in lifetime earnings during the Rotisserie era (1980-present), according to just-released statistics at RonShandler.com. Pujols has now earned $510 during his 15 years…
Read More2016 Rotisserie Hall of Fame Candidates Announced
Every year, we continue to debate the merits and flaws of the BBWAA Hall of Fame voting process. So in 2013, I launched the first Rotisserie Baseball Hall of Fame. For fantasy leaguers, it is all about the stats. We don’t care whether a player exhibited sportsmanship or integrity. We don’t care whether he refused…
Read MoreThe baseball season begins now. Again.
To all my friends: It’s been a transitional year for me. Back in May, I parted ways with BaseballHQ.com after having founded the site 19 years ago. In June, I decided to pull up stakes at ShandlerPark.com after finding the short-run gaming space too volatile. (And not a day too soon, apparently.) So, folks have…
Read More2016 Baseball Forecaster Excerpt
I joke with others that my biggest fear is that my tombstone epitaph will read, “Fantasy Baseball Expert.” If that is how my life’s work will be encapsulated, then I must have done something wrong. But the fact remains: the Baseball Forecaster celebrates its 30th Anniversary edition with its release this week. And as I…
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