RSOB
First Pitch Arizona Preview: Why BABS?
On Saturday, November 5, I will be making a presentation about BABS at First Pitch Arizona. It will be a 45-minute look at what BABS is, why we need it, some 2016 successes and an early look at 2017. Here is an excerpt from the “why we need it” section. We can’t integrate risk elements…
Read MoreFinal 2016 BABS Ratings
Even with the massive in shift in the balance between power and speed this season, Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw still ended up atop the BABS rankings. Planetary alignment is a good thing. Those two are this era’s no-brainers, but the rest of the 2016 final rankings reveals a wealth of information. A quick scan…
Read MoreTrout, Freeman pace the field as we enter the homestretch
I should have a little more faith in BABS. She’s been good to me; I should support her even when her ratings seem a little off. To wit: A few weeks ago, I was a guest of Patrick Davitt’s on Baseball HQ Radio. He was looking over the late July BABS update and noticed some…
Read MoreRon Shandler on BaseballHQ Radio
I am the featured guest on this week’s BaseballHQ.com podcast, with Patrick Davitt. My segment starts at the 44:50 mark of the 2+ hour pod and it runs for almost an hour. But I give you nearly 7 hours of content because I talk very, very fast. Here are the major topics we discuss: How…
Read MoreDonaldson, Bradley pace June BABS leaders
Nearly halfway through the season and we are seeing many players’ performances settle down to the levels we had expected in the pre-season. A reminder about how to use the chart: Batters and pitchers, individually, are ranked by skill, regardless of playing time. In this way, you can identify the skills tiers and cherry pick…
Read MoreBetts, Fowler Top the BABS Leaderboard
Through nearly two months, we are starting to see some of the early season’s extreme performances settling down. But even within that settlement, there are a few players who are taking that next step up. A reminder about how to use the chart: Batters and pitchers, individually, are ranked by skill, regardless of playing time.…
Read MoreEarly BABS Observations
As noted on Tuesday, early season’s extreme performances will take some time to settle down, and that’s reflected in the early BABS ratings. No, Aledmys Diaz is not the best player in baseball, but BABS sure does like his skills in those small-sample April ABs. The next few full-timers, however, have more for us to…
Read MoreThe First BABS In-Season Update
On the other side of the links below, you’ll find the first BABS spreadsheet update of the young season. It is important to point out just how young 2016 really is. If a single baseball season represented someone’s full lifespan, today would herald the onset of puberty. And for those of us who’ve gone through…
Read MoreBABS In-Season
The concept of assessing talent using broad measures, and balancing assets and liabilities, applies to all stages of the baseball season. Even though our drafts are over, the need to evaluate talent does not end. BABS works just as hard during the season as in the weeks leading up to it. In some ways she…
Read MoreDynasty Leagues and a BABS Love Letter
Can BABS work in a deep, dynasty league format? I took it out for a spin in the XFL Experts league to find out. The incidentals: The XFL is the industry’s only experts league with keepers, but it’s really a hybrid keeper/dynasty competition. It is a 15-team mixed league that uses 9 of the 10…
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