BABS DRAFT GAME PLAN 1 – Setting the Foundation
DASHBOARD — All links here
At the top of most draft lists you will likely find one of three players this year — Ronald Acuna, Christian Yelich, or, of course, Mike Trout. BABS acknowledges...
Read MoreArchive for the Ron Shandler
CONGRATS! Final 2019 BABS Ratings Posted
Congratulations to all the winners! Hopefully BABS has helped you take home a title in 2019. The database with final BABS ratings is now posted at the link to your right.
It’s been another crazy year, but what year isn’t? Yes, the massive spikes in power and strikeouts have changed...
Read More
A baby step towards dealing with FAAB
Those who read me regularly know that I am not a fan of FAAB – the Free Agent Acquisition Budget – specifically, the blind-bidding process that uses it. For all the effort we make to try to accurately value players during the draft, we are seemingly fine with throwing away...
Read More
Playing time churn could force BABS to change
As of this past Sunday, 45 players who had been ranked among the pre-season Top 300 have already visited the Injured List. That’s 15 percent of the top players hobbled in little more than 10 percent of the season.
This is important because the more players who get hurt, the...
Read More
Tout Wars, Take 2: BABS strikes back
I spent the summer of 2018 with the single goal of finishing higher than last place. BABS is not proud, but I can't blame her. She is who she is. I just performed poorly. So I decided to take a different approach for this year. I would leave less to...
Read More
Tidbits from The Athletic
I have been writing for The Athletic for six weeks now and I wanted to give you a little taste of it. None of it is BABS-related, but they are similar articles to what I was writing for ESPN the last four years. Unfortunately, I cannot...
Read More
BABS rates Ron’s 50-round D&H team
I just completed a 50-round snake in an NFBC “Draft Champions” 
(Draft & Hold) format, with 14 other speakers from the First Pitch Arizona conference. I used the BABS spreadsheet published late last month, although I veered a bit from the...
Secondbasemen offer diverse skills, multiple positions
In our perpetual quest for speed, second base is the first place where we can take a serious look. Here, and at shortstop, you can really stock up. However, SS also has a bunch of power options, so if you are going to skim off the SBs, they may come...
Read More
I’m joining The Athletic… and an early BABS observation
The news is out… I am joining the staff of The Athletic. For those unfamiliar, TA is a subscription-based online sports magazine that boasts some of the best writers in the business. Today kicks off the launch of their new fantasy baseball section, and I'm honored to...
Read More
First Base is Thinner, but Leverage Options are Plentiful
It has been pointed out in numerous places that this is the first year (since 2004, anyway) that there are no first-basemen in the first round ADP rankings. Indeed, the position has thinned out, but there still remain plenty of BABSian opportunities to play off the marketplace.
Among full- and...
Read More