In 1986, Ron Shandler began publishing the ''Baseball Forecaster'', an annual publication focused on applying
sabermetrics
Sabermetrics, or originally SABRmetrics, is the empirical analysis of baseball, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. Sabermetricians collect and summarize the relevant data from this in-game activity to answer specific ques ...
to fantasy baseball, and later founde
Baseball HQ a website with the same focus. Shandler has an MBA from Hofstra University.
Shandler is seen as a revolutionary thinker in both sabermetrics and fantasy baseball. Among his innovations in fantasy baseball are:
*LIMA Plan - Which stands for Low Investment Mound Aces, is a draft strategy for traditional 4x4 Rotisserie leagues. LIMA is named after pitcher
José Lima
José Desiderio Rodriguez Lima (September 30, 1972 – May 23, 2010) was a Dominican right-handed pitcher who spent 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Detroit Tigers (1994–1996, 2001–2002), Houston Astros (1997–2001), Kan ...
, who was exemplified by the strategy. The strategy includes spending a maximum of $60 out of your $260 budget on pitching. No more than $30 on saves. Have your pitchers use as few innings as your league rules allow. Look to buy pitchers with strong strikeout-to-walk ratios, high strikeout per inning ratios and low home run per inning ratios. Spend the rest of your budget on hitting.
* Strand Rate - The percentage of baserunners a pitcher allows who fail to score (''
Baseball Prospectus'' has a similar statistic
Bequeathed Runs Prevented. Shandler discovered that 72 percent of baserunners on average never cross the plate, so if a pitcher has a higher or lower strand rate there's a chance it will affect his ERA in the opposite direction in the future. The concept of runners being stranded on base was probably not first conceived of by Shandler. Sabermetrician
Keith Woolner Keith Woolner (born c. 1968) is an author for Baseball Prospectus and is the creator of the statistic Value Over Replacement Player (VORP). VORP is acknowledged by the sabermetrics community as one of the key concepts in the analysis of a player's p ...
has been researching support-neutral statistics since at leas
1993 and has often discussed concepts similar to Strand Rate (e.g., Bequeathed Runners inherited/stranded
Shandler created Tout Wars in 1997 after being fed up with the lack of promotion ''USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' gave its annual LABR fantasy baseball experts league.
where he promotes his latest innovation: the Broad Assessment Balance Sheet (BABS) approach to fantasy baseball team construction.
See also
* Fantasy baseball Fantasy baseball is a game in which the participants serve as owners and general managers of virtual baseball teams. The competitors select their rosters by participating in a draft in which all relevant Major League Baseball (MLB) players are ava ...
* Fantasy sport
A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete bas ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shandler, Ron
Fantasy sports
Baseball culture
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people