Customer Reviews

2010 Baseball Forecaster (Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster)

5 star:		(7)
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3 star:		(1)
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This 2010 book continues Shandler's string of hits with his annual Forecaster. The essays in the front of the book are fresher than past years. Also, Shandler unveils a new method of evaluating players: the Mayberry Method. Don't worry, it's in addition to all the other ratings systems, sabremetrics, and pithy player descriptions I've come to love.

Though he is a leader of the statistics-based prediction rather than skills-based analysis, I think Shandler is actually doing a good job of combining skills-based scouting with sabremetric evaluation. His obsession with the accuracy of his forecasts pushes him to optimize the world of data from which he can make predictions. The statistics he uses and the ratios he's developed are all clearly aimed at explaining why it happened on the field. His reliance on skills analyses for younger players gradually gives way to the use of the results data as their carreers progress. Shandler is also keen on interpreting the effect of injury, both looking back and looking forward. Few other Roto forecasters will go out on a limb predicting both down years and improvements for various players.

If you only buy one baseball annual for your fantasy league, this is the one to buy.

I buy the Shandler Forecaster every January, and every October for the last four years I've celebrated a fantasy baseball championship. Put simply: Shandler's forecasts are eerily close to what will happen in the course of a season. Does he miss from time-to-time? Absolutely. But I trust him absolutely. In a world of bloggers acting like experts, it's good to have a real expert to look to in preparation for my (five) roto drafts.

every year i await this annual which is my main guide for all my fantasy leagues ...its great and there is no doubt ron shandler is an innovator but sometimes even a person like me who has been reading this for years can get lost with all the technical terms. the blurbs for each player also could be more decisive in my opinion for example for players it will say UPSIDE 2007 DOWNSIDE 2009, which really does not tell me his opinion at all and that is what im looking.

The philosophy of Ron Shandler could best be summed up in the mantra: "Draft Skills, Not Stats". Essentially...
-A player's fundamental skills (contact, power, control, stuff) will determine the baseline for the STATS the player will put out. If there is a discrepancy in the skills and the expected stat output, we can identify over/undervalued players and draft accordingly.
-The emphasis on developing/declining skills gives a more dynamic picture of who a player is and who he is becoming. Stats give a recap, skills are a predictive tool.

The book goes into detail on what you should be looking for in a player and why...it has cheatsheets/projections/analysis for nearly every MLB player along with budding prospects. Highly reccommended!

For baseball fans that like a non-conventional look at players, trends, teams and stats, the annual Baseball Forecaster is one of my must-have publications. Shandler has again assembled a talented and interesting cast of writers and analysts and gets this in our hands just in time to beat the mid-winter ("we need baseball") blues! Just as pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training, Baseball Forecaster gives us an informative look at the upcoming season.

Great information that helps you make up your own mind about players, not just take some ones word for how they will do. I have found a couple gems with the statistics provided. It's a great feeling late in a draft to have other managers look up and say "Who did he just pick, I never heard of him". The best part is a couple months later getting the email asking about a trade with your previously unknown player.

This is the book you DON'T want your fellow owners to know about. Let the other guys get those outdated and innacurate $8.00 fantasy mags off the newsstand and laugh
your butt off as they finish in the bottom half of the league year after year. Those mags are pretty much worthless. They give you stats, but as the great Vin Scully once
said "Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamp post: for support, not illumination".. so true Vin. This book gives you data, hard core data, that will either legitimizes
or delegitimize what a player has accomplished in a given year.

And no it's not perfect, no system is, but Ron gives you a great starting point to base player evaluations from. Plain and simple.. get this book if you want to dominate your leagues. I have for the past 7 years and will continue to do so.

The Forecaster has gone the way of many of the big baseball books. Ron Shandler has basically outsourced the book write ups to his authors and does very little of that himself. Whereas the Forecaster was once known for its fearless projections, the Forecaster never goes out on a limb anymore. It used to be fun to see who Baseball HQ would mark as the next breakout star or the high-profile player due for a major collapse. Maybe the criticism from being wrong got to the HQ guys, but they refuse to stick their necks out on players anymore. Thus, the book has lost a lot of its fun. It's still a great resource and contains excellent statistical analysis, but their won't be any surprises. The guy that hit 30 homers in 2009 will be projected to hit around 30 again this year. Yawn.

2010 Baseball Forecaster (Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster)

I always try to use Shandler for season management of my teams. His forecast are aimed at this year: I like this point of view I get advice for now, not for sometime in the future. His forecaster show much of Ron's personal arrogance (is it arrogance if they're very good?) I am a demanding customer I want to see more perfect forecasts, but I don't expect to get them. Still they continually improve their product as imperfection is still with them.

Grumpy Gator

This is a really useful & thorough book for anyone playing fantasy baseball. Along with the BP annual, the Baseball Forecaster will see me through the draft & season. Great value and I'm sorry I didn't have it last year.