Since 1986, Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster has been the industry's leading resource for creating fantasy baseball winners. With the most consistent track record of success, the Forecaster provides a wealth of tools that make it every owner's bible: stats, sabermetrics and projections; performance trends; ground-breaking research results; pitching logs; bullpen charts; minor league scouting; team and league charts; injury analysis; fantasy draft guides and cheat sheets, and much more.
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About the Author
Ron Shandler has been publishing his unique brand of statistical information since 1986. He was the first author to develop sabermetric applications for fantasy league play. Among his contributions are component skills analysis, pure quality starts and the LIMA Plan. Shandler s work has appeared in numerous publications, and he has been cited by many sources, including ESPN, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business Week, and Money magazine. In 2004, Shandler helped create an advisory board for the St. Louis Cardinals. He is the founder of Tout Wars, the national experts competition featured in the 2006 book, Fantasyland. In national experts leagues all told, he has finished in the top three 11 times, including five titles. Shandler's website, BaseballHQ.com, is a 3-time winner of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association's ;Best Fantasy Baseball Online Content; award. Shandler was honored with FSTA's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fine book - but know what you're getting.,
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This review is from: Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster 2007 (Paperback)
There's always a series of books that fantasy baseball (and other statheads - but how many statheads aren't into some kind of roto?) players look towards. Baseball Prospectus is one, the Bill James book is another, some of the Baseball America books are popular, but not mentioned as often is this book. I think it's mainly because Shandler aims his book directly at the fantasy baseball player (where the baseball snob may not want to classify themselves as), but Shandler's book yearly adds insight into the previous season's performances and whether to expect them again. Is it a perfect forecasting tool? Of course not - there is no such thing. But Shandler's reasoning for his predictions are less hunch and more fact based, which tends to get better results.
That being said - this isn't a book for the average fan. It reads like a calculus textbook for the mostpart, with small little blurbs on each player (often abbreviated due to size constraints) to explain why the prediction for 2007 may not fit the pattern shown in previous seasons. Shandler (and his crew) aren't humorless, but there's only so much you can say in ~25 words. Shandler uses a lot of homemade stats and ratings that are treated like they're common knowledge to the reader that a newcomer might totally be lost by. Also consider that while Shandler promotes his book as one that can help all types of fantasy players (sim leagues, head-to-head, traditional roto), since each player only gets a small amount of detail and each one of the before mentioned styles makes a player's value fluctuate, don't expect to buy the book the day before your draft and think that you're set. It's a tool, and just like any other tool, you have to learn how to use it for your benefit. So my rating was tough to come to. Having bought the book before and knowing what I was getting, I find it to be a five star book. But at the same time, I can't recommend it to everyone. It's not a fun read, it's not for the average fan, and it's very easy to get lost in it - even a knowledgeable sabermatician is going to experience a learning curve that might cause them to cast the book aside in favor of a better read and prettier ratings and stats. I love it, but others won't. So I went with four stars, which would have gone higher if the book was friendlier to the first time user - maybe with better introductions to the stats, maybe with a easier to scan ranking or value to each player (Shandler would probably be wise to introduce some kind of star rating system or even icon-based tags to designate a sleeper pick, breakout candidate, or potential bust). Five stars for the experienced user, three for the new user, for an average of four - which it gets from me. My suggestion for the newbie considering the book - see if you can actually get your hands on it first and see how its laid out. Hit the local bookstore if they have it, or even pick up a old version of the book (always fun with "prediction" books just to see how accurate they were) for a few bucks and see if it's your thing. If you don't feel like waiting that long, it's not an expensive book so take the plunge - but don't say you weren't warned.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fishing Pole instead of Fish,
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This review is from: Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster 2007 (Paperback)
Every annual fantasy baseball book out there provides you with projected stats, but they're out of date as soon as they are printed, due to injuries, trades, etc.
Ron Shandler's book does more in that it provides you with a methodology for evaluating players continually throughout the season, plus strategies for winning your fantasy league. And it also includes one free download of a data (Excel) version of updated stat projections right before the season starts. The previous reviewer's comments was spot on in that while Baseball Prospectus (the other annual baseball stats "bible") is a great source of projections, it's really aimed at the larger baseball community, while Baseball Forecaster is wholly focused on us fantasy managers, and thus spends more time orienting itself toward us. That said, I disagree slightly with the previous reviewer's assessment when it comes to the steroid article. I'd point out that Baseball Forecaster is intended to allow a bit more room for subjectivity than do strict sabermetricians, for whom numbers are the source of all assumptions. I think that just because there is no underlying data to examine shouldn't mean a subject cannot be discussed at all. The article on steroids, I think, is an example of the balance BF tries to strike - I don't think Ron Shandler intends his book to be a strictly quantitative study, but rather a combination of the application of math and baseball common sense, with a major skew toward faith in the numbers.
39 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent resource, but some quibbles,
By
This review is from: Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster 2007 (Paperback)
This is my first Baseball Forecaster and it is a solid fantasy reference which will help you win. There are articles in here ever fantasy player should read. I'm a long time Baseball Prospectus reader and the Forecaster looks at the relevant "advanced" metrics (strikeouts/innings pitched, OPS, etc...) solely as they apply to fantasy value. This is geared towards auction 5x5 traditional roto, but there is a section on H2H leagues and snake drafts (which I like but the authors do not). They present a few strategies for bidding and give many warnings about the scattershot nature of prediction. The essays on closer volatility and short pieces on topics such as Japanese Players are also valuable.
The rankings are alphabetical by player (not broken up by team - THANK YOU) into hitters and pitchers (not by position). There are cheat sheets in the back which look a lot like the ones I produce for myself (like power ratings by position) and these are also good. Commentaries terse but get the info across. Why not five stars? One is the low production values - typographically ugly and poorly bound, the physical presentation undercuts the thoughtful information. The cheap cover will start curling almost immediately. Layout looks like it was done by competent amateurs rather than pros. Many of the charts towards the back (pitching logs specifically) are nearly unreadable. Is it so hard to put page numbers in the same place page after page? Second is the silly insistence on proprietary renaming of rate stats - like K/BB. This may be a gentle way of introducing new concepts to SABR newbies, but the fascist copyright notice at the beginning says otherwise. Free K/BB for the people! Last quibble is the statement towards the beginning that they are going to experiment with adjusting values on suspected performance enhancing drug use in the future. Oh well, I guess it isn't based on fact after all. Players used steroids but...wait for it... there has never been in all of scientific literature an article showing steroids help baseball performance (reviewer has an MS in Forensic Science). Good luck with your voodoo in the future. In their defense, a reader poll requested it. So if you have made it to the end of this review, buy this book. It will help your fantasy drafting, give you tools to improve play within your league, and perhaps introduce you to some concepts. If you are a BP reader, the Forecaster does the leg work of translating performance analysis into fantasy terms. But I am not buying this book in the future if they start throwing witchcraft darts about suspected drug use.
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