In 1986, Ron Shandler began publishing the ''Baseball Forecaster'', an annual publication focused on applying

sabermetrics Sabermetrics (originally SABRmetrics) is the original or blanket term for sports analytics in the US, the empirical analysis of baseball, especially the development of advanced metrics based on baseball statistics that measure in-game activity ...

to fantasy baseball, and later founde
Baseball HQ
a website with the same focus. Shandler has an MBA from

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a Private university, private research university in Hempstead, New York, United States. It originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University and became an independent college in 1939. Comprising ten schools, includ ...

. Among his innovations in

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 ...

is analyzing the "Strand Rate" - the percentage of baserunners a pitcher allows who fail to score (''

Baseball Prospectus Baseball Prospectus (BP) is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well as player and team perf ...

'' 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 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 Tout Wars is the most high-profile fantasy baseball experts league and was the focus of the 2006 best-selling book ''Fantasyland''. It was created in 1997 by Ron Shandler who was fed up with the lack of promotion USA Today gave its annual LABR f ...

in 1997 after being fed up with the lack of promotion ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' gave its annual LABR fantasy baseball experts league. He also founded the Annual Fantasy Baseball Symposium at the Arizona Fall League, one of the largest gatherings of fantasy baseball players, now in its 16th year. Shandler's success as a fantasy player includes the most wins in major fantasy baseball expert leagues. He won both the NL and AL Tout Wars competitions in 1998 (being the only time anyone has ever won dual championships in the history of national experts competitions), AL Tout Wars in 2000, NL LABR in 2001, and the Fantasy Sports Trade Association League in 2010. He has contributed columns to the sports section of the Huffington Post, ESPN Magazine, ESPN.com, and USA Today. In 2004, he was selected to help form an advisory board for the St. Louis Cardinals, which he served on for approximately two years. In 2004, Shandler received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. In 2012, he was inducted into the Fantasy Sports Writers Association's Hall of Fame. On April 30, 2013, Shandler announced he would be stepping down from running Baseball HQ, which he had sold to USA Today five years prior. He continues to write columns for USA Today, ESPN, and The Athletic, and continues to contribute to the ''Baseball Forecaster'' and remains active in the fantasy baseball community. He now runs his own site, RonShandler.co

where he promotes his latest innovation: the Broad Assessment Balance Sheet (BABS) approach to fantasy baseball team construction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shandler, Ron Fantasy sports Baseball culture Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Hofstra University alumni Frank G. Zarb School of Business alumni

See also

References