Ron Shandler
Encyclopedia
Ron Shandler is the author of Baseball Forecaster, an annual publication focused on applying sabermetrics
Sabermetrics
Sabermetrics is the specialized analysis of baseball through objective, empirical evidence, specifically baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research...

 to fantasy baseball, and founder of Baseball HQ, a website with the same focus.

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 Jose Lima
    José Lima
    José Desiderio Rodriguez Lima was a Dominican right-handed pitcher who spent thirteen seasons in Major League Baseball with the Detroit Tigers , Houston Astros , Kansas City Royals , Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets...

    , 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
    Baseball Prospectus
    Baseball Prospectus 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 player and team performance projections on the site...

     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
    Keith Woolner is an author for Baseball Prospectus and is the creator of the runs-based statistic VORP or Value Over Replacement Player. VORP is acknowledged by the sabermetrics community as one of the key concepts in the analysis of a player's performance and market valuation.-Education and early...

     has been researching support-neutral statistics since at least 1993, and has often discussed concepts similar to Strand Rate (e.g., Bequeathed Runners inherited/stranded).http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=3032 http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2705


Shandler created Tout Wars
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 fantasy baseball experts league...

 in 1997 after being fed up with the lack of promotion USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

 gave its annual LABR
LABR
LABR was the first high-profile fantasy sports experts league of its kind. Formed by John Hunt, the fantasy baseball columnist for USA Today Baseball Weekly, the league was first formed in 1994 and featured such celebrities as Peter Gammons, Keith Olbermann and Bill James...

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, AL Tout Wars in 2000, NL LABR in 2001.
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