Brent Hershey - Ron Shandler’s 2021 Baseball Forecaster: And Encyclopedia of Fanalytics

BASEBALL
FORECASTER

AND ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANALYTICS

Copyright 2020, USA TODAY Sports Media Group LLC.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Triumph Books LLC, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610.

Triumph Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This book is available in quantity at special discounts for your group or organization. For further information, contact:

Triumph Books LLC

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

(312) 337-0747

www.triumphbooks.com

Printed in U.S.A.

ISBN: 978-1-64125-556-1

Rotisserie League Baseball is a registered trademark of the

Rotisserie League Baseball Association, Inc.

Statistics provided by Baseball Info Solutions

Cover design by Brent Hershey

Front cover photograph by Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

Author photograph by Kevin Hurley

Ron Shandlers

BASEBALL FORECASTER

Editors

Ray Murphy

Brent Hershey

A ssociate Edito rs

Brandon Kruse

Ryan Bloomfield

Tech/Data/Charts

Matt Cederholm

Mike Krebs

Graphic Design

Brent Hershey

Player Commentaries

Ryan Bloomfield

Brant Chesser

Alain de Leonardis

Arik Florimonte

Brent Hershey

Brandon Kruse

Ray Murphy

Stephen Nickrand

Kristopher Olson

Greg Pyron

Brian Rudd

Paul Sporer

Jock Thompson

Rod Truesdell

Research and Articles

Ed DeCaria

Arik Florimonte

Stephen Nickrand

Prospects

Chris Blessing

Rob Gordon

Tom Mulhall

Injury Chart

Rick Wilton

Producing the Baseball Forecaster has been a team effort for a number of years now; the list of credits to the left is where the heavy lifting gets done. On behalf of Ron, Brent, and Ray, our most sincere thanks to each of those key contributors.

We are just as grateful to the rest of the BaseballHQ.com staff, who do the yeomans work in populating the website with 12 months of incredible content: Dave Adler, Andy Andres, Matt Beagle, Alex Beckey, Bob Berger, Derrick Boyd, Brian Brickley, Patrick Davitt, Doug Dennis, Jeremy Deloney, Matt Dodge, Alec Dopp, Jim Ferretti, Greg Fishwick, Neil FitzGerald, Rick Green, Phil Hertz, Ed Hubbard, Tom Kephart, Brad Kullman, Chris Lee, Dan Marcus, David Martin, Bill McKnight, Matthew Mougalian, Harold Nichols, Josh Paley, Joe Pytleski, Nick Richards, Peter Sheridan, Brian Slack, Andy Smith, Tanner Smith, Skip Snow, Matthew St-Germain, Jeffrey Tomich, Michael Weddell, Mike Werner, and Jeff Zimmerman.

Thank you to all our industry colleagues, a truly impressive group. They are competitors, but they are also colleagues working to grow this industry, which is never more evident than at our First Pitch Forums live events. Maybe well see each other in person again in 2021?

Thank you to Chris Pirrone, Ryan Bonini, and the team at USA Today Sports Media Group. Thank you for all the support from the folks at Triumph Books and Action Printing.

And of course, thank you, readers, for your interest in what we all have to say. Your kind words, support and (respectful) criticism move us forward on the fanalytic continuum more than you know. We are grateful for your readership.

From Brent Hershey Im far from a natural extrovert, but this year has been a test on many levelsno attending baseball games, scant in-person drafts, our Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 live events cancelled. Its made me appreciate more fully the friends and colleagues that this book and the website have fostered: the names above and to the left, for starters, but also plenty of other cherished acquaintances. Foremost in working through the book this year under different circumstances: Thanks to Ray, Ron, Ryan and Brandon for each of your gifts to the process. And time at home has made our family unit stronger, as well. Lorie, Dillon and Eden, thanks for each of your life-giving contributions during this period of relative solitude.

From Ray Murphy I spent large chunks of the spring/summer wondering whether we would get to create this book at all. So, the mere fact that you are reading this is a cause for celebration.

This springs lockdown-related downtime created time for me to re-assess some first principles. I found myself legitimately disoriented when April came around and there was no baseball, and I wondered for a while whether these endeavors were worthwhile. (The players/owners food fight sure didnt help my mental state.) Now, I cant wait to continue this journey with Ron, Brent, and our exemplary team.

At home, I am extraordinarily grateful that the most tangible impact of this year in my house is that we have done quite a bit of nesting. At home, my wife Jennifer will always be the best roster add Ive ever made, and being a #girlDad to Bridget and Grace gets more fun all the time. Lucky guy, me.

From Ron Shandler The longevity of this book is a testament to the collective intelligence, creativity and stubbornness of many people. Now 35 years in, Ive been looking back while laying the groundwork for a future historical work, and am amazed at all the namessome long forgottenwho somehow shaped what this book has become. I celebrate them all, from the original members of the BAGS Rotisserie League in New Hampshire; to Alex Patton, who helped put me on the map; to John Hunt and the LABR league; to new FSWA Hall-of-Famer Rick Wilton; to Ray, Brent, Brandon, Ryan and the nearly two dozen other analysts who make up the 2021 brain trust.

My extreme gratitude to all of my readersyou! This year has been difficult, disconnected and dissonant. For many of us, fantasy baseball is the furthest thing from our mind, yet you are reading this now. Your loyalty has never been taken for granted.

Thank you to my ladiesSue, Darielle, Justina and Michele. Were all coping; moving back, moving on, moving up. Always being here for each other is the greatest gift.

by Ron Shandler

Over my 35 years writing this book and at BaseballHQ.com, there were several occasions when I had to search for perspective after a national tragedy. I tried to make sense of the fact that one of the Columbine gunmen played fantasy baseball. I tried to find hope in the distraction of fantasy sports after the 9/11 attacks. I wrote about the disturbing parallels between the Virginia Tech shooter and the isolation that our hobby often breeds.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has been different. There is an old German proverb that says, It is better to have a horrible ending than to have horrors without end. While that sounds flip, this ordeal has been sustained and relentless. As I write, we are still waiting for some sign of an ending, some light in the darkness. You will be reading these words many weeks later and hopefully you will have a better view.