Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster

I buy a copy of this book every year, and consider it indispensible to my pre-draft analysis. If you have ever worshipped at the altar of Bill James and also play fantasy baseball, this is the book for you. If you don't know who Bill James is, it's probably not.

This book is a must have for any fantasy bsaeball fan.If you fancy yourself to be an above-average fantasy player and you don't have this book you are just kidding yourself.The detailed metrics used in the book are thoroughly and easily translated so that even the most casual fan can make use of the information.Frankly,I don't know how you can expect to win your league without the extensive knowledge of player's skills that Ron Shandler provides.Whether you play in a league just for fun or play in a league that requires an entry fee with prizes paid to the winners,Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster is required reading!I won't enter my next draft room without it!!

Having read pretty much all of the fantasy books out there, I find this book the best if you are in a rotisserie, 5X5 league. It was wrote expecting that you are in a NL or AL only, $260 budget, 23 man rosters, and 12 teams. If your league is a little different than this such as a mixed league, different budgets, or different roster size this is still the book for you. The values will be a little off, but you will still know what to expect from a player and how he compares to others at his position. It gives projections that while not always right, I find more reasoned and likely to happen than many other similar books. Not only does it give you these projections, it gives you reasons why the player is over or underperforming. The Baseball Forcaster, Minor League Baseball Analyst, and the Baseball America Prospect Handbook are all that anyone should need to run a successful fantasy baseball team.

This book can be invaluable if you take the time to learn the lingo. I suggest reading the beginning sections and then the glossary. At the end of the glossary is a cheat sheet for the various statistics provided (basics only). If you can understand the statistical part you're on your way to gleaning much information needed to help with a fantasy baseball league. Many will argue that not all their predictions are accurate...whose are. You need to weave in your own judgments as well...no one is perfect and these are predictions/projections. Happy drafting.

The last review sounds like a bit of sour grapes. Every one of the players he listed were outliers that NO prognoticator would have predicted. However, Shandler's book is not just about projections. In fact, if you just use the projections, you are completely overlooking the power of the book. The Forecaster is about deconstructing player performance into its component parts and then finding the indicators that truly project the future. Is it correct 100% of the time? No, but who is? I've bought this book for the last nine years (5 championships and 2 more money finishes) and I would never go into my fantasy season without it.