RON SHANDLER has been publishing his unique brand of statistical information since 1986. A fantasy leaguer since 1985 and a simulation gamer since 1971, Ron was the first author to develop sabermetric applications for fantasy league play. His Baseball Forecaster is now in its 22nd year of publication. Ron is also the publisher of the industry trail-blazing web site, BaseballHQ.com, and runs First Pitch Forum conference events all across the country.

Among Ron's notable contributions to the industry:

• Component skills analysis: The separation of skill from stats by focusing on underlying measures of performance. Ron's research showed how skills indicators are better predictors of player performance than traditional statistics.
• Strand rate: One of the elements of a pitcher's ERA that is prone to luck and likely to regress to the mean. Combined with hit rate, these indicators can help project ERA by adjusting for the variable of luck.
• Base Performance Value: A single gauge that encompasses a player's raw skill.
• Pure Quality Starts: A measure of a starting pitcher's effectiveness based on component skills. Uses the "game" as its unit of measure, unlike most other pitching stats that use the "inning."
• Reliability Score: A measure of the riskiness of a player's projection, based on his track record of playing time, health and performance consistency.
• LIMA Plan: A fantasy draft strategy in which resource allocation is optimized by valuing players using component skills analysis.
• Portfolio3 Plan: An integrated strategy in which players are evaluated based on skill and risk, and slotted into a three-tiered draft portfolio.

Ron's work has appeared in numerous publications and web sites. Currently, his "Safety in Numbers" columns appear each Wednesday in USA TODAY and USA TODAY Sports Weekly. In 2007, he was a regular columnist for ESPN Magazine and ESPN.com. He has been quoted and cited by many sources, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Money magazine.

In 2004, Ron was asked to help create and participate in an advisory board for the St. Louis Cardinals. Many other Major League ballclubs are regular customers of his books and web services as well.

Ron is the founder of Tout Wars, the national experts competition featured in the 2006 book, Fantasyland, and the upcoming documentary film of the same name. In national experts leagues all told, he has finished in the top three 11 times, including five titles. His 1998 victories in both the AL and NL Tout Wars leagues represent the only dual championships ever achieved in the history of experts competitions.

Ron has been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) since 1985 and has been published in their Baseball Research Journal. He is also a corporate member of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA). BaseballHQ.com has won FSTA's "Best Fantasy Baseball Online Content" award in 2000, 2003 and 2004, and Shandler Enterprises was named FSTA's "Small Business of the Year" in 2002. Ron was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the FSTA in 2005, one of only four people in the industry to receive such a honor.

Ron has an MBA from Hofstra University, is a professional direct marketer and forecasting analyst by trade, and held senior management positions with several international publishers prior to starting Shandler Enterprises. A native New Yorker and die-hard Mets fan, he currently lives in Roanoke, Virginia with his wife and two daughters.

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