First Pitch Florida - 2024 speaker bios
Dave Adler (BaseballHQ.com)
Dave has been writing for Baseball HQ since 2004 and is their Director of Games Analysis. He won AL-LABR in 2014 by a record-setting 24.5 points, and ended up an Anthony Bass save away from a second title in 2019. Dave is an astronomer who was in charge of science planning for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. He lives near Baltimore with his wife, Beth.
Grey Albright (Razzball.com)
Doug Anderson (Fantrax.com)
Andy Andres (Sabermetrics101/BaseballHQ.com)
Andy is a winner of the fourth SABR Analytics Conference Lifetime Achievement Award and also a Pitch Clock Operator and Datacaster for MLB. He is in his 25th year on the BU faculty where he has taught various biology and math courses to undergrads, including Intro to Baseball Analytics and Sports Data Science. His research in sports and sports analytics has included PEDs, weather impact on baseball flight, baseball pitcher TJ surgery and release point, pitch tempo, and fantasy baseball.
James Anderson (RotoWire.com)
James is RotoWire’s Lead Prospect Analyst and Assistant Baseball Editor. His top 400 prospects for dynasty leagues has been one of the most trusted prospect lists in the industry since 2013. James hosts the weekly RotoWire Prospect Podcast year-round and hosts Farm Fridays on Sirius/XM. He had two NFBC Main Event entries in the top-25 of the 2023 overall contest.
Howard Bender (FantasyAlarm.com)
Derek Carty (THE BAT X Projection System, RotoGrinders.com, EVAnalytics.com)
Derek is a DFS- and sports betting-focused analyst whose work you may find at ESPN, RotoGrinders, EV Analytics, or any number of other places. He is the creator of THE BAT X projection system for season-long (at FanGraphs), DFS (at RotoGrinders), and sports betting (at EV Analytics), which routinely is found to be the most accurate original projection system in fantasy in third-party studies. He is also the creator of THE BLITZ projection system for NFL. Derek has won 10+ MLB expert league titles with 25+ top-three finishes (roughly 50%), including being the youngest-ever winner of LABR. He was previously a regular on ESPN's Baseball Tonight and is a proud graduate of MLB's Scout School.
Matt Cederholm (BaseballHQ.com)
Matt has been playing Rotisserie baseball since before the reserve roster. He’s been a BaseballHQ.com writer since 2010, and has written the Big Hurt column since 2017 (he’s not a doctor, but his cousin is). In his spare time, he is pursuing a PhD in Economics and even has a full-time job.
Tristan Cockcroft (ESPN.com)
Tristan is a Senior Writer for ESPN.com, specializing in baseball and football. He is a three-time FSWA finalist for fantasy baseball writer of the year and is a member of the FSWA Hall of Fame. Tristan also owns two LABR-NL (2002, 2008) and three Tout Wars (2012-14) experts league titles.
Ariel Cohen (FanGraphs.com)
Ariel is the 2019 FSWA Baseball Writer of the Year. He also won for 2020 FSWA Baseball Article of the Year. He is the creator of the ATC (Average Total Cost) Projection System. He writes for FanGraphs, CBS Sports, SportsLine, RotoBaller and is the host of the Beat the Shift Podcast (@Beat_Shift_Pod). Ariel was the 2020 Tout Wars Head to Head winner. He also plays in LABR as well as the NFBC. Follow Ariel on Twitter at @ATCNY.
Jason Collette (RotoWire.com)
Jason has been helping fantasy owners since 2001 at RotoJunkie, Fanball, and currently at RotoWire where his Collette Calls column won best baseball column in 2018. He was also the 2013 FSWA Fantasy Baseball Writer of the Year (bribes pay off!). You can hear Jason on Saturdays on the RotoWire SiriusXM Fantasy show throughout the season as well as on The Sleeper and The Bust podcast with Paul Sporer and Justin Mason each Sunday. You can follow his work on Twitter at @jasoncollette.
Glenn Colton (FantasyAlarm.com)
Glenn is the co-host of SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio’s Colton & the Wolfman and a columnist for Fantasy Alarm. He and roto-partner Rick Wolf have won LABR AL in each of the last two years, their fourth and fifth such titles. They have also won two Tout Wars AL and FSGA expert league titles. Glenn was inducted into the Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association Hall of Fame in 2013.
Chris Clegg (TheDynastyDugout.com)
Chris founded The Dynasty Dugout in 2023 after writing for several sites over the years. He also contributes to RotoBaller and SoxProspects and co-hosts the Toolshed podcast. Chris was the 2023 IBWAA Baseball Writer of the Year. He enjoys spending time at minor league ballparks and in his free time enjoys playing golf.
Eric Cross (RotoBaller.com; FTNFantasy.com)
Eric is a Fantasy Baseball writer for RotoBaller and FTN Fantasy as well as his patreon, Toolshed Fantasy. He also co-hosts the Toolshed Podcast and contributes annually to the Fantasy Baseball Black Book. Eric is a two time FSWA award finalist and was the 2021 Baseball Writer of the Year. Outside of baseball, Eric is a father of two and lives on the coast of Maine.
Doug Dennis (BaseballHQ.com)
Doug has been Baseball HQ’s Bullpen Buyers Guide columnist since 1999. In addition, he has written articles for the Baseball Forecaster, USA Today, Sports Weekly, ESPN.com, ESPN the Magazine and he assisted the St. Louis Cardinals with player analysis for two years.
Brian Feldman (FantasyBaseballAuctioneer.com)
Brian is well-known to SiriusXM listeners as the primary auctioneer for high-profile experts leagues, including Tout Wars for the past 15+ seasons, LABR NL and AL, and numerous NFBC Main Events. He’s also pleased to be a participant in both the LABR Mixed Auction and XFL leagues, where he traditionally can be found toward the bottom of the standings (but 2024 will be his year!).
James C. “Jim” Ferretti, DO (BaseballHQ.com)
Jim is a licensed physician and board-certified diagnostic radiologist and the author of the fantasy injury analysis book - Injuries Suck but Your Fantasy Team Doesn't Have To, available on Amazon and Audible. Follow Jim on Twitter @TFSDoc.
Steve Gardner (USA TODAY Sports)
Steve has served as the LABR commissioner since 2006 and has won six LABR titles (AL 2010, 2015, 2017; Mixed 2014, 2019; NL 2017). He also won NL Tout Wars in 2011 and 2018 and two FSTA experts leagues (2012, 2015). He received the FSWA award for Baseball Article of the Year in 2014, is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, and has covered 19 World Series for USA TODAY. Follow him on Twitter @SteveAGardner.
Ryan Hallam (FantasyAlarm.com)
Ryan has been in the fantasy industry for roughly 12 years. He started his own site, FightingChanceFantasy.com, and is now back for a second stint contributing for Fantasy Alarm. Ryan is competing in Tout Wars for the second season, and this is his first foray into the LABR family. You can follow him on Twitter @fightingchance
Brent Hershey (BaseballHQ.com)
Brent is the General Manager of Content for BaseballHQ.com and serves as co-editor of the Baseball Forecaster and editor of the Minor League Baseball Analyst annuals. He has been writing at BaseballHQ.com since 1998. Follow him on Twitter @BrentHQ.
Ian Kahn
2019 Tout Wars H2H, 2021 AL-LABR and 2022 NL-Tout Wars Champ. George Washington on “Turn: Washington’s Spies”. Recent co-host of the “Under The Radar” podcast.
Eric Karabell (ESPN.com)
Carlos Marcano (BaseballProspectus.com)
Matt Martingale (Elias Sports Bureau)
Matt is entering his 30th baseball season at Elias, where he has written notes for broadcasts on MLB Network, NFL Network, ESPN, NBC Sports Network (RIP), and Pac-12 Network (soon to also be RIP). He finished 13th overall in TGFBI in 2023 and is looking forward to his LABR debut in the mixed auction. Matt’s fantasy baseball work can be found at playingpepper.substack.com, and he occasionally tweets about baseball and college football at @MattMartingale.
Justin Mason (FWFB/Sleeper and the Bust podcast)
Ray Murphy (BaseballHQ.com)
Ray is the General Manager of Administration for BaseballHQ.com and co-editor of the Baseball Forecaster annual. He has been writing at BaseballHQ.com since 1999. Primarily a mixed-league player, he is a four-time league champion in the NFBC Main Event (including 4th-overall finishes in both 2012 and 2016), and also won (in a tie) the inaugural LABR mixed league in 2012, a TGFBI league title in 2018, Tout Wars Mixed Draft in 2019, and LABR mixed in 2023.
Nick Pollack (PitcherList.com)
Nick founded PitcherList.com in 2014 after years pitching in college, coaching travel baseball, and giving private pitching instruction. FSWA award winner, and has been published in Washington Post, CBS Sports, and FanGraphs. He currently can be found discussing starting pitching to his heart's content exclusively at his home site. Creator of the CSW stat and too many terrible fantasy baseball terms.
Jesse Roche (Baseball Prospectus)
Jesse is a dynasty baseball writer and ranker responsible for the Top-500 Dynasty Prospects and the Top-500 Dynasty Rankings, which are both updated on a monthly basis during the season. An avid dynasty baseball player, Jesse has experience in a diverse range of leagues, including head-to-head, rotisserie, points, and simulation. Jesse has won several industry dynasty leagues and, last year, won The Highlander Dynasty Invitational (20-team weekly roto), TDBC 2021 Industry (30-team best ball), and DS1 30 Rock (30-team daily roto).
Larry Schechter (Winning Fantasy Baseball)
Larry is a six-time winner of Tout Wars, two-time LABR champion and twice won the CDM national salary-cap challenge. He is author of the Amazon bestseller Winning Fantasy Baseball. You can follow on twitter @LarrySchechter
Ron Shandler (RonShandler.com)
Ron is the founder of BaseballHQ.com and author of the Baseball Forecaster, the longest running publication in the fantasy baseball industry (since 1986). He was the first baseball analyst to develop sabermetric applications for fantasy league play, and he has written for numerous publications and websites, including USA Today, ESPN and The Athletic. Find his latest innovations at BABSbaseball.com and his fantasy baseball history/memoir, "Fantasy Expert," is available now (and at the conference). Ron owns dozens of top-3 finishes in national experts leagues since 1994. He tweets random brain flakes @RonShandler.
D.J. Short (Rotoworld.com)
D.J. is going into his second decade covering baseball for NBC Sports, where he's the senior manager of fantasy content for Rotoworld. He has participated in Tout Wars since 2017 and joined LABR in 2023. You can find him on Twitter/X at @djshort, where he makes timely Seinfeld references and complains about the Mets.
Frank Stampfl (CBSSports.com)
Frank is the host of Fantasy Baseball Today, part of the CBS Sports podcast network. During draft season, he also provides written work on cbssports.com. Frank has been playing various fantasy baseball formats since high school and has long-admired the pioneers of the industry. He's a back-to-back Tout Wars champion in the H2H points auction format and will now bring his talents to NL LABR. Frank also dabbles in the NFBC, enjoying the Draft Champions format and donating money to their Main Event competition.
Chris Towers (CBSSports.com)
Shelly Verougstraete (NBCSportsEDGE.com)
Shelly is a writer at NBC Sports EDGE and has previously written for Pitcher List and The Dynasty Guru. She has participated in TGFBI and Tout Wars and is the 2022 Tout Wars Daily champion. You can follow her @shellyv_643 on Twitter where she talks about baseball and posts way too many photos of her dogs (Orsillo and Soto) and baked goods.
Brian Walton (Creativesports.com)
Brian is one of the managing principals of Creativesports.com. He competes in the XFL, Xperts Fantasy League, National League LABR and Tout Wars. Brian was the 2009 National League Tout Wars champion, scoring the most points in league history. His work can also be found daily at TheCardinalNation.com, where he writes about the St. Louis Cardinals and their minor league system.
Rick Wolf (FantasyAlarm.com)
Todd Zola (Mastersball.com)
Todd is the principal owner of Mastersball.com along with writing for Rotowire and ESPN. He can be heard year-round for an hour every Saturday on MLB Network Radio and in-season on SiriusXM Fantasy Radio. Todd participates in LABR, Tout Wars and the XFL and is a multiple time champion in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship. In 2017, Todd was named the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Baseball Writer of the Year. In 2020, he was inducted into the FSWA Hall of Fame.