About Rotoman

I’ve been writing about fantasy baseball since 1993, first as a correspondent for Alex Patton’s books, then Les Leopold brought me on to do projections for Peter Golenbock’s How to Win at Rotisserie Baseball books. My projections were the first fantasy baseball content on ESPN.com, posted its inaugural week in 1995.

I wrote Ask Rotoman weekly and Rotoman’s Spring Training Trip (30 Columns in 30 Days from 30 Florida Baseball Towns) for ESPN through 1998. The summer of 1999 I was the fantasy guy at Baseball Prospectus, and later that year launched (at the behest of publisher Barry Rosenbloom) The Fantasy Baseball Guide. The first Fantasy Football Guide followed the next summer.

I was a columnist at mlb.com for many years. Since 2000 I’ve been editor-in-chief of the Guides. I provide projections and bid prices for Patton $ Software and Data, and am a contributor to pattonandco.com, an excellent website for player commenting and discussion. I am also a member of the Tout Wars LLC.

I live in Brooklyn, NY, with my wife, the writer Elizabeth Royte, and our daughter Lucinda.

You can reach me at askrotoman (at) gmail.com.

Rotoman was on Scott Engel’s Fantasy Hall of Fame Hour, talking about his lifetime relationship with baseball and his fantasy baseball career. You can download the MP3 here.

2 thoughts on “About Rotoman”

  1. Hi, my name is Josh Robbins. I thought you might be interested in a new baseball pitching metric that I co-created on 60ft6in.com. The Factor12 Rating (F12) is an analytic measurement utilizing league average performance to compare the value of all MLB pitchers. F12 consists of the following twelve statistics incorporating every aspect of pitching:

    Innings Pitched (IP); Strikeouts Minus Walks (SO-BB); Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP); Earned Run Average (ERA); Walks plus Hits per Innings Pitched (WHIP); Home Runs per 9 innings (HR/9); Walks per 9 innings (BB/9); Strikeouts per 9 innings (SO/9); Opponents Batting Average (OBA); Opponents On-Base Average (OOBA); Opponents Slugging Average (OSLG); Modified Base-Out Percentage (MBOP) has been adjusted to include wild pitches and balks.

    A pitcher’s F12 is the sum of the percentage difference/change value of the twelve statistical categories. The league average performance is 24.000 and a minimum of 0.001. Pitchers recording zero innings pitched will receive a 0.000 F12 Rating. Elite pitchers will accumulate a 30.000+ seasonal rating.

    Pitchers completing less than the average yearly innings (i.e. 65.75 in 2011) will have their F12 Rating weighed by the percentage of innings completed in relation to the league average (i.e. Sergio Romo 48 IP/65.75). This adjustment enables starting pitchers and relievers to be compared together based on different workloads for the season.

    Factor12 rates yearly performance, with the potential for future projections. Weekly updates will be available during the 2012 season to quantify every pitcher in Major League Baseball using F12.

    Sincerely,

    Josh Robbins
    60ft6in.com

    Reply
    • Hi Josh,

      I’m not sure why you’re posting on the About pages of various blogs (you did the same at Tout Wars), but I understand your desire to promote your new metric.

      I visited your site and while I see how being good in all your categories is good for a pitcher, I’m not sure how this directly translates to runs allowed and on the mound effectiveness.

      Is your metric intended to be descriptive (describe how well a pitcher pitched without luck, like Siera) or proscriptive (describe what a pitcher will be capable in the future)? I don’t have a sense about it from your site.

      I think you’d best figure out who benefits from the metric and how to use it, and if it has value the world will beat a path to your door.

      Best,
      Peter

      Reply

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