BaseballHQ.com

Seminars > First Pitch Arizona > Hotel Info

Greg Ambrosius (National Fantasy Baseball Championship)

Greg is the founder of the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) and is currently the General Manager of Consumer Fantasy Games at STATS LLC. Greg has been the editor of Fantasy Sports Magazine since its inception in 1989 and is a former president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) and the Fantasy Sports Association (FSA). Greg is a member of the FSTA Hall of Fame and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame. The NFBC and its football counterpart the NFFC has awarded more than $14 million to fantasy players since 2004.

Andy Andres (Baseball HQ)

Andy teaches what is likely one of the first ever college courses in Baseball Analysis and Sabermetrics at Tufts University in Medford, MA. During the summer he teaches science and mathematics and coaches baseball in the MIT Science of Baseball Program. As a Datacaster/Stringer for MLBAM, he is responsible for digitally keeping score of games at Fenway Park for various internet applications like mlb.com's Gameday and ESPN’s Gamecast.

Jeff Barton (Scoresheet Sports)

Jeff and Dave Barton started Scoresheet Sports in 1987. Unlike other Rotisserie or fantasy games, Scoresheet Baseball teams play complete simulated head-to-head games, using the current week's major league stats. Scoresheet Baseball currently has over 5000 teams participating in the current season.

Tristan Cockcroft (ESPN.com

Tristan (Twitter: @SultanofStat) has analyzed fantasy sports since 1998, specializing in baseball and football. He is a three-time FSWA finalist for fantasy baseball writer of the year, and was the 2011 winner for best baseball article on the web. Tristan also owns two LABR-NL (2002, 2008) and one Tout Wars (2012) experts league titles.

Jason Collette (Baseball Prospectus and RotoWire.com)

Jason has been helping fantasy owners since 2001 at RotoJunkie, Fanball, and currently at both Baseball Prospectus and RotoWire. He covers the Tampa Bay Rays at DRaysBay.com. You can hear Jason weekly on many of the Sirius/XM Fantasy channel offerings throughout the season as well as on the Towers of Power Fantasy Hour Podcast at Baseball Prospectus. You can follow his work on Twitter at @jasoncollette

Kimball Crossley (Toronto Blue Jays)

Kimball began his career as a sportswriter and is now a professional scout for the Blue Jays organization.

Doug Dennis (Baseball HQ)

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.

Jeff Erickson (RotoWire.com and Sirius/XM Radio)

Jeff is the co-founder and editor of RotoWire Fantasy Sports, which debuted as the industry's ground-breaking online news service Rotonews back in 1997. He currently hosts the daily Rotowire Fantasy Sports radio show on Sirius/XM Radio.

Steve Gardner (USA TODAY Sports Weekly)

The online baseball editor at USA TODAY for 10 years, Steve took over writing the fantasy baseball column in Sports Weekly from John Hunt in 2006. Since then, he has served as the LABR commissioner and in 2010 won his first LABR title. He also won NL Tout Wars in 2011 and the FSTA experts league in 2012. For the past four years, he’s written a fantasy baseball blog, Fantasy Windup, for USATODAY.com. He is currently the Senior Fantasy Editor for USA TODAY Sports. Follow him on Twitter @SteveAGardner.

Rob Gordon (Baseball HQ)

Rob has been a minor league analyst for Baseball HQ since 2003. He writes the weekly Minor League News and Scouting column, covers most of the traffic in the Minor League Forum, and does the NL Minor League Organizational Reports. Since 2010, Rob and Jeremy Deloney have co-authored the Minor League Baseball Analyst.

Tim Heaney (KFFL.com)

For KFFL, part of the USA Today Sports Media Group, Tim has analyzed baseball and football since 2006, has served as managing editor since 2007, and oversees social media. He competes in Tout Wars and LABR and has won Fantasy Sports Trade Association and Fantasy Sports Writers Association baseball leagues. Catch Tim frequently on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio, among many stations, and follow him on Twitter (@Tim_Heaney).

Eric Karabell (ESPN.com)

Eric is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He has covered fantasy sports for ESPN since 2001, specializing in baseball and football. Eric is the host of the Baseball Today Podcast, is seen several times a week on SportsCenter, NFL Live and other ESPN shows and contributes to ESPN The Magazine and ESPN Radio. He has been honored twice as fantasy sports writer of the year by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association, his blog was named best fantasy baseball series for 2007 and he was inducted into the inaugural FSWA Hall of Fame class in 2010.

Peter Kreutzer (AskRotoman.com and PattonandCo.com)

Fantasy baseball players have been Asking Rotoman and reading his columns since 1995. Rotoman is editor-in-chief of an annual Fantasy Baseball Guide, his projections and prices are a part of the Patton $ Online software, and he is a frequent contributor at pattonandco.com. Please visit his new project at rotomansguide.com.

Jonathan Mayo (MLB.com)

Jonathan has been covering baseball for MLB.com since 1999. For the past several years, he has covered all things prospect, both Minor League and Draft, for the site, while also providing prospect coverage for MLB Network. He competed in the very first Tout Wars and one Baseball Weekly LABR league, but that was a lifetime ago.

Deric McKamey (St. Louis Cardinals)

Deric is currently a professional scout with the St. Louis Cardinals and former Director of Minor League Analysis for Baseball HQ.

Lenny Melnick (FantasyPros911.com and Sirius/XM Radio)

Lenny is a true fantasy baseball celebrity. He appeared on "This Week In Baseball" with Fran Healy and TV's "Pennant Chase" fantasy baseball report. With partner Irwin Zwilling, he did his first radio show for Fantasy Sports in 1993 in New York. More recently, he broadcast for MLB.com radio where he was named to their Hall of Fame. Currently, Lenny hosts the FantasyPros911 radio show on Sirius/XM Radio, Monday through Friday, 6-7 AM ET. Lenny and Irwin own two LABR titles and one Tout Wars title.

Lawr Michaels (Mastersball.com)

Lawr has been a staple in the fantasy world since he began working with fantasy publishing pioneer, John Benson in 1993. He has written for the STATS Scouting Notebook, CBS Sportsline.com, MSNBC.com, Total Sports, KFFL, MLB.com, and many other sites and periodicals over the past 18 years. In 1996 Lawr founded CREATiVESPORTS, and in 2009 his company merged with Mastersball where he is now a managing partner. Known as The Zen Master, Lawr won 2001 and 2009 AL Tout Wars title with his fluid and unconventional play. He as also a principle character in Sam Walker's book, Fantasyland, as well as the film based upon the book.

Nick Minnix (KFFL.com)

Nicholas oversees projections and content as baseball editor for KFFL.com, a subsidiary of USA Today Sports Media Group. He regularly appears on various radio programs as a guest analyst and is a participant in Tout Wars and LABR. He explores fantasy consciousness in his blog, Finger Nickin' Good.

Steve Moyer is the former president of Baseball Info Solutions. He has worked in the baseball industry since 1991.

Cory Schwartz (MLB.com)

Cory is the co-host of the Fantasy 411 on MLB Network and MLB.com, and is Vice President of Stats for MLBAM, overseeing year-round live stats for all Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and winter league games, as well as the pioneering Pitch-f/x system. Schwartz has been a fantasy player since 1989, competing in Tout Wars for the past seven seasons, and is a two-time league winner in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship and the Fantasy 411 listener league.

Ron Shandler (Baseball HQ)

Ron is the publisher 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 his work has found its way into numerous publications and websites. His "Fanalytics" column in USA Today has run weekly during the baseball season since 2008. Ron owns five national experts league titles and four second place finishes since 1998. Now twittering @RonShandler.

Joe Sheehan (JoeSheehan.com)

Joe writes about baseball for Sports Illustrated and SI.com, and contributes to the NBC Sports Network and MLB Network. He and longtime friend Rany Jazayerli get together once a week for the popular podcast "The Baseball Show with Rany and Joe". Joe also self-publishes a subscription newsletter that covers all aspects of the game. An original member of Baseball Prospectus, Joe returns to First Pitch Arizona for the tenth consecutive year. For more information about his newsletter, check out www.joesheehan.com.

John Sickels (MinorLeagueBall.com)

John is the author of annual Baseball Prospect Book. He is Senior Editor/Head Writer for MinorLeagueBall.com, part of the SB Nation sports information network. He is one of the industry's leading authorities on minor leaguers.

Derek Van Riper (RotoWire.com and Sirius/XM Radio)

Derek is a Baseball Editor for RotoWire.com, where he's been a two-time finalist for the FSWA's Baseball Writer of the Year award, and winner of the Best Football Article on the Web (2009) and Best Baseball Article on the Web (2010) awards. Derek also co-hosts RotoWire Fantasy Sports Today on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (XM 87, Sirius 210) from 11a-2p ET. Follow him on twitter @DerekVanRiper

Brian Walton (Mastersball.com)

Brian is one of the managing principals of Mastersball.com, where he writes a weekly column. He also contributes to the Fantasy Baseball Guide while competing in the XFL, Xperts Fantasy League. Brian was the 2009 National League Tout Wars champion, scoring the most points in the league’s 15-year history, and finished second in each of the two subsequent seasons. His work can also be found daily at TheCardinalNation.com, where he writes about the St. Louis Cardinals and their minor league system.

Todd Zola (Mastersball.com)

Todd is a Managing Partner at Mastersball.com, focusing on projection and game theory. His work also appears on KFFL.com and he is a frequent guest on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio and Baseball HQ Radio. Todd participates in Tout Wars and the XFL and is a multiple time champion in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship.

This is the current slate of speakers. Others will be added at a later date.