First Pitch Arizona
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). The NFBC and its football counterpart the NFFC has awarded more than $10 million to fantasy players since 2004.
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.
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 both at DRaysBay.com, and for the ESPN Radio affiliates in Tampa Bay and Orlando where he also has a weekly radio show. You can hear Jason weekly on many of the Sirius/XM Fantasy channel offerings throughout the season and 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. In 2009, he began writing a fantasy baseball blog, Fantasy Windup, for USATODAY.com. He is a regular panelist on USA TODAY's Fantasy Sports Weekly radio show and the voice of the nationally syndicated Fantasy Sports Minute radio features.
Rob Gordon
Baseball HQ
Rob is a minor league analyst for Baseball HQ. He has been playing fantasy baseball since 1984, in a league that uses a modified Runs Created and Runs Allowed formula to determine a winning percentage.
Jason Grey
ESPN.com
Jason began writing for ESPN.com this year. He founded Mastersball.com (now FantasyBaseball.com) in 1997. He has been a columnist and beat writer for MLB.com, a featured fantasy baseball columnist for Sports Illustrated, the fantasy expert for numerous radio programs nationwide including ESPN Radio and XM Radio, and a contributor to numerous magazines. Jason is also a statistician for Major League Baseball Advanced Media. He owns two Tout Wars and one LABR title.
Tim Heaney
KFFL.com
Tim is one of KFFL's managing editors and made his Tout Wars Mixed League debut in 2011. A 2008 Fantasy Sports Writers Association Award finalist and the 2009 FSTA Experts League champion, Heaney also contributes to USA Today and Sports Weekly, among other outlets. Find him on the airwaves every Wednesday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio and WNST (AM 1570) in Baltimore. For roto help plus tangents on football, music, beer and other vices, catch his blog, Rounding the Bases.
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.
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
Since the beginning of 2008, Nicholas has been the baseball editor at KFFL.com, where he began as a fantasy analyst in 2004 and became a managing editor in 2006. He regularly contributes to various USA Today publications as well as appears on Sirius/XM Fantasy Sports Radio and other local radio stations. He's a participant in Tout Wars and LABR and in 2010 won the overall title in the Fantasy Sports Writers Association leagues. He explores fantasy consciousness in his blog, Finger Nickin' Good.
Steve Moyer
Baseball Info Solutions
Steve is president of Baseball Info Solutions, a baseball statistics company on the cutting edge of baseball data collection and analysis. Steve has worked in the baseball industry since 1991.
Alex Patton
AlexPatton.com
Back in the days when there were books on Rotisserie baseball, Alex Patton wrote nine of them. Now he continues to write for his own web site as well as for various other sites, such as Baseball HQ. With Eric Lindow, he has developed the popular software, Patton $ On Disk, that helps people get ready for the Rotisserie Wars.
Nate Ravitz
ESPN.com
Nate began working in the fantasy industry with TQStats in 1998 and co-founded Rototimes.com in 2000. From 2001-2007 he oversaw editorial content for Rototimes, The Fantasy Hot Sheet, TQStats and CDM Fantasy Sports. In 2007, he moved to ESPN, where he hosts the Fantasy Focus podcasts with Matthew Berry. In 2010, Nate won his first Tout Wars championship. Nate currently serves as Sr. Director of Fantasy and Premium content for ESPN.com.
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 three second place finishes since 1998.
Joe Sheehan
JoeSheehan.com
Joe writes about baseball for Sports Illustrated and SI.com, and is one of the hosts of MLB Network's "Fantasy 411". 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
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.
