The Sandlot Shrink Network of
Scouts
Dennis LePore. Head
writer and editor of the Sandlot Shrink. His columns have appeared in
several newspapers over the years including the Cleveland Plain Dealer
and the Miami Herald as well as magazines like Street & Smith
and web sites including Sports
Illustrated, CBS Sportsline and Bloomberg
News. It is his job to accumulate all of the information from the sources
below and assimilate that info into fantasy scouting reports and player
rankings. LePore is also a long-standing
member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Follow the Sandlot Shrink on Twitter @sandlotshrink.
Bill Maxwell is our Spring Training
and Arizona Fall League liaison.
Bob Radl is the strategy and basketball
expert at the Sandlot Shrink and also represents the company in football
"expert" leagues around the country. He also answers the hoops
questions and compiles all of the basketball lists found on the web site. He
has participated in numerous fantasy and rotisserie contests and leagues in
various formats in football, basketball and baseball since 1988, winning
several of them. He graduated with a B.A. degree from Gustavus
Adolphus College, St. Peter MN in 1972, and an M.A.
degree from Ohio University, Athens OH in 1976. He coached Track and Field at
the high school and college levels and also at the international level when he
coached the Nigerian National team for the All-African Games and the British
Commonwealth Games.
Jeff Vespo has played Fantasy
Football for many years and has won several titles. He also runs the
Shrink team for the Hafax experts
auction keeper league.
Part-time contributors …
Bob Chaikin. NBA consultant and developer of B-Ball, Pro Basketball for the Computer, which is the most statistically accurate basketball simulation on the market today. Chaikin has worked for the New Jersey Nets and is currently employed by the Miami Heat. He compiled the All-Time Sports Statistics Encyclopedias found on the site and also helps with basketball rankings, stats and projections. He is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University.
John Coleman is the statistical baseball expert at the Shrink. He analyzes major and minor-leaguers with various sabermetric formulas that take into account such pertinent indicators as age, batting eye, power potential, speed, park effects, pitching, etc. He is also the Shrink's representative in the LABR and Tout War expert leagues. Coleman, a veteran rotisserie player since 1983, is a tobacconist by trade. He is also a member of SABR.
Steve Goldman covers the Cleveland Indians, Browns and Cavaliers for the Star Beacon and Gazette Newspapers. Another long-standing member of the SABR, he doubles as feature writer and minor league columnist for the Shrink. He has extensive fantasy experience and also represents the company in some of the "expert" leagues around the country. He is a graduate of the University of Rochester.
Mike Kelly is the Shrink's fantasy gym rat. There are not many
fantasy sports he hasn't tried out during his 15 years of competitive drafting.
"Though I have to admit NASCAR was pretty boring unless I was watching a
race at a party,” he says, “and my interest in hockey froze over when the season
stopped the first time I tried it.” Michael has been a Shrink contributor for
eight years. When he's not online adjusting his fantasy lineups, he works as a
news anchor on Newsradio WTAM 1100, in Cleveland and
FM Newstalk 104.7, Pittsburgh (talk about being on the
cusp of a love/hate relationship when it comes to sports!). Prior to that, he
spent 12 years as a sports writer in Northeast Ohio tracking the Indians
through their heyday of the 1990's and holding candlelight vigils until the
Browns returned to town.
On hiatus …
Steve Johnson is on the executive committee of Cleveland's Jack Graney chapter of SABR and writes some of the book reviews found on this web site. He is also a member of SABR's Umpire & Rules Committee and is doing research on former American League umpire, Charlie Berry. Mr. Johnson, a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, maintains an extensive personal baseball library and is also currently updating the Sandlot Shrink's Essential Baseball Library.
Greg Kellogg pens various football columns for the Shrink. Kellogg,
co-owner of the Fantasy Asylum and RotoCourt web
sites, is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America trade association and
has been writing on a national stage since 1996. He recently relocated to
Southern Texas.
Bob Marjanovich. The host of Vancouver's top-rated daily sports talk show – “The Sports Zone” – Mojo Radio AM 730. He covered the Pacific Coast League for five years and has contacts for inside information throughout the minor leagues and Canada. He also covers the NBA, NHL and the CFL and is a graduate from the University of British Columbia. While at UBC, he played football and also coached for four seasons.
The Beeg Mon. Beeg was the original host of Fantasy Sports Preview Radio, or FSP-AM, which was created and broadcast over the greater Cleveland airwaves. Later he also created and produced the first ever fantasy television program "Fantasy Sports Preview." It was seen on SportsChannel in 9 million homes a week in six states until 1996. FSP-TV, as it was known, was a hidden casualty of the Cleveland Browns move to Baltimore. He co-founded and co-commissioned his first fantasy football league back in 1989. Three years later, along with a longtime friend, he founded FSP-TV. He continues to play year round in multiple leagues in various fantasy sports and is an expert in football strategy and player evaluation.
Ross Plaetzer wrote many of the sports
movie reviews found on the web site.
Larry Schechter represents the company in some of the baseball
"expert" leagues around the country and also helps with the “Ask the
Experts” column and the mock drafts. Larry was born and raised in Schenectady,
NY, graduated from Boston University and is the founder and President of a very
successful financial services company. In 2003, he also began a second
career as a stand-up comedian. He’s performed at many comedy clubs throughout
the northeast. He has participated in numerous fantasy and rotisserie contests
and leagues in various formats since 1991, winning several of them. In
2002, he won the CDM Diamond Challenge competition against 7,500 other
competitors. This earned him a spot in the 2003 LABR experts
league, where he finished sixth in his first experience at an auction league.
He represents the Shrink in the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA)
expert’s league. In 2005, Larry won a triple crown of sorts, by winning the
FSTA NL league, Tout Wars mixed league, and again winning the CDM Diamond
Challenge overall championship. He became the first person to ever win
the Diamond Challenge twice. This also earned him a berth in the 2006
LABR league.
All of the above people have extensive connections in the industry. At their fingertips are correspondents from the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Knight-Ridder Newspapers and Scripts-Howard News Service as well as Major League Baseball's general managers, managers, players and scouts and NFL and NBA general managers, coaches, players and scouts. Together, they represent over 150 years of journalistic experience and another 100 years of successful fantasy play.
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