First Pitch Arizona 2024 - Speakers/contributors

 

 

Britton Allan (Pallazzo Podcast)
Britton is a co-host of the wildly popular and always irreverent Pallazzo Podcast.  He's a fantasy baseball fanatic with a track record of smashing success and crushing defeat. He lives in Nashville with his two wonderful daughters and fantastic wife Sarah, who also happens to be a brilliant editor for BaseballHQ. Go Big Orange.

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 SportsHub Technologies. Greg has been the editor of Fantasy Sports Magazine since 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.

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.

Andy Andres (BaseballHQ.com)
Andy teaches Statistics and Data Science at Boston University, but also developed the highly successful MOOC “Sabermetrics 101: An Introduction to Baseball Analytics” to about 70,000 registered learners on the edX.org platform. As a Datacaster/Stringer and Pitch Clock Operator/FTC for MLB, he is responsible for running the various in-game clocks and keeping score of games for various Internet applications like MLB.com’s Gameday.

Jeff Barton (Scoresheet.com)
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.

Max Bay (Former analyst w/ Astros R&D) 
Max created the Stuff+ suite of pitch models currently slung by Eno Sarris. He is a neuroscience PhD turned Data Scientist/Baseball Analyst who spent two years working as a Quantitative Analyst with Houston Astros R&D before returning to the public baseball world earlier this year. 

Kyle Bland (PitcherList.com)
Kyle is the Director of Analytics and Research at PitcherList.com.

Chris Blessing (BaseballHQ.com)
Chris is BHQ’s Director of Prospect Analysis. He is the host of the Eyes Have It podcast and contributes an in-season weekly scouting column to BHQ. Chris contributes to the Baseball Forecaster, the Minor League Baseball Analyst, USAT Sports Weekly & Lindy’s Baseball Preview. He is also an Associate Scout for an MLB organization.

Ryan Bloomfield (BaseballHQ.com)
Ryan is a two-time FSWA award winner and 11-time finalist, most recently winning the 2020 Baseball Writer of the Year award. He has been writing for BaseballHQ.com since 2012, where he pens weekly Speculator and FAAB columns and doubles as the site's Social Media Director. Ryan is an Associate Editor of the Baseball Forecaster and has contributed to the book since 2013. He's a co-host on the Bubba and the Bloom podcast with fellow speaker Brian "Bubba" Entrekin.

Mike Carter (Fantrax.com)
Mike is a senior writer at Fantrax covering bullpens weekly during the season, and writes two weekly waiver wire pieces at RotoBaller as well. He also co-hosts the FSWA award-nominated Fantasy Baseball Beat podcast with Chris Torres and Dave Funnell, where beat writers are interviewed and give their takes on players and player usage. Mike also periodically writes longer narrative pieces for the 9 Inning Know-It-All website, where he started writing about his love of baseball in 2015. Mike can be followed at the worst Twitter handle of all time, @mdrc0508.

Matt Cederholm (BaseballHQ.com)
Matt has been playing Rotisserie baseball since before the reserve roster existed. He’s been a BaseballHQ.com writer since 2010, and has written the Big Hurt column since 2017 (he’s a doctor, but not that kind of doctor). He holds a PhD in Economics and even has a full-time job.

Alex Chamberlain (FanGraphs.com)
Alex writes online for FanGraphs and in print for the Baseball Prospectus Annual. He also maintains the Pitch Leaderboard and is always, always tired.

Chris Clegg (thedynastydugout.com)
Chris has written for various sites but launched his own dynasty and prospect focused site in January of 2023, The Dynasty Dugout. You can find him behind the microphone co-hosting the Fantrax Toolshed Podcast with Eric Cross. Chris also works for SoxProspects scouting and evaluating players for the Greenville Drive. He enjoys spending time with his family and two dogs and playing golf during his free time. You can follow his work on Twitter @RotoClegg.

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. Follow Tristan on Twitter @SultanofStat.

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, and is an 8-time FSWA award nominee. 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.

Eric Cross (ToolshedFantasy.com)
Eric is the founder of Toolshed Fantasy and a fantasy baseball, dynasty, and prospects writer for Rotoballer and FTN Fantasy. He also is the host of The Toolshed podcast and contributes annually to the best-selling Fantasy baseball Black Book. In 2021, Eric won the FSWA Baseball Writer of the Year award. Outside of baseball, he is a father of two and lives on the coast of Maine. Follow Eric on Twitter/X @EricCross04.

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.

Rob DiPietro (Pull Hitter Patreon)
Rob has provided fantasy baseball analysis since 2020 on his website (pullhitter.com) and podcast (PullHitter Podcast) where his guests discuss game theory and market trends. In 2023, he started co-hosting the Launch Angle Podcast with Jeff Zimmerman and Rob Silver. Rob has been focusing on playing fantasy baseball at the NFBC since 2020, where he won the Draft Champions overall in his first year playing on a single bullet and was runner-up in the same contest in 2023. Rob has won 8 FAAB league titles with a 30% win rate and 63% cash rate in the NFBC through the 2023 season. 

Brian Entrekin (BaseballHQ.com)
Most know Brian as "KC Bubba" and for his many podcasts—most importantly Benched with Bubba and Bubba & the Bloom. He writes for many outlets including BaseballHQ and FantasyPros, as well as recording the First Pitch podcast for PitcherList. You can also find Bubba on Twitter @bdentrek.

Jeff Erickson (RotoWire.com, Sirius/XM Radio)
Jeff is a co-founder of RotoWire and the only two-time winner of Baseball Writer of the Year from the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. He's also in the FSWA Hall of Fame. He roots for the Reds, Bengals, Red Wings, Pacers and Northwestern University (the real NU). You can listen to Jeff on RotoWire Fantasy Sports Today on SiriusXM Fantasy at their new time slot, from 8:00-10:00pm ET.

Brian Feldman 
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 2025 will be his year!).

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.

Michael Govier (Pallazzo Podcast)
Michael hosts The Pallazzo Podcast, which covers season-long redraft and dynasty. Michael has been playing various forms of fantasy baseball since 1999. He is an alum of the University of Michigan and hails from the metro Detroit area. If you find him in the hallways at FPAZ and offer up a critical assessment of Tigers owner Chris Illitch, he will definitely give you a high-five. Follow Michael on Twitter @mjgovier where his frequent videos will bring a smile to your face. 

Rick Graham (PitcherList.com)
Rick is currently a Senior Fantasy Analyst and Reliever Manager for Pitcher List, where he has been covering bullpens since 2017. He has playing and coaching experience at the collegiate level and previously contributed at Rotoballer. Rick also participates in TGFBI and Tout Wars (NL-only) and co-hosts the In The Pen Podcast (@InThePenPod). Follow Rick’s work on Twitter at @iAmRickGraham.

Toby Guevin (BatFlipCrazy.com)
Toby (aka BatFlip Crazy) has provided fantasy baseball analysis since 2017 on his own website and podcast (The BatFlip Crazy Podcast), but is probably best known as the "pocket aces" guy. Toby has played most of his fantasy baseball at the NFBC since 2019, where he has won 8 FAAB league titles, including 4 Main Events and a Super, and has a 30% win rate and 63% cash rate over 27 main events, online championships and high stakes leagues through the 2022 season.

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.

Peter Kreutzer (rotoman.substack.com)
Peter was inducted into the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2016. He started writing for Alex Patton and Les Leopold's books in the early 1990s, ESPN Sportzone published his projections in 1995, its first season, and ESPN originated his Ask Rotoman column in 1996. It ran there, along with his Spring Training Fantasy Diary, for three years. After a summer with Baseball Prospectus, he wrote Ask Rotoman and provided projections and profiles to MLB.com from 2000 to 2009. Peter was the originating editor-in-chief of The Fantasy Baseball Guide: Professional Edition in 2000 until its demise in 2023. Look for his latest news at rotoman.substack.com and be sure to sign up for the free newsletter there.

Eric Longenhagen (FanGraphs.com)
Eric has been FanGraphs' Lead Prospect Analyst since 2016. His book is Future Value. The 2025 season will be his 18th in baseball (Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Baseball Info Solutions, ESPN.com).

Justin Mason (FanGraphs.com)
Justin is the Lead Fantasy Writer and co-owner of Friends with Fantasy Benefits, the owner The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational, and a certified addiction specialist. Justin writes for FWFB and FanGraphs and can be heard via podcast on the Sleeper and the Bust, TGFBI, and FWFB podcasts. He can be found on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.

Tim McLeod (prospect361.com)
Tim can be found at P361 ranking, filing, and writing a weekly Waiver Wire Article focusing on deeper Dynasty formats. Along with host Rich Wilson, he's now heading into the 16th year of weekly podcasts. When not digging out of the snow in Northwestern Ontario, the other three months of the year are spent scouting the Asian game searching for the next NPB/KBO player that will take MLB by storm. 

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, and Tout Wars Mixed Draft in 2019.

Joe Orrico (FantasyPros.com)
Joe has played fantasy baseball since 2013, and he’s been in the content space as a writer and podcast host since 2021. His background is in Journalism and Sports Media, and he is currently one of the hosts of the FantasyPros baseball podcast. He hosts his own solo podcast as well, “90 Feet From Home,” which airs every weekday throughout the year. Joe is a Tout Wars participant and you can find him on Twitter @JoeOrrico99.

Jeffrey Paternostro (BaseballProspectus.com)
Jeffrey is the Lead Prospect Writer for Baseball Prospectus. He has written for the site since 2015. Before that he covered the New York Mets system for Amazin' Avenue. He has hosted too many podcasts (currently Five and Dive and For All You Kids Out There, both for BP) and has had too many postgame shaken Manhattans in minor league city hotel bars. 

Dean Peterson (National Fantasy Baseball Championship)
Dean is a facilitator for live NFBC events in Chicago and a former 12-year Tout Wars veteran representing STATS LLC, where he also kept the data flowing to support your favorite fantasy games for many years. He is a life-long fan of Strat-O-Matic baseball, where he currently administers one league and participates in 3 others.

Nick Pollack (PitcherList.com)
Nick founded PitcherList.com in 2014 after years pitching in college, coaching travel baseball, and giving private pitching instruction. He's the 2022 FSWA Baseball Writer of the Year and has been published in the 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.

Dave Potts (RotoGrinders.com)
Dave is a longtime player and analyst for both season-long and DFS baseball. He is a member of the NFBC Hall of Fame, having won the Main Event Overall Championship along with multiple other league titles including the Platinum League and the Ultimate Auction. He is a 2-time million dollar winner in DFS and currently writes daily content at RotoGrinders. He is also an FSWA winner for Baseball Article of the Year.

Eric Samulski (Rotoworld.com)
Eric is a writer/content creator for NBC Sports/Rotoworld. He's a three-time FSWA winner and eight-time finalist. He's the co-host of the Rotoworld Baseball Show with Scott Pianowski and the On the Corner Podcast with Nick Pollack. Eric played college baseball and a year of professional baseball overseas and writes weekly waiver wire columns and pitch mix analysis which can be found at NBCsports.com. He was also the hidden character Air Dog in NBA Jam.

Sara Sanchez (BaseballHQ.com)
Sara is a baseball analyst who divides her time between her love of the Cubs and fantasy baseball. She’s written for FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus. You can currently find her fantasy analysis at BaseballHQ, and Pitcher List, where she’s the host of the “Fantasy Feud” podcast. She’s the 2022 GLARF champion and the 2022 runner-up in the Tout Wars 12-team alternate categories mixed league. Her fantasy takes are powered by nitro cold brew, rosé, and the vibes in the left field bleachers at Wrigley Field.

Eno Sarris (TheAthletic.com) 
Eno is now the national baseball analytics writer and lead fantasy baseball columnist at The Athletic. Slings Stuff+ at FanGraphs, and should have won more leagues, but has the best AL-LABR finish ever so at least there’s that. He's still bugging players about their latest adjustments and bugging the nerds about their latest findings. Find him wherever the good beer is.

Vlad Sedler (FTNFantasy.com)
Vlad is the head of baseball content at FTN Fantasy and the host of the FTN Fantasy Baseball podcast. He is a former Tout Wars champion, CDM Hall of Famer and winner of over 40 NFBC leagues. Some, though not all, call him the FAAB Whisperer.

Ron Shandler (RonShandler.com)
Ron’s eponymous Baseball Forecaster has been creating fantasy baseball winners since 1986. He is the founder of BaseballHQ.com, spearheaded the creation of Tout Wars and co-founded this First Pitch Arizona event. Ron owns dozens of top-3 finishes in national experts leagues since 1994, has written for numerous publications and websites, including USA Today, ESPN, and The Athletic, and is an FSGA/FSWA Hall-of-Famer. He tweets random brain flakes @RonShandler. Copies of his historical memoir, "Fantasy Expert,” will be available at this conference.

Paul Sporer (FanGraphs.com)
Paul is the Editor of Rotographs and Content Director for OOTP Perfect Team. Follow Paul on Twitter @sporer and on Twitch at sporer.

Chris Towers (CBSSports.com)
Chris has been found CBSSports.com for the past 13 years, where he is the co-host of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast and writes the daily Fantasy Baseball Today Newsletter. When he’s not doing that – and even, sometimes, when he is – he can be found out at concerts or arguing about Star Wars with someone.

Derek VanRiper (TheAthletic.com) 
Derek (“DVR”) is a podcast producer and host at The Athletic (Rates & Barrels & The Athletic Baseball Show). He has played fantasy baseball for 20+ years, competing in a wide array of draft and auction formats including industry leagues (Tout Wars, LABR, TGFBI, XFL) and the NFBC. 

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.

Chris Welsh (InThisLeague.com) 
"The" Welsh is a fantasy baseball podcaster with "In This League" and his prospect show, Prospect One. Welsh can also be found as one of two lead voices on FantasyPros daily show, Leading Off. You can find him on Twitter/X @isitthewelsh

Sam Wirsching (Pallazzo Podcast)
Sam is part of the Pallazzo Podcast contributing wherever baseball is concerned: dynasty, prospects, redraft, and trades. Hailing from north of Seattle when he isn’t playing fantasy baseball he can be found playing with dogs (www.samscatsanddogs.com) or watching MiLB at the Everett Aquasox. On Twitter @samfbb1

Jeff Zimmerman (FanGraphs.com)
Jeff is one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, and writes for RotoGraphs. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including one for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.

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.