Fantasyland, the book, is by far one of the best books I have ever read about fantasy sports. It captures the spirit, the history, and the fun of fantasy baseball. Fantasyland the movie showcases the obsessiveness of one player that cannot help but make you cringe. The movie follows an average guy Jed Latkin as he competes in the 2008 AL Tout Wars and will stop at almost nothing to make his fantasy baseball team a better team.

Latkin has an enthuasism for fantasy baseball that may just be unmatched. While a certain amount of this movie is Latkin being over the top for the camera (at least, I hope it is), Latkin’s enthusism borders on a very truly unhealthy obsession for fantasy baseball. If he actually did drive over 7 hours to Roanoke, Virginia just to negotiate a trade with a surprised Ron Shandler, or actually nearly miss the birth of his children negotiating a trade, that’s just a bit creepy. One of the things that made Walker’s original story so captivating is that he definitely did push the limits of reason of what you could do to win a fantasy baseball league, but it never seemed that Walker had his priorities mismatched or lacked a sense of common courtesy.

The movie does have some bright spots that make it tolerable. The narrative interludes with Fantasyland author Sam Walker act as the voice of reason, bringing to life the great storytelling of Fantasyland, if only for a moment. The side interviews on anecdotes do give a little bit of character to the movie.

I really wanted this to be a good review of a movie that I was very excited to see. Unfortunately, this is not it. Although, one possible use for this version of Fantasyland is to have your significant other watch the movie just so you can say to her, “be thankful I’m not that guy.”

If you are interested in seeing what I am talking about, you can watch Fantasyland the movie online.

It is Wednesday, and I try to cheer you up a little bit while you are at work. Today, I have something to help you relax and perhaps, stimulate your mind. You can now watch the Fantasyland movie from the comfort of your own home. Right here on Fantasy Ethos, right now. I know it is just a fancy piece of embedded code making it happen, but it is one less click for you.

Watch now, and we will discuss the movie this afternoon here on Fantasy Ethos.

Last night, I sat through one of the longest fantasy baseball drafts of my life. 18 teams, 26 players per team, 468 players later, I am still feeling pretty numb. I am fairly certain that two retired players were drafted. There might even be one dead guy selected. I’m not sure; it is all just a blur. I’m pretty sure I got splinters from scraping the bottom of the barrel. At this point, I am just thanking my lucky stars that it was not an auction draft, which easily would have doubled the time.

One guy completed the draft from a hotel in Las Vegas. Now, that is dedication. He has the world’s playground around him, and he’s drafting fantasy baseball. There is about a 99% chance he is single. Or, if he is as smart as picks indicate he is, he sent his wife to the spa during the draft.

More remarkably, I received my one and only “nice pick” when I picked up Jeff Clement in the last round. The draft undervalued catchers and I figured a second one could not hurt. But, is it really possible to find value in a round where most of the players remaining would not even draft themselves in their clubhouse league? I’ll be honest, the main reason I drafted Clement at that point was because he went to the University of Southern California, just like me.

Why do we put ourselves through this kind of self-inflicted torture? Do we selectively remember the fun first few rounds where people are having fun, and just forget about the last couple of hours which you are struck with decision paralysis while staring at the hundreds of names and numbers.

And, in case you did not catch the title reference, here is a clip to remind you:

One of the classics. If you have not seen it, watch it now.

The Sprint Cup. The Vince Lombardi Trophy. The Stanley Cup. And now, the SABR Trophy. Well, maybe that was a little bit more melodramatic than it should have been, but you get my point. There is something special about a competition when you are a competing for a trophy that is almost as synonymous as the sport you compete in. Tout Wars announced a partnership with the Society of American Baseball Researchers in which the annual trophy that the Tout compete for will now be known as the SABR Trophy. The first receipts of the SABR Trophy will be the 2009 Tout Wars Champions.

Tout Wars is considered the leading fantasy baseball experts league, and I think this is a really cool thing to do. SABR is recognized as the driver for the enhanced statistical emphasis that now current in (fantasy) baseball, which has even spilled out into other sports. The relationship between these two brands and what they both stand for make this a very natural relationship; the kind that makes you wonder why didn’t anyone think of this before?

I know we are in the middle of spring training right now, Joe Mauer is signing ridiculously huge contracts, and ESPN Fantasy is airing new fantasy baseball commercials, but can we just get this season started already? Fantasy football and March Madness are nice diversions, but fantasy baseball is what it is all about. It requires dedication and focus for six or seven months. Endurance like this makes running a marathon look easy. It is the Cadillac of fantasy sports. The start of the season is so close, I can almost taste.

While I impatiently wait, and you look to get your day started, here is this season’s ESPN fantasy baseball commercial to whet your appetite.

Happy Monday! Come back later for some fun content!

Sometimes, you have to go outside your own pool of resources to find something interesting. RotoExperts is hosting its Fight for Your Write! fantasy baseball article contest. Anyone is open to submit his best fantasy baseball article to the competition. The winner will have his article published plus receive a nice trove of prizes, including a copy of Major League Baseball 2K10, an Evan Longoria Fathead Jr., and a Buffalo Wild Wings hooded sweatshirt.

There are millions of fantasy baseball players out there and at least half of them think they can give better fantasy advice than most of the experts out there. That is where they are wrong. Knowing which players to recommend and writing good fantasy experts are two very different things. In to compete in this contest, not only will the winner have to make some solid fantasy advice, the article will have to be well-written, and most importantly, make convincing arguments. But, to win the contest, the article will probably actually have to be enjoyable and entertaining.

If you think you have the writing chops to win RotoExpert’s Fight of Your Write! challenge and enter. Entries are due by 5pm on April 2nd.

Good luck!

When ESPN purchased Matthew Berry’s The Talented Mr. Roto, one of its goals was to make Matthew Berry its Mel Kiper Jr. of fantasy sports. From appearing on its NFL pre-games shows, starring in commercials, producing podcasts, and being their go-to guy for fantasy sports, ESPN has fully come through on that promise. Now, ESPN is taking it one step further with the launch of a page for Matthew Berry.

The page becomes a resource for all things Matthew Berry. From video on Berry’s appearance on “One Life to Live” to his most recent article involving 50 facts, mostly about fantasy baseball.

Matthew Berry built his reputation in the industry as The Talented Mr. Roto where he mixed in pop culture and his life with his fantasy advice. The result was a very distinctive and enjoyable style of fantasy baseball writing that stands out in a very saturated market of fantasy advice. Whether you agree with his fantasy advice (Berry does have his fair share of haters), his articles are a very entertaining read. This new page gives him a forum to expand his options as a he further develops his identity.

Congratulations, Matthew, on your new playground.

This upcoming Friday, the release of the Fantasyland, the film version hits your internet on Snag Films and Hulu. The movie, which is based on Sam Walker’s tale in Fantasyland, (You can read our book review of Fantasyland here), is a documentary featuring Jed Latkin who in 2008 recreated Sam’s steps by first competing in Tout Wars and then travelling around the country to make his fantasy baseball team just that much better every day.

I am seeing a sneak peak of the movie of this week and will have my review for you prior to that. In the mean time, the film has been kind of enough to post some clips online for everyone to check out. The first clip below features Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle talking about a fantasy league of his featuring some celebrities:

And the second clip features Mike Francesa of WFAN New York talking about why he really hates fantasy:

Check back soon for my review of the full film.

We you play fantasy sports, you want to play with the best. In fantasy baseball, that is widely considered to be Tout Wars. If you cannot get a spot in Tout Wars, you can always just play by their rules. Right now, you can view the Tout Wars constitution and get a glimpse as to how fantasy sports’ elite fantasy players like to play fantasy baseball.

The highlights of the constitution are that Tout Wars uses an auction format and not a draft, as is probably most common. Plus, Tout Wars utilizes Vickery Free Agent Acquisition Budgets (FAAB) throughout the season. Meaning that teams bid on free agent players throughout the season, as opposed to using free agent dollars.

One of the things fantasy baseball suffers from is a lack of standardization of rules across various leagues. If there was going to be one standard for rules, using Tout Wars’ rules would not be a terrible first step. It is the set of rules that most fantasy experts have in mind when they give fantasy advice.

There’s a great discussion going on in the Fantasy Sports Executives group on LinkedIn right now about whether a niche fantasy sports site should use a free or pay revenue model. This is a question the industry has struggled with since its inception. For the smaller fantasy sites, this is a life or death question.

Gerry ScottoDiMarco of RotoRank started the discussion. His site utilized a subscription revenue base for the last six years, but is concerned that his subscription base will be flat or decline for the 2010 fantasy baseball season. This is a very common concern for fantasy site owners these days and should at least be considered by most fantasy site owners.

By switching from a pay to a free model, Ed Menendez points out that, “Not only will you have to redesign the game to be more efficient to use less resources when its free costing you time there, but the outlay on hardware and bandwidth will go up.” Free is not always free to create. Free is all about optimizing operations and resources so that they are almost free and that the ad revenue generated is enough to overcome it.

The other item that came up in discussion is the use of the freemium model where it is free to play a fantasy game, but you charge for premium items such as free agent pick-ups. The general consensus from the discussion thread was that niche sites had to include some element of paid subscriptions model in order to survive. Now, if you have the scale of a Yahoo! or ESPN, the ad-supported model definitely is much more achievable and you may be able to forgo any premium aspects.

What are your thoughts on the topic?