Huh, TOUT, What is it good for?

navel-gazing-at-canadaLord Zola and his merry band discuss why there is a LABR and why there is a Tout Wars, and the ways both leagues of so-called experts can better serve their followers. Follow the fun at KFFL.com.

New Tout Wars Records in 2012

Did you know we keep track of Tout Wars records? Yep, you can see which teams scored the most runs in AL Tout and which Mixed Tout team has the best ERA ever on our Tout Records page.

Highlights in 2012:

Mike Siano bested Keith Law’s old old Tout AL stolen base record, with 174.

Peter Kreutzer pushed past a NL Strikeout record shared by Ben Brown/Mark Elliot in 2001 and Tristan Cockcroft in 2011, with 1272.

Most impressively, Cory Schwartz destroyed the Total Mixed Tout Points total (15 team league), held by Andy Behrens in 2010 and Fred Zinkie in 2011, with 128.5. Congratulations Cory!

Tout Wars Creation Story!

First Tout Wars Draft
Ron Shandler tells the story of Tout Wars’ origins in a three-part series that will ultimately reside behind the paywall at BaseballHQ.com, but the first two parts are available for free right now. Read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

If the links are broken the offer has expired. Part 3 is coming on June 29th.

Transaction Inaction

Steve Gardner writes in USA Today about the difficulties MLB’s staggering start to the season have caused fantasy leagues this year.

Tout Wars fell into the trap, announcing that there would be Free Agent pickups last night (April Fools Day). The culprit was a faulty reading of the rules and forgetting about precedent. Each of the last two years the initial claims were conducted on the Sunday night after the start of the season, and after review we moved this year’s initial claims deadline to midnight of April 8th.

At that point all DL players will be known and announced.

Fantasyland’s Sixth Anniversary

My how time flies. Six years ago a college student who had never played auction-style rotisserie read Sam Walker’s book about Tout Wars. Today he’s a fantasy baseball columnist for the New York Daily News.

Ron Shandler Inducted Into the FSWA Hall of Fame!

Ron invented Tout Wars (with a band of Merry Men who will remain nameless on this occasion). Congratulations, Ron!

10 Year Ago at Tout Wars

In 2001, Tout Wars drafted in the basement baseball shrine at Baseball Info Solution’s Steve Moyer’s house in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.  What I remember most is winning the first reserve pick in the NL draft and choosing can’t-miss pitching prospect Kurt Ainsworth over the surprising spring sensation third baseman named Albert Pujols (or as Steve informed us pedantically: Poo-holes). Take a trip down memory lane with us now…

2001 NL Draft Results

2001 AL Draft Results

Does anyone have a picture from the draft?