I just finished reading Fantasyland by Sam Walker and it was a pretty interesting read. It details the journey of Walker, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, as he attempts to compete in an expert rotisserie baseball league known as Tout Wars in which other expert statisticians and fantasy experts supposedly compete.
The approach Walker uses to build his team is a mix of old school meets new school. Walker attempts to build his fantasy team around old school scouting methods mixed in with new age statistical scouting. The book goes through the 2004 season from winter meetings up through the end of the fantasy season.
This book offers no help for building a fantasy team. If you don’t like hearing or reading about other’s fantasy teams, this book isn’t for you. However, if you have ever struggled through the frustrations of building a fantasy team and trying to win a league, you can relate to this book.
If you’re not a rotisserie fan, the book does give you a behind the scenes look at how some players, GMs, and even the fraternity of baseball views rotisserie leagues and those who publish rotisserie and statistical advice. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants something interesting to read that is off the normal baseball route.
(There are no Reds mentioned in this book other than a brief blurb about Brandon Phillips when he was with Cleveland.)
I read this book and absolutely loved it.