Free to Play with Live Scoring, Mobile Alerts and Expert Analysis; Baseball Tonight Fantasy Baseball Draft Special to Air Thursday, March 25 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN 

To tweet this release – http://bit.ly/91Ty3m

It’s that time of year again for league managers to set up their live drafts and team owners to dust off their scouting rosters.  Spring training is coming to a close and that means the start of Fantasy Baseball season.  Once again, ESPN.com is offering FREE ESPN Fantasy Baseball this year. 

To kick off the 2010 season, ESPN will air the Baseball Tonight Fantasy Baseball Draft Special on Thursday, March 25 at 8 p.m. ET to break down this year’s roster of players and to analyze the playing field with Baseball Tonight host Steve Berthiaume featuring “The Talented Mr. Roto” Matthew Berry and Aaron Boone. 

As always, ESPN Fantasy Baseball will offer fans access to the industry’s most in-depth collection of tools and content.  Highlights include live scoring, multiple draft options, full wireless control of ESPN.com teams, and content across the Internet, television, radio, podcasts, mobile phones and other portable devices — all for free. 

FREE ESPN Fantasy Baseball

For the forth straight year, ESPN Fantasy Baseball will be entirely free and will deliver fans a host of advantages. Returning features for ESPN Fantasy Baseball include:

• ESPN FantasyCast: An interactive tool that uses live scoring and real-time results to track fantasy team players as the games are being played
• Live Scoring: Live player-by-player scoring and results, including live updating box scores
• Mock Draft Lobby: Lets players drop in at any time to run through a draft, try out a new draft strategy or just see who and how other players are drafting
• Live Draft Lobby: Allows players to find and join a league and hold a draft, anytime day or night
• Multiple Draft Options: Including live online Auction drafts, Private drafts, Live Draft Lobby, Automated drafts and offline drafts
• Online Draft Kit: Includes complete rankings, projections and profiles for more than 850 players, rankings for the top 100 prospects for 2010, cheat sheets and dollar values for mixed, AL- and NL-only leagues, updated average draft and auction results, draft and auction strategies, mock drafts, in-depth analysis and a look at the most pressing questions for all 30 major league teams
• Mobile Alerts: Players can keep up with their team while away from the computer, with the ability to receive breaking news and scoring alerts directly to wireless devices (all carriers)
• Draft Pick Trading: Players have the option to trade draft picks in league with a fixed draft order
• Player Cards 2.0: Embedded player information cards allow players to see recent news, analysis and game-by-game stats without leaving the site
• Keeper Options: League Managers can transfer keeper settings by entering keepers prior to their draft 
• Customizable Rules and Scoring
• League Message Boards, Chat and Polls: Players can discuss news, create their own polls and even chat online – all from within their ESPN.com league 

ESPN Insider Benefits

As always, ESPN Insiders receive additional access to features and tools including:

• MLB Draft Analyzer: This tool provides a competitive advantage on the most important day of the Fantasy Baseball season — Draft Day. As players are selected, ESPN Insider Draft Analyzer assesses which player will benefit your team the most based on your roster’s needs and the players still available, and then optimizes your pick. With Draft Analyzer Insiders can get the player they need most and dominate the draft.
• Buster Olney’s Blog: Daily one-stop morning shot of opinion, news and notes on all 30 teams.
• TMI Blog: Gives users “The Max Info” on baseball analytics 24/7, including smart predictive takes from an all-star cast of “sabermetricians” as well as ESPN Stats & Info.
• Keith Law’s Blog: Scouting and analysis on players and deals.
• MLB Rumor Central: A daily must-read for the best reporting and insight on baseball rumors from ESPN experts. 

ESPN will continue to provide the most useful and comprehensive information, analysis and insights in the industry with an unmatched roster of writers, analysts and media personalities.  The ESPN Fantasy Baseball team includes Berry, Eric Karabell, Christopher Harris, Jason Grey, Tristan Cockcroft, Brendan Roberts, James Quintong, AJ Mass, Nate Ravitz and injury analyst Stephania Bell. 

Fans will also find baseball news and insights from leading pro baseball Insiders, including ESPN.com’s Buster Olney, Keith Law, Jayson Stark, Rob Neyer, Jerry Crasnick, ESPN The Magazine’s Amy K. Nelson and ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian.  

ESPN Mobile

Players will have team management capabilities via mobile devices with access to the ESPN mobile Web site.  Premium alerts are also available for $2.99 per month featuring lineup alerts warning users of injured players in active slots, inactive players eligible for an open slot and probable pitchers on the bench.  Additionally, fantasy baseball-related video content is available on ESPN Mobile TV (via the FLO TV and MobiTV platforms). 

An ESPN Fantasy Baseball app will also be available by the start of the season.  The premium app will allow users to:

• Access live scoring for fantasy teams, both rotisserie and H2H scoring supported;
• Receive alerts including roster moves, injuries and projection alerts;
• Complete full transactions (add, remove, waiver wire pickups) from the app;
• Track multiple teams across leagues;
• View player cards and full projections. 

Fantasy Baseball on ESPN TV

This season, ESPN will continue to bring fans fantasy baseball insights, information and analysis on its television programs:

• Baseball Tonight Fantasy Baseball Draft Special:  On Thursday, March 25 at 8 p.m. ET, ESPN will televise a 60-minute “Baseball Tonight Fantasy Baseball Draft Special.”  The program, hosted by Berthiaume and featuring Berry and Boone, will break down each position, potential sleepers and busts, draft strategies, rookies and more.
• SportsCenter, ESPNEWS, Baseball Tonight and The Bottom Line:  This week, SportsCenter is featuring a “Diamond Debate” series, an analysis of players by position with Berry and Olney.  ESPN’s signature news, information and analysis programs will feature fantasy baseball content integration, including additional in-depth attention to fantasy baseball in late March.  ESPNEWS will air fantasy baseball segments, with live news-reaction reports from Berry and Bell on Baseball Tonight.  The Bottom Line will integrate custom fantasy content with Baseball Tonight and live games. 

-30-