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?

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.