Just to head off any jokes before we get too far into this post, “tools” refers to Bloomberg Sports’ new fantasy baseball analytics offerings and is not FSB.com’s judgment of the participants …

We managed to overlook the announcement late last week, but in an interesting marketing twist for its fantasy package, Bloomberg has partnered with Fantasy Sports Ventures to put on the 2010 Bloomberg Challenge.

The “challenge” will be a 12-team “experts” league made up of six industry folks and six consumers. MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds (MLB Advanced Media is a business partner of Bloomberg Sports) will join five fantasy sports analysts with FSV ties:

– Ron Shandler of BaseballHQ.com

– Lawr Michaels of Mastersball.com

– Tim Heaney of KFFL.com

– Steve Gardner of USA Today

– Derek VanRiper of RotoWire.com

As for the remaining six slots, Bloomberg is accepting nominations through the end of the day Wednesday (send to BloombergChallenge@bloombergsports.com), consisting of only a brief paragraph about why you should be included. Bloomberg will select six from that group, and the draft will take place Monday night at 8:30. Those chosen will receive free access to the Bloomberg analytics.

The goal here for Bloomberg is obviously to put the value of their new tools on display by showing that they can enable the average fantasy player to compete at the highest level.

“One of the innovative elements of the Bloomberg Sports analytic tools we have developed is that they give everyone a chance to really excel and have fun in fantasy baseball like never before,” Bloomberg product head Bill Squadron said in the media release. “By matching some of the greats of fantasy baseball against six fans, we will find out how our tools can help regular fans play fantasy baseball like the professionals. We believe that the league will generate a great deal of interest and fun while also demonstrating how different the product we have created is in the marketplace.”

Most of us in the fantasy industry, of course, know that the only thing differentiating the “experts” from many fantasy players is the publishing of their opinions. For that reason, it will be interesting to see if Bloomberg gravitates toward less-experienced consumers for this showcase.

Either way, it’s a fun marketing idea and should be a particularly enjoyable opportunity for the six consumers who are chosen.

Beyond that, it’s also another indication of the seriousness with which Bloomberg is entering the fantasy sports space — which can also be read as a testament to this industry’s continuing growth potential.

FSB.com has learned that KFFL and RotoExperts have reached a syndication agreement that will put RotoExperts content on KFFL for three fantasy sports: NASCAR, soccer and golf.

Fantasy racing folks can now find RotoExperts branded sections on KFFL’s NASCAR home page: Picks and Points, Nationwide Series and Race Recap. Basically, RotoExperts will be providing race preview and wrap-ups for the Sprint Cup series, along with content for the lower-division Nationwide races.

Scott Engel of RotoExperts tells us that his site will also supply KFFL with weekly previews and reviews of English Premiership socceer action and similar weekly coverage of PGA events. There is currently no set ending point for the agreement between the fantasy content sites.

KFFL and RotoExperts each reside within Fantasy Sports Ventures’ Fantasy Players Network. Along with KFFL, Yahoo!, NFL.com, SI.com and USA Today Sports Weekly also syndicate RotoExperts material.

For the second straight year, BlogTalkRadio will feature 24 hours of baseball talk for charity this weekend, put on by FantasyPros911.com and BaseballDigest.com.

Paul Greco and Lenny Melnick of Fantasy Pros 911 created the event last year and managed to raise $7,500 to fight cystic fibrosis. This year’s installment will benefit Operation Homefront, which provides aid to returning soldiers and military families.

“It’s just a privilege to be a part of something so close to my heart,” Greco, an Air Force veteran, said in the media release. “Operation Homefront is a great organization providing a great service for many of my friends and their families still in the service. It’s an opportunity for an entire industry to give back to the troops who make it possible for all of us to play a game we love.”

BTR’s Fantasy Sports Channel also teamed up with Sigmund Bloom and Cecil Lammey of Footballguys.com in August for a football edition of the talk-a-thon, which also raised money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

As part of this second baseball event, FantasyPros911.com is offering a free one-year premium subscription to anyone who donates $25 or more. In addition, $3 from every purchase of the children’s book “A Glove of Their Own” will go to the cause — as long as you enter the code OHF-526 when you buy it.

The show begins at noon on Saturday and runs until noon Sunday on The Fantasy Sports Channel.

Football enjoys a much larger share of the fantasy market than any other sport, so it’s no wonder that the live-draft, high-stakes football events continue to grow, increase and draw more coverage.

This American moment (just wanted to pretend we were NPR for a second), however, presents an interesting time in the life of high-stakes fantasy baseball.

Baseball, in general, tends to stand much closer to the center of the fantasy stage right around now than for most of the rest of the year, with pitchers and catchers reporting and everyone but Royals and Pirates fans getting their hopes up for shots at the World Series. The “national pastime” is in particular focus right about now for fantasy industry heavies WCOFS and Fanball.

Gridiron Fantasy Sports (the company that owns the World Championship of Fantasy Football) will put on its first WCOFB (I’ll let you figure out the “B”) in 2010. Just like in the WCOFF, the main event will take place in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, high-stakes veteran the National Fantasy Baseball Championship will not only be calling Vegas home, but also hosting events in four other cities. The big change for the NFBC this year, though, is that it will be the first run since Fanball’s acquisition in August. Of course, leaders Greg Ambrosius and Tom Kessenich also went to the new parent company in the deal, so things should remain familiar to returning players.

Here are the full schedules for each set of events …

National Fantasy Baseball Championship live events
March 19-21, Las Vegas
March 19-21, Atlantic City, N.J.
March 19-21, St. Louis
March 26-28, Las Vegas
March 26-28, Chicago
March 26-28, New York City
Details

World Championship of Fantasy Baseball
March 26-28
Las Vegas
Details