Right after I posted the “officially baseball time” item, I skipped over to e-mail — yeah, I skip … I figure it beats prancing — and was greeted by a message announcing the fantasy partnership between MLB.com and CBS Sports.

First of all, this partnership is noteworthy because it belonged to Yahoo! in 2010. At least some further interest is added by the fact that CBS’ longtime deal to run the commissioner product for NFL.com ended before the 2010 football season.

Whether it has anything to do with NFL.com pumping up the inclusion of game highlights in its new in-house fantasy product for the season just ended, video highlights is among the selling points in the ad touting the CBS-MLB alignment.

In announcing CBS Sports’ baseball product as the “official” commissioner of MLB for 2011, the ad mentions the following new features:

“- In-game and post-game video highlights for all your players
- Free MLB.com GameDay package
- Enhanced league management tools for the Commissioner
- New look
- Simple drag & drop roster management”

MLB.com GameDay is the audio package that provides local-radio coverage to games in every MLB market, which will apparently be available to everyone in your league if you sign up with CBS.

Back home from the latest Fantasy Sports Trade Association winter conference, we’ll have material over the next few days covering some of the stuff learned.

At the end of a Wednesday gobbled up by travel and family time, though, we’ll pass along the winners of the most recent set of FSTA awards (in bold):

MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCT OR SERVICE
Grid Iron Fantasy Sports — VuFantasyFootball.com
World Fantasy Games — RapidDraft Fantasy Football Weekly app
RotoWorld — Draftmaster software; Season Pass; Online Fantasy Draft Guides
Fantasy Football Crystal Ball
Head2Head Sports — Injury/Bye Protection
RotoExperts.com — Fantasy Grinder
RotoWire.com — Fantasy Football Draft Kit (mobile)
FantasyPros
LeagueSafe
NFL.com — Fantasy Football 2010

MOST INNOVATIVE CONTEST
RotoExperts.com — Upset Challenge
World Fantasy Games — RapidDraft
Athlon — Pro+College Fantasy Football
NFL.com — Fantasy Playoff Challenge

MOST OUTSTANDING AD
NFL.com — TV spot
MyFantasyLeague.com — print ad
RapidDraft.com (World Fantasy Games) — Week 17 Twitter mock draft
ESPN — campaigns for fantasy baseball, Tournament Challenge and fantasy football
FootballDiehards.com — print-Web promotion

MOST OUTSTANDING CONTEST
NFL.com
FanDuel
CBSSports.com — Free Fantasy Football
World Fantasy Games
Fanball.com — Diamond Challenge Fantasy Baseball
WCOFF

MOST UNIQUE/OUTSTANDING LIVE EVENT or CONTEST
Baseball HQ — First Pitch Forums
WCOFF
NFL.com — Fantasy Live webcast
Head2Head — The Draft 2010
FanDuel — Fantasy Football Championship
RapidDraft.com (WFG) — RapidDraft Weekly

UNIQUE AD
NFL.com — “Dots” TV spot
FootballDiehards.com — print-Web promotion
RapidDraft.com (WFG) — Twitter mock draft

MOST VALUABLE CONTENT
Fantasy Sherpa
CBSSports.com
RotoWorld
ESPN
RotoExperts
Baseball HQ
RotoWire
The Huddle
XML Team
RapidDraft News (WFG)
NFL.com
FFSpin.com
FFToolbox.com
GodfatherofFantasySports.com (Charlie Wiegert’s blog)

MOST VALUABLE TOOL
RotoLab
NFL.com — Bloomberg Decision Maker; NFL.com Fantasy Tour
FantasyPros
Competitive Sports Analysis — scoutPRO
Fantasy Football Crystal Ball
RotoExperts.com
RapidDraft.com — Fantasy Football Weekly app
CBSSports.com — Fantasy Football Commissioner
RTSports.com — online draft room
Fantistics — Fantasy Draft Assistance Tool: Baseball; Football
RotoWorld — DraftMaster
MyFantasyLeague.com
Advanced Sports Media — Draft Analyzer

ROOKIE of the YEAR
FFSpin.com
FaGames
NFL.com — Fantasy Football 2010
FantasyPros
Competitive Sports Analysis
Gridiron Fantasy Sports — VuFantasyFootball.com
Joe Namath (World Fantasy Games)

Name: Michael Fabiano
Nickname: Gridiron Guru
Job title(s): NFL.com Fantasy Editor
Full-time in fantasy? October 2000-present
Age: 37
Education: Bachelor’s degree
Family status: Single
Favorite fantasy sport to play: Football
Favorite sport to watch: Football
Favorite team (any sport): Dallas Cowboys
All-time favorite athlete: Troy Aikman
Years playing fantasy: 15

I got my start in the fantasy industry when: I was hired by COMMISSIONER.com/CBS SportsLine.com in October 2000 as a Fantasy writer covering the NFL, MLB and NBA.

Since then, my fantasy résumé includes: I worked for CBS SportsLine.com as a Senior Fantasy Writer from 2000-2006 before taking the position of Fantasy Editor at NFL.com. While at CBS, I also worked with The NFL Today and was the first fantasy writer to ever appear on one of the four major networks on CBS’ Fantasy Football preview show. Now with the NFL, I also appear regularly on the NFL Network as a fantasy football analyst. I have also created two celebrity fantasy football leagues including such participants as Jim Nantz, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Warren Sapp, Rod Woodson and Marshall Faulk.

Three questions

1. You’ve been a fantasy writer for a long time and active in the Fantasy Sports Writers Association for the past few years. Other than the explosion in volume, what has changed about fantasy content over your time in the industry — good and/or bad?

I think the thing that has changed the most IS the explosion in volume. There are tons of websites and talented writers out there covering every fantasy sport from every angle. It is amazing how many fantasy magazines you see on newsstands these days, especially when it’s time for football season. It’s also been very cool to see fantasy sports go from a hobby played by the hardcore fans only to becoming much more mainstream across the board.

2. Can you describe for us how your current setup with the NFL came about?

A lot of hard work and networking! It has always been a dream of mine to be involved with the NFL, especially since I’ve been a fan of pro football since I was eight years old. When I felt like it was time to move on from CBS SportsLine.com, I talked to the NFL about how the league wanted to move forward with fantasy football. Luckily, it was around that time that the owners decided to bring NFL.com in house. I started off with the league in 2006 as a contracted writer and analyst and was hired full time in 2007. The rest is history …

3. Do you gain any edge by working for the media arm of the league we all follow (first-hand news, players stopping by, analysts on hand — particularly the Playbook crew)?

Honestly, I don’t think I have any more of an edge than anyone who works at ESPN, CBS, FOX, etc. Regardless of who breaks news, everyone else in the industry has their version of it soon thereafter. There are some instances where I’ll be talking to one of our analysts and get information that I can use for my own fantasy prognostications, but for the most part I’m all about analyzing the stats. The NFL and fantasy football has become unpredictable in recent seasons, so even if I do get a nice nugget it doesn’t always translate into an “edge.”

Bonus: What, no fantasy baseball?

I actually started out primarily as a fantasy basketball writer at CBSSportsLine.com. I also wrote fantasy baseball columns, but neither of those sports compares to football. It’s always been my favorite sport, and it’s clearly the best fantasy sport. The season doesn’t last forever like baseball, for example, so every single game counts. People do often ask me what I do during the NFL offseason, to which I reply, “what offseason?”

The NFL has now become a 365-day-a-year sport, especially with all of the media coverage of such events as the Scouting Combine and NFL Draft. The NFL has truly become America’s passion, so it only makes sense that fantasy football would become similarly as popular.

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

- Matthew Berry was recently profiled by the alumni magazine of his alma mater, Syracuse University.

- I don’t really have any better way to intro this column than with its own first line: “It was certainly the first time I’ve ever heard the words ‘fantasy baseball’ used in a eulogy.”

- Tableau Software carries this interview with CBSSports.com data analyst Al Melchior on what the “data visualizations” add to the experience for visitors to the fantasy sports area. (It should be noted that Tableau is the provider of these visualizations.)

- The emergence and evolution of the blogosphere has brought plenty of positive developments, but one key drawback is the blurring of the line between actual reporting and blind speculation. Our report last week on Liberty and Fanball was sourced. This Monday post on MidwestSportsFans.com that bandies the term “bankruptcy” about smacks of irresponsible speculation by one guy. It’s up to each reader to choose what to believe, but it’s up to the outlet to give you reason to believe it.

- Freelancers, here’s a Britain-based ad looking for low-budget design help on a new “weekly sports pick ‘em” site.

- Fantasy providers, now we have finally arrived. Elaut USA has introduced one of those “look at the obscene number of paper tickets you could win before you actually end up with 5″ games that your pre-teen kids choose over better machines at Chuck E. Cheese. Although it has absolutely nothing to do with fantasy sports, it carries the name “Fantasy Football Tickets.”

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).