SubscribeI took a trip to the local bookstore today to check out some more magazines. (You may remember I previously reviewed the three magazines that I found in January.)
This time I came across three more publications:
Fantasy Sports ($5.99)
Beckett/Rotoworld ($6.99)
RotoWire ($7.99)
You’ll remember I found these on my first trip:
The Fantasy Baseball Guide ($6.99)
Fanball ($7.99)
Lindy’s Fantasy Baseball ($7.99)
I’ll spare you the detailed comparison; if you have spent any time flipping through various magazines you will realize that the differences between them are pretty minor.
I will say this though: If I were only buying one magazine, it would probably be the Rotoworld one. It’s got the full set of features (articles, drafts, auctions, projections), and I thought each of those elements was done well. The price is right, too: The $7.99 publications form the rest of my top-tier, so for $6.99 Rotoworld seems like an easy decision. (Yeah, I like saving a buck.)
So how would I summarize the magazines I’ve looked at this year? Well…
Magazines all have the same basic content.
Every fantasy publication that I looked at featured player projections, a list of prospects, and a mock draft. Some went beyond that to include mock auctions, various dollar values, sleepers, etc. If there’s a feature that you consider a deal-breaker to not have (e.g. 5×5 dollar values), then make sure you get a magazine that has that feature.
Magazines have good writers.
In recent years, magazines have wisely begun including some of the internet’s best fantasy writers and thinkers. As some one who respects the work of Matthew Pouliot, Jason Collette, Peter Kreutzer, Andy Behrens, Aaron Gleeman, and others, I think the days of magazine bashing are over. Sure, they’re out of date, but they are still written by smart people. If there’s an online writer that you are particularly impressed with, maybe consider their publication.
Magazines have their limits.
Magazines are pretty good at what they do, but there’s still a lot that can’t be fit into a hundred of so pages. For example, a magazine might list a couple of different dollar values (AL, NL, and mixed), but that can hardly compare to the endless possibilities of customized dollar values that the Price Guide can give you. A magazine might have a couple of useful articles, but that’s nothing compared to the hundreds that are available for free on the internet.
Even so, I still can’t help but buy a magazine each year.
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