The five-man rotation of the Arizona Diamondbacks has their own version of fantasy baseball:

The five-man rotation has a friendly but spirited little competition. The pitchers accumulate points for productivity, and Estes just happened to finish last during the first month of the seasonlong wager.

It's a contest Estes and Ortiz both participated in during their time together with the San Francisco Giants, and they decided to resurrect the idea with the Diamondbacks during spring training.

"It's something we can rag on each other about and have a little bit of fun," Ortiz said, "but at the same time, all the things you get points for are things that help the club. And that's really what this is all about."

They earn points for hitting and pitching well, and lose points for a poor performance. The pitcher with the fewest points in a month has to take the others out to dinner. It appears to be having a positive effect on the staff:

The contest, in addition to making the pitchers focus even more on each start, has spurred some camaraderie and chemistry among the five hurlers, four of whom are new to the organization this year. Only Webb, who is off to a 5-0 start after going 7-16 a year ago, was on last season's club that finished with 111 losses, the most by a National League team in 39 years.

A game within a game that encourages winning; what a great idea. I wonder if the batters will start doing something similar?