Washington Nationals: FB Talks To The Nats Blog, Visits With Bloomberg Sports.

• Weekend Notes: 

• William Yoder of The Nats Blog (thenatsblog.com) has done a series of interviews with internet writers who cover the Washington Nationals including Brian Oliver of the Nats Farm Authority and Dave Nichols from the Nats News Network, and I followed those two this week, answering a few questions about the Nationals for Mr. Yoder. Here's the link: The Nats Blog: Nationals Introspective: Federal Baseball.

• I spent Sunday afternoon in New York City on the sixth floor of the Bloomberg Tower on Lexington Ave in Midtown Manhattan listening to Bloomberg Sports discuss the consumer and pro products that they're launching in the next few weeks. The consumer product focuses on fantasy sports with a Draft Kit that will be available on February 18, 2008, that's been developed in cooperation with MLB Advanced Media with the goal, in their own words, of creating, "...the best statistical and analytical tools in sports, for both professionals as well as for fantasy players." As one writer sitting next to me watched the presentation he remarked, "...this is what day traders use to analyze stocks," which the Bloomberg Sports staff would probably be thrilled to hear since Bloomberg, L.P. president Daniel L. Doctoroff, in a New York Times' article by writer Richard Sandomir entitled, "Bloomberg Technology Embraces Baseball", explained their approach to analysis by offering the following analogy (which Mr. Doctoroff repeated yesterday):

"If you think of players as securities and teams as portfolios, then our infrastructure for managing information about securities and portfolios could be adapted to sports."

I spent the afternoon taking Twitter length notes (which I'll include after the JUMP) as did almost everyone in attendance, check out the hashtag results for the event by searching on Twitter for #BBGSports, and if you're a friend of Baseball Prospectus' Joe Hamrahi on Facebook you can see screenshots from the conference there. Fangraphs.com's David Appelman wrote about the event and included some screenshots in an article entitled, "Bloomberg Sports: Professional Tools".)

• Notes from Bloomberg Sports/MLB.com Event in NYC:

-- dedicated to achieving in sports what Bloomberg has in the financial world. 

-- Professional product delivered to teams at Winter Meetings, consumer product launched on the 2/18th, in time for Spring Training. 

-- partnered with MLB Advanced Media. 

-- Ease of use for fantasy players and access to data to make informed decisions with easy analysis of fantasy players. 

-- Fantasy Product and Professional product

-- Fantasy software works with existing fantasy leagues, CBS, FOX, etc. 

-- Starting with Draft kit on 2.18.10...In season tool kit as well. news feeds (which can be edited to collect news specific to your fantasy team), statistics, trends. 

-- Draft kit updates in real time.

-- B-Rank algorithm, Bloomberg's own ranking of players, list and sort through by several stats, create lists with any distinction. 

-- Easily exclude certain players, by list, ex. for those of us who refuse to use Yankees. 

-- Updated depth charts, throughout the season. Easily project your fantasy team's AVG/OBP/SLG...etc

-- Player pages designed as baseball cards, chart avg throughout course of season, all stats, comparison player vs player. Grid mode, skips baseball card approach for charted, grid analysis. 

-- Updated scouting reports, player outlook, qualitative data, B-Rank progressions over the years. comparison by position, player vs player. 

-- Demand vs scarcity, based on avg draft position, charts fantasy worthy players. 

-- Charting of position eligibility. Competitive factors, how team performance affects player choice, team batting/pitching and fielding distinctions. 

-- Relative evalutation for stocks used to compare players league wide by position, different statistical categories. 

-- to quote some of the other writers around me, "this is what day traders use to analyze stocks."

-- Able to filter out statistics from game log, splits, different time frames, day/night/months/ vs particular opponent. by batting position, 

-- Spider chart, (five sided stat tool) that charts a player vs league in multiple categories, this is by far the most interesting tool so far. 

-- coupled with Bloomberg news engine to allow integrated information, scrolling news ticker that can be customized to individual players, teams, scoreboard. instant access to story links. 

-- draft kit/season service are separate products

-- Will be writing a daily blog, updating info, stats with news-driven information

-- will be on MLB.com...

PRO PRODUCT:

• Overwhelmingly positive response from teams on pro product they've had since Winter Meetings. 

• Working in league-wide scouting reports in a Scouting Application. 

• In Game Reports: have hotspots for individual batters, pitch selection data, plots hitter's spread charts and even for specific series...

• Called strikes vs swinging strikes, can break down splits by pitch count/pitch selection. Pie charts with pitch selection, first/second/etc., pitch options.

• Stats all visualized, a Bloomberg trademark we're told. 

 • Peer comparisons, custom stat editor allows you to create your own stat categories to go along with pre-selected data. 

• Any statistic for any combination of players.

• Aim not so much to change the way teams are built or a more compact arrangement of the same tools that have been in use.