The Status update of the NFL

By

Chris Hotzak

With every new NFL season, there is optimism and hope for your favorite team.  Facebook statuses and Twitter accounts were updated constantly today with football notes and quotes.  Mine was updated all about my Giants. (They won today btw).   Social Media is a huge part of athletes lives and different sports teams. OchoCinco was even fined by the NFL for tweeting when he shouldn’t this preseason. (Not the first time, or second, or third this has happened).   This post will be my attempt to compare some social media aspects, to various NFL teams, and various aspects of the NFL.

The Jets have run their mouth all preseason, which makes them a target for everyone that they play.  By knowing that they think they are the best, every team is given extra incentive to try and go and rob some wins from them.  Correlation? Please Rob Me.  This website allows you to see which users of Foursquare and Facebook Places are not home, and as a consequence, there has been a big robbery ring that uses this information to take tons of money from these users.  It’s basically the concept of over-sharing.  Rex, keep your mouth shut before you get robbed.

The Seattle Seahawks? Their leader is Pete Carroll, who has fled from USC, while probably knowing fully that the USC program was going to get sanctioned.  Correlation? Mark Hurd signing with HP, after being CEO for Oracle.

So who or what do you think I’m going to compare Mark Zuckerberg’s latest proclamation that Facebook isn’t going public? Yup! Bill Belichick and the Patriots.  Bill coaches and makes decisions however he wants, doesn’t care who he has to answer to or what the consequences are going to be.  Him and Zuck could never work together.

Let’s compare my NY Giants to Facebook.  The mecca of social networks.  Bias? Maybe.  The Giants are always going to have competition, whether the other team is going to be better, well that’s a question for Sunday.  Ping could eventually be Facebook’s competition, with 1 million users in 48 hours, but for right now…Facebook remains the social media Giant.

Maybe later in the week, more social media news can be compared to the NFL.  For now, I’ll stick to the teams I outlined.  Lets go Giants!

Bloomberg does it again

By Steve Pessah

Follow me on Twitter @toeachtheirown

Bloomberg does it again. Already the best in the business at analyzing business, the brains at Bloomberg have their eye on the baseball market. And after getting an advance peek at what the Bloomies are offering fantasy baseball players starting Feb. 18, it looks like Bloomberg is going to be a heavy hitter for both fantasy baseball and your favorite major league team.

The Boys at Bloomberg rolled out their new baseball products on the last Sunday in January at Bloomberg Tower. They showcased the consumer product first, and it’s pretty much a dream come true for Fantasy Baseball players. There’s a Draft Kit to get you started, an In-Season Tool Kit to keep you ahead of the competition during the regular season, and an aggregated News Product to stay on top of what’s happening. It works on every platform—Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, whatever—and the best part: It retails for $31.95. So all you’re looking at is skipping one grande coffee a week until the All-Star break for the best new fantasy tool in the game.

Bloomberg stressed ease of use and access of data. Users can customize all three tools, mixing and matching categories with easy-to-use filters. All the information is on one, easy to read page, so there’s no down time while you wait for a new page to load. And the news updates are in real time.

There are lots of other cool features. My favorite: the Demand vs. Scarcity chart in the Draft Kit. This chart shows the importance of a player in each round, and round-by-round odds of that player being available. The moderator used Joe Mauer to show how this feature works. Mauer is the top catcher in the game, so he was highly ranked in the first round; the odds of Mauer being available in later rounds were non-existent. But you still need a catcher, right? Checking Bloomberg’s chart showed there was no rush to draft a catcher if you couldn’t snag Mauer—the odds of drafting all the remaining catchers were high round after round. Better to fill in the other positions first because chances are the catcher you want will always be available.

There’s a lot to like about the In-Season Tool Kit, but what really sells it is the ability to customize key stats in a number of different ways. You can use their analysis to check trends for each player against all pitchers or only lefthanders, all teams or only teams playing winning ball, all divisions or only your player’s division, and a whole lot more.

The News Product is simple but impressive. It aggregates news from all sources—mainstream media, league sites, and blogs. It gives you games and match-ups, injuries and transactions, and fantasy analysis. If a player switches teams, the move will be analyzed according to the player’s impact on his new team, at his new ballpark, and against his new league.

Nothing is perfect, and this product has a couple of issues when it does get up and running. Who knows if the load time will be too much to handle once more people get their hands on this. For all fantasy owners that play in keeper leagues, will there be a filter or algorithm to determine the best players to keep? But these are minor questions. If you’re playing Fantasy Baseball, this product is an essential part of your game.

The package Bloomberg is offering big league teams is even more impressive—and a whole lot more expensive. For Yankees fan, that’s great. The big joke among the 100 or so sportswriters/bloggers/fantasy players at the Bloomberg presentation was whether cheapskate Royals owner David Glass—one of richest men in the country as CEO of Walmart—would spring for this computer package. Hell, they just got Jason Kendall, what else could they need? The Bloomberg reps wouldn’t tell us what the company would charge major league teams for this product, but they said it would be a significant investment.

The MLB package is the consumer edition on steroids. The Strike Zone and On-the-Field charts gives breakdowns on what kind pitches each batters swings at, how often they swing at first pitches, what pitches they offer when ahead in the count or down in the count, and more. The Pitch Predictor provides insight into how and when a pitcher makes his pitch selection—curve, fastball, change-up, slider. The Regular Stats section is so customizable you can create your own stats—most of us at the conference were turned on by pitches per out, or PPO.

Bloomberg spared no expense on the product look and feel—each screen and every chart are almost pieces of art. The depth of statistical offerings may force teams to hire staff just to go through the material. And just to make sure the information remain secure, the MLB package comes with biometric security logins and finger print confirmations. Whoa!

The Bloomies didn’t reveal how many teams have ordered the MLB edition. We will be able to keep score on how well their fantasy product sells. Given what we all saw last month, bet on Bloomberg’s Fantasy Kit to be a home run.

For two other great takes, check out posts by Jerry Milani and Amanda Rykoff.

now that Cutler is taken, where does this leave the Jets?

By Steve Pessah

if you’re a New York Jets fan, you were probably extremely upset when Jay Cutler went to the Chicago Bears earlier this week. he could have saved the Jets. Cutler, a 25 year-old pro bowler who has a cannon for an arm, was certainly a much better option than Kellen Clemens or Brett Ratliff. he could have been the missing piece to the Jets’ never-ending puzzle.

but, the Jets lost him, and the Broncos took Kyle Orton and three draft picks (including 2 first round picks) in return for Cutler. so where does this leave the Jets?

unfortunately, it leaves them in a tight spot. fortunately though, i have a solution: Michael Vick.

yes, you read right. that solution does read Michael Vick. to all the Jets fans out there, just for a second, imagine having Vick as our quarterback… (i hope that went well.) he could really bring a new element to the Jets offense. he’s probably in great shape (minus the delicious prison food), and lets be honest, he’s a much better option than the two back-up quarterbacks the Jets have in store.

Vick is hoping to be reinstated to the NFL, where he also hopes to be playing football this season. although his initial bankruptcy plan was rejected, there’s still a possibility his new plan could revolve around playing football as well.

what Vick did was horrible and disgusting. but, in this day and age, when people fuck up, they pay the price. once released in July, Vick will have completed his 23 month sentence in a Kansas federal penitentiary. he is broke, the world hates him, and he might not be allowed to continue playing the sport he was born to play.

i think he’s paid the price for what he’s done. i think he deserves a second chance, and i think the Jets should give it to him. (pending if NFL Commish Roger Goodell gives Vick the ok, of course.)