THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Would love to go, but it won’t happen.

I hope MLB is considering using the hit f/x data to automate the classification of BBtype: We’d have consistency in the line drive vs flyball data, and less burden on the stringers.

If hit f/x, field f/x were made public we wouldn’t bother with bbtype, but if if the current public products remain as they are now, that would be a big improvement.

At the very least, we could use the public Hit f/x data to verify the amount of bias by ballpark.

Question on point—do prior attendees or others feel this would be of interest to a more casual fan (like me)?  I ask since it seems to be on a summer weekend and is local for me.

I hope MLB is considering using the hit f/x data to automate the classification of BBtype: We’d have consistency in the line drive vs flyball data, and less burden on the stringers.

Rally - It may be harder to automate the classification of hit types on objective data than it first appears.  What definitions would you suggest?

Craig, I’ve never been, but I’ve seen enough of the presentations and livestreams to think that anyone local who frequents this blog would be crazy to miss it.

Craig - If you enjoy the discussions on the Book Blog you probably would have fun at the Summit.  If you want to get an idea of the presentations at the previous Summits follow the link given above for the registration information and then click on the Summit archives for 2008 and 2009.

Living in WV and seeing how its out in CA, its not possible for me to go.  But they do have a live feed so even if you arent from the area you can always watch that way.  I watched last year and it was great.

Craig - Cross posted with Tango above.  Additional reasons to come: Plus, most of the employees of Sportvision that work on the technical stuff of Pitch f/x attend so you can ask all the questions that you haven’t been able to have answered elsewhere.  Plus, you can actually see the Pitch f/x system working in real time at the field and play with the various controls of the system.  Plus, you get to watch the game from a vantage point that would never be available to you in any other way.  What could be the downside of attending?

Craig (#3):  Given that you are local (which means no travel costs) and that you are a follower of this blog (which means you have the interest), then it is most definitely worth attending.

Re Rally (#1):  I would not expect any public release of hitf/x data.  It would be nice if hitf/x analysis were done in real time, as is pitchf/x analysis.  Then the batted ball parameters could be incorporated into Gameday.  But as far as I know, the hitf/x analysis is all done off-line, many days after the fact.  The batted ball information is available only to paying customers (i.e., not you or me!).

Picking up on Peter’s top ten reasons to attend:

You get to meet your fellow bloggers, people who you have been debating with for many months but have never met. 

To that point, I urge Tango to attend this year!

Alan, thank you kindly for the invite. 

I live in NJ, and *rarely* leave here.  My travels are basically going to Canada once, maybe twice, a year.  Going into Manhattan twice, maybe three times, a year.  And possibly, once every few years, going to Boston, or some wedding in CT.  That’s the extent of my travels.

My constraint is pretty simple: I wouldn’t think of one night away from my kid.  Perhaps I should consider a family vacation in CA.  I dunno.  I’m just not much of a travel guy.

I had talked my wife into letting me attend and make it a weekend for the two of us, but SV never scheduled anything up until now so we booked a cruise in Sept instead. $500 airfare for two people, plus probably 3 nights hotel, just can’t fit it in with the cruise.

Tango, I’m in western Pa, about 4 hours from Morristown NJ. I’ve thought about having a cookout and invite you, Jinaz, Matt, Eric, Russell, Dan Fox, etc, everyone who’s within a 4 or 5 hour driving radius. Grill up some kosher dogs, break out the beer and talk baseball.

I will resoundingly agree with everything posted so far - this is a truly exhilirating event for someone interested in the Sportvision products, an event where you will learn things you can’t learn in any other way, in any other place.  It is furthermore an unparallelled opportunity to meet fellow baseball analysts, and to get your face and name in front of the MLB teams. 

Absolutely not to be missed for anyone who finds themself in this thread, that’s for sure!

For the third year in a row, I really, really, really wish I could attend. 

They need to take a page from the technology conferences and have a Pitch f/x East as well.  I could probably make NYC or Boston, but flying out to SF and leaving my wife and kids is a no go.

Ok, thanks all—I think I will try to make it.

Funny thing is, last year I sat next to a woman on a flight from SFO to Newark, and she had attended this conference (I think it was the same one, although it was in July).  She worked for Bloomberg sports.

Craig (#15).  Glad you will try to come.  You won’t be sorry!  Last year the summit was on July 11 and there were two guys from Bloomberg there, Bo Moon and Stephen Orban.  Perhaps the woman was the wife of one of them.  Both kept a low profile.  I had a brief chat with Bo at the ball game but that was it.  That was the first I heard that Bloomberg was getting involved with baseball.

Tango, I’m in western Pa, about 4 hours from Morristown NJ. I’ve thought about having a cookout and invite you, Jinaz, Matt, Eric, Russell, Dan Fox, etc, everyone who’s within a 4 or 5 hour driving radius. Grill up some kosher dogs, break out the beer and talk baseball.

Tango, does Brian’s comment imply that you’re in Morristown, cause I’m about 4 MINUTES north of there.  We could carpool to Brian’s cookout.

wes, I did not mean to imply that.

I know that he’s in NJ, somewhere near to NYC, and my wife’s grandmother lived in Morristown for many years so I am familiar with the travel time to there and it’s a big enough landmark for Tango to relate to.

Got it.  I thought about it afterward and figured it didn’t actually fit with his recent little league thread.  I’m pretty sure that Morristown has a much bigger program than we do in the small town next door.

Alan 16/ No she worked for Bloomberg; she was featured (along with the guys you mention) in an article in the NYT (link attached).

I gave her the names of my favorite web sites (including this one) in case they were interested.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/sports/baseball/06stats.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bloomberg%20sports&st=cse

Craig #20:  Thanks.  I didn’t see her name on the list of attendees, but she may well have attended without having registered.  Judging from the NYT picture, she is not someone I would have likely missed, at least under normal circumstances .  But I was with a lot of other baseball nerds....