YAHOO SPORTS' Jeff Passan reports MLB’s website sometime this summer "plans on unveiling the treasure trove of information its new Statcast system has collected." The data dump "represents a watershed moment: Baseball is reigniting the ability to better understand things thought long understood." Coming in June are leaderboards that "include batted-ball data as well as numbers that haven’t been leaked for public consumption: the spin rate on pitches." MLBAM folded data from Denmark-based Trackman "into Statcast this year, and in addition to the deluge of fielding numbers that the league expects to make public, the pitching data is on its way" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 5/26).
YANKING OUR CHAIN: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir noted the Yankees on Sunday night played a fourth primetime game on ESPN, this time against the Rangers. The network "can show a team no more than six times on Sunday nights in one season, so it has only two Yankees games left to choose from." ESPN Senior Dir of Programming & Acquisitions Doug White: "A lot of it has to do with the way the schedule plays out. Three of those matchups have been against teams of high interest -- two against the Red Sox and one against the Mets when they were hot. Obviously, you have to take your opportunities when they come in the schedule" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/24).
CHARTING A NEW COURSE: In L.A., James & Puzzanghera note Charter Communications' proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable "has the potential to break the logjam in the long stalemate over distribution" of the Dodgers' RSN, Time Warner Cable SportsNet LA. As a goodwill gesture, Charter "could quickly begin carrying the SportsNet LA channel ... for its current customers in Southern California." Such a move "would enable baseball fans in Glendale, Malibu, Burbank, La Cañada Flintridge, Long Beach and other areas currently served by Charter to watch Dodgers games on SportsNet LA" (L.A. TIMES, 5/26).
PULLING UP THE REAR: In Salt Lake City, Kyle Goon wrote under the header, “Despite Challenges, Pac-12 Network Clinging To Independence.” The Pac-12’s “from-scratch formula appears to mean the conference will be trailing the other power leagues it is constantly seeking to catch up to in viewership and in revenue.” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott -- and the league at large -- “remains stoic and confident in what he started, but even he acknowledges the conference has a way to go to fulfill its initial promise.” Goon noted the Pac-12’s earnings do not have to “submit to a network overlord” or get back “every dime of network profit.” But they “won't compare to the SEC's and Big Ten's projected hauls.” Meanwhile, a “huge sticking point has been the Pac-12's standoff with DirecTV, which doesn't carry the network but provides the others” (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 5/24).
