Vick and Tebow

 Posted by on December 31, 2012 at 11:02  sports  No Responses »
Dec 312012
 

Vick and Tebow are two of the top 10 spread option QBs in the world and both will be available this NFL off-season. An NFL team should jump all over that opportunity. Sign both of them. Yes, both of them.

The Redskins (and, to a lesser extent, the Seahawks, 49ers and Panthers) are proving the spread option can succeed at the NFL level. No, not every NFL team or every NFL QB can run the spread option. But there are also very few top tier QBs that will take you deep into the playoffs running a traditional offense. Would you rather run a standard offense with a tier two type QB, or run the spread option with Vick and Tebow?

Yes, I know signing both of them doesn’t seem to be the prescription from any of the talking heads, and most of them are saying the opposite – stay away from both QBs. But, if you are to commit to the spread option, then what better way to have both your starter and your backup run it, especially knowing the probability that your starter misses some time?

As a Bills fan, I hope the Bills sign them both.

    Clickpitch: birth of real video games

     Posted by on May 3, 2011 at 13:28  applications, internet, mobile, sports, startups, telepresence, video calling  1 Response »
    May 032011
     

    The hitter’s knees buckle as he can only watch a filthy slider catch the inside corner for strike two. The pitcher considers his next pitch choice, from the other side of the world, enabled by Clickpitch.

    Video game baseball with physical hitters and actual pitched balls
    The hitter digs in for the next pitch in a batting cage type facility loaded with sensors, video cameras and software that virtually transform the cage into a full-size field. 60 feet, 6 inches from the hitter is a sophisticated pitching machine, or even a robot pitcher, but the brain of the pitcher can be anywhere – the machine is told what pitches to throw from anywhere on the web, as part of sophisticated video games and training programs.

    In this case, a boy in Japan, via his Droid, is considering following up the slider with an inside, shoulder high, 86 MPH fastball, a couple inches off the inside corner, trying to get the hitter to chase for strike three, although his tweet stream and GroupMe group is urging him to go back to the nasty slider. The pitcher could just as easily be an actual MLB starting pitcher, playing on his iPad in the clubhouse on his day off, and for that matter the hitter could be an MLB hitter getting his practice in.

    Pitching from Android, Wii, Xbox, iPad
    The boy in Japan is not just any pitcher – he is a superstar – he leads both the Facebook and MLB.com virtual Cy Young award voting for Clickpitch enabled baseball video games. If he still leads at the MLB all-star break, he will pitch an inning to the National League All-Star team at Citi Field, using his Droid. He’s a catcher on his school team so knows a thing or two about pitch selection.

    The robot pitchers can emulate all levels from a Little League pitcher to a MLB ace, including software to manage margin for error by level, e.g. if the bot is a Little League pitcher instructed to throw an outside corner fastball then he might hit the hitter, whereas the MLB ace robot pitcher is going to paint the black. Actual MLB pitchers, based on their actual pitch data, can be imitated such that a hitter can choose to face Roy Halladay in the first inning, Clayton Kershaw in the second and CC Sabathia in the next. Today’s advanced statistics, pitching charts and sabermetrics could make this very sophisticated.

    Hitting against smart pitchers instead of dumb machines
    The hitter is enjoying the best offseason hitting practice of his life, as he’s now facing pitchers that are trying to get him out, based on his strengths and weaknesses, and the pitchers’ characteristics. The session are not lost when the hitter leaves the virtual field – the hitter uses telepresence to work with his coach at anytime and video to keep all results. Right now, the coach, from his basement office, demonstrates over telepresence a swing change that he wants the hitter to try. Video is tagged such that the hitter and his coach review all clips of swings on 90 MPH fastballs on the inner half of the plate over the past two months, or any other set of swings they want to analyze. A former coach that is in the hitter’s GroupMe baseball group may contribute advice about a subtle change in stance that he’s noticed in the hitter over time.

    The next generation of baseball video games and video game ecosystems
    Clickpitch turned legacy baseball video games into typewriters – most people barely remember them. There are hundreds of different video games on various platforms that simultaneously utilize each at-bat between hitter, robot pitcher and pitcher controller, creating millions of parallel games for players to join at anytime. Some video games for example create entire games for their users, enabling broadcasting students to call each game, whereas others are geared purely towards training and practice.

    Little League numbers have soared as well as America’s pastime has been reinvigorated by kids being introduced to baseball on their iPad apps, going to the hitting zones to compete against their friends and then finding their way to their local Little League programs.

    Clickpitch is the software and algorithms platform, built in the new peer-produced, crowdsourced product development model. Many companies have leveraged Clickpitch data and APIs to add various sensors, telepresence solutions, video games, statistical packages, iPhone and iPad apps, browser-based games, robots, pitching machines, video footage review products, social net integrations, etc. Some college coaches run full live practices but with the pitcher replaced by the Clickpitch/bot/virtual pitcher combination. In this way, pitchers’ arms are saved from practice innings, while the hitters still face top quality pitching and all the statistics and video clips are archived away for follow-up.

    Note: ClickPitch doesn’t exist. I offer the idea out to the interwebs in the event that someone wants to run with parts of the idea. Meanwhile that boy in Japan is anxiously waiting for the opportunity to pitch to David Wright at a future MLB All-Star game.

      NCAA football clears a billion dollars, players left in cold

       Posted by on December 29, 2010 at 13:16  sports  No Responses »
      Dec 292010
       

      If NCAA football was treated like every other business in America, then their executives would be in prison. The six major NCAA conferences made over one billion dollars last year. Texas took profits of six million dollars per game.

      The billion dollars is well distributed. The bowls. The schools. The administrators. The coaches. The networks and brands. And the distribution to the players, the people doing most of the work? Zero. The players are not paid a dime of those billions.

      Why aren’t the players paid? Well, the BCS, administrators and coaches will tell you that players can’t be paid to play an amateur game – it would take away from the game. You can divide up the billion bucks amongst everyone else – that doesn’t take away from the game. But you can’t compensate the people taking all the risks – the players.

      There are some legitimate barriers to paying the players. But there are barriers to anything and everything in life. The key is the goal and the foundation. The goal is a more fair system and the foundation is that the player get paid. The goal and the foundation don’t move. We’ll figure out the rest from there.