SECAUCUS, N.J. — Baseball, as they say, is a game of numbers.Home runs, battin

[seestyle]

SECAUCUS, N.J. Baseball, as they say, is a game of numbers.Home runs, batting average, WAR, FIP, BAbip, WHIP, wOBA, xwOBA, SIERA, ISO and others play a heavy part in evaluating a baseball player. But in Secaucus, there area few more numbers that matter come this Wednesday: 14,as in the hours they'll be handling the trade deadline; 24, as in the number of hosts, analysts and insiders the network NFL Chicago Bears Jersey will deploy; and well more than1,000, as in the amount of scenariosthatcould play outby the 4 p.m. deadline.Seems like a daunting day to plan around."The first thing you do is plan for nothing to happen," MLB Network coordinating producer Rich Cianciminotold Sporting News with a laugh. "And when you do that, you can start getting ready to adjust to when things do start happening."MORE: In fact, planning fornothing is the best approach to the day, Ciancimino said, citing the thousands of trade proposals and situations that could happen before the deadline.To make sure the bases are covered, the production staff uses a simple but somewhat time-consuming approach: checkingoff each teams with potential needs, trade targets and scenarios, often circling back with insiders and network analysts for feedback and likelihood.Baseball is unpredectiable, after all, and the trade deadline can sometimes throw you a curveball like when the Blue Jaystraded Marcus Stroman to the Mets."You think about the Mets situation, all we've been talking about is Noah Syndergaard for the last week or two, right?" Ciancimino told SN. "That's why you take every option that's po sible, lay it all out there. If nothing happens that night (the Stroman trade), you'll still have to talk about that semi-immediacy of the news starting to break."Production focuses on this, making sure no stoneremains unturned, which is something the network has amped up in recent years. Given how baseball fandom has evolved in recent times, with fans privy to more information than ever before, there are new wrinkles thrown into Richard Dent Jersey coverage."In the past three or four years, having fans be excited about trading their best player for a rebuild and saying, 'Let's blow it up, it's the key to succe s that other teams had,' we have to be considerate of that. If (Madison) Bumgarner goes, then San Fran fans want to know what they're getting back."It's almost likeorganizing the chaos," Ciancimino said. "Planning for nothing to happen, and then once something happens, you have all the resources at your availability for why this trade was good or bad for this team."For Ciancimino and the rest of the MLB Network roster, it's a long, long day. The first live show of the day, "MLB Central,"starts Brian Urlacher Jersey with a 7 a.m. production meeting. The last show of the day, "Quick Pitch," ends in the wee early hours of Thursday morning, long after the dust has somewhat settled on the MLB landscape. That's a lot of TV."We just get in constant communication with each other, then start planning potential situations," Ciancimino said."When Bumgarner's name pops up, we start thinking aboutwhere he's gonna go. Then when they start talking about where he's not gonna go, we just sit and wait."The sitting-and-waiting partisn't as innocuous as it sounds. MLB Network's research staff, headed up by Elliott Kalb, works to help supplement programs with viable and pertinent information leading up to the deadline. The staff stays in communication with one another Kalb even went as far to mention that he was answering emails in a doctor's office waiting room and the cycle of information heading into the deadline never stops."How many hours am I awake in a day?" Kalb said witha smile. "I'm thinking about things or I'm reading about things is that considered work or research? I don't Danny Trevathan Jersey know. It's hard to shut it off."For the deadline, Kalb makes sure that the trade is a done deal before diving head-first into the data and factoids. (Twitter rumors are not an impetus for inclusion in the research packet.) Then, similar to the production side, they ask every question surrounding the deal: What happened? What's next? In the case of the Stroman-to-Mets trade, could Stroman be moved again?As with any day, MLB Network's lengthy research packet features everything from interesting factoids to stats and projections. Armed with a smorgasbord of information, hosts and analysts take to the airwaves to break down the action.Dan O'Dowd, one of MLB Network's insiders, said, like Kalb,hecan't shut his brain off during trade season."I'm studyingthis stuff every day," O'Dowd told SN. "I look at it differently. Is this part of a bigger picture? What was the thought proce s that wentinto the trade? What were the motives to drive it? How does this fit into the overall puzzle of what they're trying to become? "That's the fun part of this role for me. When you're running a team, you're so myopic in your view of the industry. You really don't study what other clubs are doing, or best practices. You're just fighting for your life, day in and day out, controlling what you're trying to control."TRADE TRACKER: By the end of deadline day, the team of analysts, insiders and hosts fill out 14 hours of live coverage, which is no small task. Aside from Emmys, ratings and accolades, what's the measure of succe s?"You'd like to go home and be proud of the fact Mike Ditka Jersey that you did it right, everybody worked hard, everybody did it as a team," Ciancimino said. "Just seeing how excited they all are about it, and if we can translate that enthusiasm and also give everybody what they want, as far as information, when it breaks and how it breaks, then you can go home and say that was a really cool day."But with all the planning, the newsbreaking, the production, research and more, senior vice president of production Dave Patterson views the day as an opportunity to unleash sweet, baseball chaos to fans."That's the best part."