By David Skretta, USA TODAY

When the Texas Rangers go on a road trip, they wheel into the clubhouse two black trunks carrying all of their scouting tools and information — laptop computers, televisions, DVD players and VCRs.Baseball teams are using all kinds of charts to increase their chance of victory.

Such is the landscape in post- Moneyball Major League Baseball, where franchises shell out big bucks for high-tech scouting systems and additional reporting.

"It's about more information," says Gary Hughes, a Chicago Cubs special assistant to the general manager. "We're in an information business, and the more information you have, the better."

Jay Donchetz and Randy Istre realized this long before Michael Lewis' best-selling book profiled Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane and the organization's use of exhaustive statistics in evaluating players.

Donchetz and Istre founded Inside Edge in 1984, providing pitch charting and scouting reports for the U.S. baseball team, and four years later the Americans won the gold medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

In 1993 the Milwaukee Brewers hired the fledgling company to provide advanced scouting reports, but Inside Edge's big break came three years later when Donchetz says George Steinbrenner personally hired the firm for the New York Yankees.

"Mr. Steinbrenner was obviously very interested in winning and asked if there's anything he can get his hands on," Donchetz says. "They actually used our reports that year and won the World Series."

Moneyball , published in early 2003, accelerated the move toward more information, spurring a new breed of young executives — Theo Epstein of the Boston Red Sox, Paul DePodesta of the Los Angeles Dodgers and J.P. Riccardi of the Toronto Blue Jays, among others — to call on private scouting services.

"Early on, the only competition was an organization's own scouting," says Donchetz , who says as many as 15 teams have purchased his reports with packages starting at $35,000 for a season. "But we got to the point where a lot of clubs were doing both. They found dollars in the budget."

Competitors such as Stats Inc., which has been around since the early 1980s, provide competition in a crowded market that also includes Major League Baseball's own scouting bureau.

"Because we're a smaller operation, we tend to be more customer-driven," Donchetz says. "We customize for them."

Seattle Mariners GM Bill Bavasi , a former partner at Inside Edge, was responsible for developing much of the company's scouting system, utilizing former professional players such as ex-Chicago Cubs pitcher David Swartzbaugh to provide timely and accurate analyses.

The Inside Edge database, which holds more than 4 million charted pitches, grows by more than 90 games a week as scouts report from ballparks or watch TV feeds from each stadium's center-field camera.

"They want all of these games back to the office within 36 hours," says Jason Dobis , a former minor league pitcher who oversees the company's scouting. "One of the things that's gotten more and more important is the timeliness of the report. They want pitcher postgame reports the night after the game he's throwing."

Going high-tech

How do teams make this glut of information palatable?

Separate from the scouting service industry are technology companies that specialize in building databases and computer systems for holding and accessing all of the information.

Inside Edge has developed its own software, but computing giants such as IBM and its Prospect Reporting and Organizational Solution (PROS) have found a niche in digesting and delivering scouting reports and statistical data at the touch of a button.

Scouts for Inside Edge and individual teams record the data on laptop computers rather than scribbling it down on legal pads and faxing it to the front office. They then upload their reports to the system, where the information is catalogued and immediately available to anybody with-in the organization.

ScoutAdvisor, part of E Solutions, a Tampa-based consulting company, provides similar services to clients that include the Yankees, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and Red Sox.

"Theo Epstein is a big proponent of our system," ScoutAdvisor President Michael Morizio says. "He's one of those executives, like most out there right now, looking at statistics and quantitative numbers. They're making million-dollar decisions. Information is power in that respect."

ScoutAdvisor not only allows organizations to do advanced scouting but track information on college prospects and minor league players. The system can handle video feeds and has provisions for psychological profiling.

"The team has the real hard job in producing the data," Morizio says, adding his company is planning to branch into the NBA and NHL. "Our challenge is to make sure their guys are armed with the right kind of technology."

Information overload?

There are plenty of coaches and players who would rather get information from in-house scouts than be inundated with numerical data and outside reports. But most go by the mantra "more is better."

"Sometimes, when I know I'm struggling with a guy pitching that day, I might go to the computer and see how I've done against him in the past," Dodgers shortstop Cesar Izturis says.

"They have my file and all of my at-bats, and I can look at how he's gotten me out or what he's done against me."

Before every series, Washington Nationals coaches use ScoutAdvisor to break down each starting pitcher they will face, looking for statistical tendencies and watching video of performances. They can even look at how specific players performed against each opponent.

"I like to see what pitches guys are hitting or not hitting," Nationals closer Chad Cordero says. "For me it's about as much information as I can get."

Nationals first baseman Nick Johnson says each player's approach is different. Some break down their own performances while others focus entirely on the opponent. Some are big into charts and statistical comparisons, while Johnson says he prefers watching video of the pitchers he's going to face.

That's where supplementary scouting information and tools become valuable. They are easily adaptable and tailored specifically to an organization and its personnel, helping players and coaches take the field more prepared and front office people make better decisions.

"It might raise a question that causes you to go deeper," Hughes says. "In that respect it's a good thing, and a lot of clubs are seeing it."

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