Before we actually saw NFL Network in our channel guides, we began seeing promos with former SportsCenter anchor Rich Eisen as the de facto face of the new entity. With its debut less than two months away, MLB Network has chosen its face.

Matt Vasgersian was announced Wednesday as the first on-air personality for the network, which will hit airwaves on Jan. 1.

Vasgersian spent five years calling Brewers games before taking over lead play-by-play duties for the San Diego Padres in 2002. He was also among the few who had the pleasure of doing XFL games during the football league’s one-year existence. (Really, I think it’s every commentator’s dream to shout, “He Hate Me in for the touchdown!”)

For MLB Network, Vasgersian will anchor the live nightly signature studio show, MLB Tonight, as well as fronting the off-season studio show Hot Stove.

Major League Baseball will be the last of the country’s traditional “four major” sports to launch its own proprietary network, but it’s initial audience of 50 million homes is said to be the largest for any new cable channel.

A baseball analysis company that has been in business for 15 years has launched a new website to offer highly detailed reports.

MyInsideEdge.com offers users features that include player and team report cards, which assesses and grades performance versus league averages in categories such as plate discipline; scouting reports; and sortable stats with categories that you won’t find on your fantasy hosting site or MLB.com, such as a pitcher’s percentage of strikes thrown on off-speed pitches.

In addition, the apparently daily features titled “Edge Notes” and “Three Things to Watch” provide statistical trends pertinent to each day’s schedule of games. Today’s “Edge Notes,” for instance, tells us that:

Pirates third baseman Andy LaRoche has struggled mightily since his July 31st acquisition from the Los Angeles Dodgers. A high-contact hitter in the minors, LaRoche has swung and missed at 22 percent of pitches seen as a Pirate, above the 20 percent National League average. LaRoche has also pounded the ball into the ground 58 percent of the time (44 percent NL average) while posting just a .186 well-hit average, compared to the .278 NL average.

The current edition of “Three Things” points out — among other things – that Milwaukee starter Manny Parra doesn’t fare well on first pitches.

One thing that the site seems to be lacking is an explanation for its data. While it shouldn’t take too much for someone who knows baseball to figure out what the stat abbreviations mean, it would be helpful to know how things such as grades and success rates are determined.

The Minneapolis-based company, Inside Edge, “has provided an edge to MLB clubs and differentiating content to media with our outstanding reports and analysis” since 1993, according to the e-mail announcing the new website.

The information will be available on a subscription basis ($5.95/month, $29.95/year), but a free trial is available before Sept. 15.