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How AI Can Improve Play on the Diamond

Traditionally, data analytics uses artificial intelligence (AI) to process and make sense of this data in ways that cannot be replicated manually by humans. Recent developments in AI and the associated technology of machine learning (ML) have yielded the ability to simulate human intelligence to assist coaches and managers in making real-time decisions. By studying the patterns revealed through analytics and working with AI applications, players and teams can improve… Read More »How AI Can Improve Play on the Diamond

The New Era of Off the Field Player Development

In the early part of the 21st century, teams with the most analytic information like the Oakland Athletics had such a unique and distinct advantage over their opponents that Brad Pitt ended up playing A’s mastermind Billy Beane in the movie adaptation of Moneyball. But two decades later, every team has robust analytics departments filled with Ivy League quants poring over data points to extract every single advantage they can… Read More »The New Era of Off the Field Player Development

The Value of Analytics in Baseball Today

As Major League Baseball begins its 2020 postseason, you won’t find any of the 16 playoff teams without an analytics success story. It’s how in July 2018, the New York Yankees took a chance and traded two middle relief pitchers to the St. Louis Cardinals for the regular season home run leader Luke Voit. Despite hitting .246 with a .305 on-base percentage in 62 games in 2017, disastrous numbers in… Read More »The Value of Analytics in Baseball Today

Person holding a trophy Golf

The Mad Scientist has a Major Breakthrough: Are Bryson DeChambeau’s theories becoming golf’s new gospel?

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He signs his name left-handed and backwards. He occasionally streams on the gaming site Twitch under the username “thebadone23.” And as of Sunday, he is only the third man in history to win the NCAA Division 1 title, US Amateur Championship, and the US Open after Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Bryson DeChambeau, a collegiate physics major, always sought out the science behind the science behind the golf swing. Prior… Read More »The Mad Scientist has a Major Breakthrough: Are Bryson DeChambeau’s theories becoming golf’s new gospel?

Remembering the Mamba and Rethinking his Metrics

14,481. That’s how many shots Kobe Bryant missed in his career. For many critics, this lone statistic is a looming shadow on the legacy of a man who left basketball as the last great isolation player. But to Kirk Goldsberry that number is nothing more than a misunderstood metric. In 2012, Goldsberry published an article in Grantland titled the Kobe Assist. I know, an oxymoron right? But to summarize Goldsberry’s… Read More »Remembering the Mamba and Rethinking his Metrics

Does Scott Boras have an argument against Moneyball?

878 Million. That is the amount of contract money that Scott Boras negotiated at this year’s Winter Meetings. The annual affair, held this year in Las Vegas, produced a number of megalithic deals all tied to the same illustrious super-agent. But why did this week in Sin City offer such a noteworthy haul for the three Scott Boras studs that were signed?  Let’s look at the players involved:  Stephen Strasburg  In case you live under a rock, Stephen… Read More »Does Scott Boras have an argument against Moneyball?

Baseball advice changes over the years

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Weren’t we all taught to swing level when we were young?  It’s part of a keep it simple principle.  There are too many nuanced mechanical dynamics for any single baseball swing that it wouldn’t be possible to capture them all in a series of complicated demands.  It would be like a game of Twister.  You are stepping, you are swinging, you are rotating your hips while keeping your head as… Read More »Baseball advice changes over the years

Fitness as a game…

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…makes sense, since most training activities are centered around a game of one sort or another.  Engadget reported today that Nike is extending the Nike+ brand to gamify training, in this case: basketball.  Several tangible components are measured during training, but some abstract concepts (hustle!), as well as “for-fun” activities (dunking!!) are shown as well.  These applications are tied to the sale of shoes, which is a great cross promotional… Read More »Fitness as a game…

Baseball Biomechanics and Kinematics

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As Jonah Keri reported yesterday in Grantland, the Houston Astros made an interesting hire or two in the recent past.  One of these hires, Sig Mejdal, is the most compelling to me: “All the pieces of information that you can imagine that we evaluate on an everyday basis to make decisions, we’re going to do that in a systematic way,” said new Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, who brought Mejdal… Read More »Baseball Biomechanics and Kinematics