Analytics becoming increasingly important for Jays (Article)

[Spoonovic]

TORONTO – Very quietly during the off-season the Toronto Blue Jays added a second member to their analytics department, an area Alex Anthopoulos would like to invest further in if the right fits can be found.

 

Baseball operations analyst Jason Pare came over from the Cleveland Indians to serve as the No. 2 guy to baseball information analyst Joe Sheehan, responsible for doing “whatever comes up,” in the words of the general manager.

 

The job description is obviously more detailed than that, but the flourishing world of proprietary analytics and advanced metrics can be a cloak and dagger place. Sheehan and Pare, for instance, aren’t allowed to speak with media because, says Anthopoulos, “there’s no benefit, there’s more downside.”

 

“If everyone is doing 100 things and we all do the same 99 things, maybe (in) the one thing that’s different there’s an advantage,” he says in an interview. “We don’t know, but why take a chance? There’s no benefit to saying we’re doing this, we’re doing that. There’s no upside to disclosing any of that.”

 

Anthopoulos is also “leery” of appearing like “we’re doing something everyone else is not.”

 

“Trust me, we’re not,” he says. “Everyone is trying to be more efficient in everything they’re doing, and we’re just like everybody else in that sense.”

 

Regardless, like for most other teams, analytics are playing an increasingly important role in the way the Blue Jays do things, from player evaluations to defensive alignments.

 

Take the free agent signing of Dioner Navarro over the winter, the club’s biggest off-season transaction, as an example. Beyond an assessment of the catcher’s numbers at the plate, their internal data suggested the quality of his contact made it likely that his offensive performance in 2013 wasn’t a fluke.

 

So far, that appears to be bang on.

 

Another application is in how the Blue Jays position themselves in the field.

 

In the past, former third base coach Brian Butterfield “would be sitting there watching every single hard-hit ball for players versus a righty, versus a lefty, men on base, men in scoring position, two strikes – it’s time consuming,” according to Anthopoulos. “Now we automate things.”

 

Blue Jays players are, of course, free to adjust their positioning based on feel or how they see hitters reacting to the pitcher on a given day, but the starting point comes from what the data indicates.

 

Much of such work is run through The BEST (pronounced Beest, after club president Paul Beeston), a database launched in January 2013 designed to unify separate resources for scouting reports, proprietary analytics data, medical reports, contractual information and video in a single spot. The project was in development for 2½ years under former assistant GM Jay Sartori, who left at the end of last season for a position with Apple Inc., and Sheehan.

 

“When you ultimately can have your own database so you can put it all together?” says Anthopoulos. “Great, it’s one-stop shopping.”

 

The database is an ongoing project, which is why Anthopoulos says “we’re going to look at some point to add a programmer if we can. Easier said than done because the really good programmers are hired by companies and make a lot of money, and you have to get someone who’s a baseball fan.”

 

The Blue Jays ended up with Pare after Anthopoulos told Sheehan to compile a list of candidates and then narrow things down. Once the Blue Jays received permission to speak with Pare, a former Baseball Prospectus author before he joined the Indians, Anthopoulos met with him and Sheehan at a bar across the street from the Rogers Centre to seal the deal.

 

“Joe was our main employee and this gave Jason a chance to be the No. 2 guy,” says Anthopoulos. “It was maybe a better career opportunity for him here because the Indians have a much larger department.”

 

Asked what sold him on Pare, Anthopoulos said: “The experience, the things he had been doing with the Indians. Having been in a front office for a few years, we weren’t hiring someone who’s green. The transition is really transitioning from the red tape you might have with one organization to another, how they do things, but you can hit the ground running. You’re not trying to show them how databases work, what the baseball etiquette is, things for the draft. He’s involved like he would have been in Cleveland.”

 

His addition has helped free up Sheehan to take on some of the duties left behind by the departed Sartori, who was never replaced. Assistant GMs Tony LaCava and Andrew Tinnish, head of minor-league operations Charlie Wilson, travel secretary Mike Shaw, baseball operations administrator Heather Connolly and Anthopoulos have also helped to pick up the slack.

 

As for replacing Sartori, who specialized in contracts and the collective bargaining agreement, nothing is imminent on that front.

 

“If the skill-set was available, sure, but right now we’re in the season, you rarely do things in the year,” says Anthopoulos. “Maybe in the off-season you look at it.”

 

The same goes for additions to the analytics department since, “there’s so much information out there and only so much manpower to analyze and study things,” says Anthopoulos.

 

The Blue Jays also use outside consultants do such work, but “we’re always looking to grow the department and get it better,” he adds. “You just can’t do it as fast as you’d want to.”

 

“All we’re trying to do is improve our process and improve the speed that the work gets done. People that try to make it more than that, I don’t know that it really is. If you’re not doing it, something is wrong.”

 

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/analytics-becoming-increasingly-important-for-jays/

 

The Blue Jays Analytics department consists of only two people? What a joke.

[Frenchsoup]

This is a pretty bad article, and of course they call it "the beest"......

[sdyment]

This whole thing reads like a job posting. Free ad for someone to work dirt cheap? Who needs head hunters when u own the media?!?

[TheHurl]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/analytics-becoming-increasingly-important-for-jays/

 

The Blue Jays Analytics department consists of only two people? What a joke.

 

and two interns

[BlueJayWay]

lol

 

They had one analytics guy? One?? In this day and age?

[Angrioter]

A Mexican like me and BTS could run this FO better than those guys.

 

1-Reduce payroll improving the team; It sounds contradictory, but it's real.

2-Reduce close to zero the PA and/or innings of below replacement level players.

3-Draft bats, not athletes.

[cusstown]

3-Draft bats, not athletes.

 

Maybe a Brett Wallace type?

[Jays]

Fire AA.

[Angrioter]

Maybe a Brett Wallace type?

 

Or athletes like: Jacob Anderson, D.J. Davis over Michael Wacha or Lucas Sims and Anthony Alford.

[KingKat]

The database is an ongoing project, which is why Anthopoulos says “we’re going to look at some point to add a programmer if we can. Easier said than done because the really good programmers are hired by companies and make a lot of money, and you have to get someone who’s a baseball fan.”

 

FFS. I think this quote tells you everything you need to know about the priority the Jays are putting on this. They'd like a programmer but they won't pay him (or her) what they are worth. Pretty ridiculous when you consider what the operating budget of a baseball team is.

[BlueJaysGirl]

I think Rogers has a handful of feel-good pieces they can release after devastating and demoralizing losses like last night.

[Nox]

 

you have to get someone who’s a baseball fan and also not a fan of money

 

FTFY fatty.

[Smedley Butler]

Holy f***ing shitballs mang, this org actually balks at paying a good programmer, what, 200k/yr? Wtf is that out of an operating budget that is around $175M all told?

 

"Hey Alex, give me $100 now, I'll give you back $200 tomorrow."

 

"No thanks, I'd rather not waste $100."

 

Wow. Just.............wow. f*** this loser org.

[Olerud363]

FFS. I think this quote tells you everything you need to know about the priority the Jays are putting on this. They'd like a programmer but they won't pay him (or her) what they are worth. Pretty ridiculous when you consider what the operating budget of a baseball team is.

 

I believe the problem is a political one. A programmer would use logic and common sense. This is an organization with their heads in the sand. Crazy people. Batshit crazy. Kind of like banking managers in 2008.

 

They hate programmers. They hate any form of logic. They love Cito and Joe Carter's homer. Their entire lives are jokes. Beeston is a dismal fragment of dog s*** two bit accountant that won a lottery (put in charge after Gillick and Hardy did the work).

 

Programmer - in order to do my job I will have to use a system of logic that may not be complementary to your batshit crazy viewpoints.

 

Beest - f*** YOU. YOU ARE DOG s***. WE WILL PAY A PROGRAMMER 18,000 a year and not a DOLLAR MORE. THIS IS WAR. IT IS US AGAINST THEM. LOGIC WILL NOT WIN. The f***ing suits will rule the earth and the programmers must live in poverty. (gets on phone on with secratary) Betty, throw a $400,000 bonus at a suit. I don't care which one. Any one. It's just to make a point. Show the programmer's their place.

 

In my house programmers need to know their place. 18,000 a year 16 hours a day and they get coffee for suits earning 20 times as much working 16 hours a week. THIS IS WAR. CRUSH THE PROGRAMMERS. THE SUITS WILL INHERIT THE EARTH. LOGIC MUST DIE. I AM THE BEEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

deep breath (ok I am not calm any more, programmers need to be respected, we will crush the Beest eventually, he knows this and is just fighting hard with his last breath).

[Smedley Butler]

Somebody, get Olerud a Xanax-Oxycontin smoothie, stat.

 

However, you must remain calm whilst doing so.

 

Amen.

[G-Snarls]

A Mexican like me and BTS could run this FO better than those guys.

 

1-Reduce payroll improving the team; It sounds contradictory, but it's real.

 

Yeah and you'd trade Jose Reyes and I love Jose Reyes so screw you both

 

I want my cake and to eat it too

[G-Snarls]

Holy f***ing shitballs mang, this org actually balks at paying a good programmer, what, 200k/yr? Wtf is that out of an operating budget that is around $175M all told?

 

"Hey Alex, give me $100 now, I'll give you back $200 tomorrow."

 

"No thanks, I'd rather not waste $100."

 

Wow. Just.............wow. f*** this loser org.

 

CALM the f*** down man

[Nexii]

AA should know this but the Jays *are* a company. Or more accurately owned by one (Roger's) who can throw around money like Apple if they feel they are going to get a return on it.

[Smedley Butler]

CALM the f*** down man

 

HOLY f*** I'M LOSING IT MAN ITS LIKE I'M TRAPPED IN SOME NIGHTMARE WHERE MY BASSBALL TEAM CHRONICALLY SUCKS ASS FOR TWO STRAIGHT DECADES AND IS BEING HELD BACK BY COMICALLY INCOMPETENT MANAGEMENT

 

Taranna Bloo Hyyay filler

[Atothe]

I'm f***ing baffled! How ridiculous is this front office. Yeah all faith is lost for me. ONE f***ing guy, ONE!

[G-Snarls]

HOLY f*** I'M LOSING IT MAN ITS LIKE I'M TRAPPED IN SOME NIGHTMARE WHERE MY BASSBALL TEAM CHRONICALLY SUCKS ASS FOR TWO STRAIGHT DECADES AND IS BEING HELD BACK BY COMICALLY INCOMPETENT MANAGEMENT

 

Taranna Bloo Hyyay filler

 

Clearly you need more time.spent here

 

http://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/threads/2511-Everyone-Calm-Down

[Atothe]

“we’re going to look at some point to add a programmer if we can. Easier said than done because the really good programmers are hired by companies and make a lot of money, and you have to get someone who’s a baseball fan.”

 

This quote is embarrassing. You would expect to hear something like this from a small nonprofit organization or local business. To hear the GM of a f***ing MLB team complain that he can't afford to hire a computer programmer is just mind-blowing. Especially when that team prides itself on having the largest scouting staff in the universe.

 

I don't think its the money, I think he doesn't know what to look for. He is dumb, I know that now

[Boxcar]

lol

 

They had one analytics guy? One?? In this day and age?

 

And Joe Sheehan has a biology degree, too. Doubt he has a solid understanding of the metrics most teams are turning to.

[Frenchsoup]

The sad part is this upper management seems so full of themselves thinking there always right and there analytics system "the best" is the best. You would have thought last years shitshow would have brought them down to earth and get them to rethink the way there doing things. But no we have to do things different from all the other 29mlb teams and create our own system that is different then everyone elses, just to appear to be semi intelligent.

[Angrioter]

And Joe Sheehan has a biology degree, too. Doubt he has a solid understanding of the metrics most teams are turning to.

-I have no idea what i'm doing-

http://i.imgur.com/Wvq5Hpo.gif

[Frenchsoup]

Just a question does every team have to create there own system or does mlb supply the database?

[Spoonovic]

AA knows that Fangraphs built everyone a database for free, right?

[Angrioter]

AA knows that Fangraphs built everyone a database for free, right?

 

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/2e/2edaae218e7890756eaaeafaa03ffd40266aa67f93f414d751d5b05ce0f2f1a7.jpg

[HERPDERP]

Good example of analytics at work here in looking at the success of Mark Buehrle. Let's hope they apply it in the future just incase hitters around the league find out what he's doing

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-old-mark-buehrles-new-trick/

[Cooler Heads Prevail]

“we’re going to look at some point to add a programmer if we can. Easier said than done because the really good programmers are hired by companies and make a lot of money, and you have to get someone who’s a baseball fan.”

 

This quote is embarrassing. You would expect to hear something like this from a small nonprofit organization or local business. To hear the GM of a f***ing MLB team complain that he can't afford to hire a computer programmer is just mind-blowing. Especially when that team prides itself on having the largest scouting staff in the universe.

 

The vast majority of Canadian companies don't understand what a "good programmer" is and usually try to hire young guys without experience for cheap. I'm not surprised to see these kind of comments with respect to programming it is more indicative of the economy and how it works these days.