Travis Sawchik's Big Data Baseball

Travis Sawchik's Big Data Baseball is easily seen as a sequel to Michael Lewis' classic Moneyball, which showed how a General Manager (Billy Beane) found a metric (getting on base, especially with walks) that other teams undervalued. With less money, Lewis wrote about how Beane built a winning team (the 2002 A's). Fast forward to 2013, and Pirates' GM Neal Huntington hires people with strong data analytics skills who use new technology (especially PITCHf/x) to find new strategies such as pitch framing and shifts that other teams undervalue. Free agent catcher Russell Martin plays a key role as the diamond in the rough.

But there are important differences between the two books. Unlike Lewis, Sawchik focuses on harmony--Manager Clint Hurdle overcomes skepticism and players see how well the unorthodox strategies work. He shows how important the manager is because he's the gatekeeper to what happens on the field (A's Manager Art Howe was often portrayed as a puppet with no power). Perhaps that just shows how much changed between 2002 and 2013. The baseball traditionalists were strong but minds were opening up everywhere. Nowadays all teams have plenty of data scientists and the best baseball bloggers get snapped up. (In this sense, the tone is far different from Keith Law's Smart Baseball, which tends to be insulting toward skeptics).

Sawchik tells a good story. He also points out some important issues. One is that when a team finds a winning strategy, everyone will copy it and the advantage will disappear quickly. Especially when you can't afford lots of big salaries, you have to keep innovating on a constant basis, and that includes players. That's not easy. Further, one of the critical things we don't know is how to use data to prevent injury. With pitchers throwing harder than ever, arms get blown out easily. Tommy John surgeries are routine, even more than one. How can we use data to avoid that? He suggests the Pirates had some proprietary data, but there's nothing public.

The book was published in 2015 and it's amazing to think about how fast things move now. He mentions the initial development of Statcast, which is now everywhere. Launch angle is all the rage (Like *cough* the Padres' Eric Hosmer). These rapid changes make the game even more fun to watch and read about.