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The Analytics Era in Major League Baseball emerged in the early 2000s. A slew of new metrics, such as OBA (weighted on-base average), FIP (fielding-independent pitching) and WAR (wins above replacement), began to supplant batting average, a pitcher’s win totals, and other traditional statistics.
Today, every front office employs mathematicians and computer scientists in a quest to develop an objective understanding about the game. Known colloquially as sabermetrics, this scientific analysis complements the traditional eye test in assessing a player’s value, worth, and promise, as well as guiding in-game strategy.
Analytics also provides an historical context that can help uncover cross-generational details about the game. A notable example of this impact occurred in late 2020 when Major League Baseball announced that it would include Negro League records into official MLB records.
In this program, moderator Brian Kenny from MLB Network and a panel of experts will explore the role of Big Data in baseball, its impact on the history of the game, and what it means for the future of American’s pastime.
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An 8-time Emmy Award winner, Brian Kenny is the host of MLB Now on MLB Network, a show known as “The Show for the Thinking Fan.” He also hosts MLB Tonight, and calls play-by-play for both MLB Network Showcase Games, and MLB Network’s “SabrCast.”
The foremost proponent of analytics on television, Kenny has been the keynote speaker and featured panelist at both the SABR Analytics Conference, and the MIT-Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. His book “Ahead of the Curve: Inside the Baseball Revolution” won the National SABR Research Award.
Prior to MLB Network, Kenny was a SportsCenter anchor at ESPN for 14 years, earning Emmy Awards for both SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight.
Dr. Sean Forman launched Baseball-Reference.com in 2000 while working on a doctorate in applied mathematical and computational sciences at the University of Iowa. Today, his five websites patented as Sports Reference LLC – baseball, basketball, pro football, hockey and the Olympics – average half a million page views and over 100,000 unique users per day.
In May 2006, Dr. Forman took a leave from his position as an assistant professor in mathematics and computer science at St. Joseph's University to work full time on the website. He has since resigned from his academic position and works as the president of Sports Reference LLC and lives in Philadelphia.
Shakeia Taylor is a Deputy Senior Content Editor for the Chicago Tribune, where she has worked since 2022. Before the Tribune, Taylor was a freelance sports and culture writer and her work was featured in Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, Victory Journal, Yahoo! Sports, and MLB.com.
She was a recipient of the 2021 SABR Analytics Conference Research Award for historical baseball analysis/commentary. Shakeia also hosts the Society For American Baseball Research’s “Ballpark Figures” interview series.
Dr. Daniel Mack is Vice President, Assistant GM of Research & Development, with the Kansas City Royals. In this role, Dr. Mack oversees the quantitative analysis staff and software developers to assist with evaluation across all areas of baseball operations.
Prior to joining the Royals, Mack earned a doctorate in computer science from Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt, Daniel’s dissertation focused on machine learning and anomaly detection.
Dr. Mack was a teaching assistant while completing his master’s degree in computer science with a concentration in machine learning at Columbia University in New York. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Notre Dame in 2006.
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