Job Posting: Kansas City Royals Baseball Analytics Intern
Position: Kansas City Royals Baseball Analytics Intern
Location: Kansas City
Description:
The Kansas City Royals are looking to add a creative and hard-working Intern to the Baseball Analytics Department. The Intern will work closely with Baseball Analytics to conduct research and develop tools for use by all areas of Baseball Operations (Amateur/Pro Scouting, Advance Scouting, and Player Development). The position will run from February 2016 through the end of the 2016 MLB baseball season.
Responsibilities:
- Work with amateur and professional baseball staff to provide the most relevant statistical support.
- Develop predictive models to assist Baseball Operations in player evaluation.
- Perform advanced statistical analysis on large volumes of baseball data in order to aid in Baseball Operations decision making.
- Monitor latest statistical and baseball research in order to implement the most cutting edge techniques.
- Conduct research on several new types of data to uncover actionable baseball knowledge.
- Work to understand and improve existing information systems.
- Create visualizations to both explore raw data and communicate internal tools throughout Baseball Operations.
- Ad-hoc reports or small studies that come up during the year based on circumstance.
Qualifications:
- Advanced degree or equivalent experience in mathematics, physics, statistics, or related quantitative field. Specialized training, certifications, or published research are a plus.
- Up to date knowledge of statistical analysis techniques, machine learning models, simulation of models and experience with experimental design.
- Experience manipulating (through database systems such as Oracle or SQL Server) and analyzing large data sets.
- Knowledge of baseball and baseball data (Trackman, Statcast, other high frequency data sets) is highly preferred.
- Ability to work evening, weekend, and holiday hours during the baseball season is a must.
- Excellent interpersonal and communications skills and ability to interact and work with staff at all levels.
- Ability to recognize and maintain confidentiality of work materials and issues as appropriate.
- Proficiency with the following tools and/or software are required: R, MATLAB, STATA, Minitab, or similar; SQL or MySQL.
- Proficiency with the following tools and/or software are preferred: Python, C++, or similar.
Compensation:
This position is compensated.
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Paul Swydan used to be the managing editor of The Hardball Times, a writer and editor for FanGraphs and a writer for Boston.com and The Boston Globe. Now, he owns The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Acton, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @Swydan. Follow the store @SilUnicornActon.
Just out of curiosity, what would someone with those qualifications working outside of baseball make compared to what this internship likely pays?
Probably something like 5-10 times as much, if not more.
C++ should only be used by animals.
In all honesty, I thought this was complete satire. The more I read, the more impossible to have someone so skilled mathematically, so many statistical and database apps for general Fortune 500 but baseball as well? Then adding an impossible schedule, ad hoc (on demand) requests for immediate responsive results and phenom people skills to boot? From a math wiz?
Other than working for years for perennial loser in MLB after a PhD and 5-10 years in corporate America, then baseball for at least five years, not why, not how much but under what nearly impossible possibility (like hitting six home runs in a game) can a candidate ever come close to fulfilling these requirements ?
Did you think this was for real?
It’s the royals, they don’t want to hire anyone. You can’t measure grit.
They want to hire someone, they just don’t want to PAY someone.