Position: Houston Astros, Analyst, Baseball Research and Development

Location: Houston

Description:
The Houston Astros are seeking an Analyst for the team’s Baseball Research and Development group. The Analyst will work closely with the Director of R&D and the analytics team to conduct research and develop methods that encourage the effective understanding and application of information throughout Baseball Operations. If you are passionate about understanding the game of baseball, enjoy the challenge of solving a diverse array of problems and want to work in a collaborative team environment where your contribution will make a difference, this is the position for you.

Responsibilities:

• Research, develop and test mathematical, statistical and predictive models to support Baseball Operations in player evaluation, roster construction and game tactics.
• Conduct research to improve the organization’s understanding of the game of baseball.
• Prepare and explore a variety of baseball data sets and construct workflows to utilize this data.
• Communicate closely with front office, coaching and scouting personnel in the gathering and application of baseball information.
• Build information systems to support Baseball Operations efforts to improve player health and performance.
• Evaluate and lead implementation of advanced technologies.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in statistics, engineering, applied math, physics, quantitative social sciences, computer science, operations research or similar field.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal).
• Proficiency with SQL and relational databases.
• Ability to communicate technical ideas to non-technical audiences using data visualization.
• Experience with baseball data and understanding of sabermetric concepts.
• Experience with statistical software, programming languages and machine learning techniques is strongly preferred.

Compensation:
This position is compensated.

To Apply:
If interested, apply here.

Well, this is a bit surprising.

Sources: Alex Anthopoulos leaving #BlueJays after turning down extension: https://t.co/XgO8q7D1J3

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) October 29, 2015

Sources: #BlueJays offered Anthopoulos long-term contract. His departure is not over terms or money.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 29, 2015

Alex Anthopoulos wanted full GM responsibilities. He told me recently he wouldn't stay under conditions less than that.

— steve simmons (@simmonssteve) October 29, 2015

Source: In their 1st & only meeting, new Jays prez Mark Shapiro scolded Alex Anthopolous & staff for trading so many top prospects this yr

— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) October 29, 2015

The Blue Jays have been publicly looking for a baseball guy to replace Paul Beeston as team president for over a year, beginning with their awkward courtship of Kenny Williams and Dan Duquette last winter. They finally found their replacement in August, when they brought Mark Shapiro over from Cleveland to take the job, though the announcement at the time suggested that Shapiro would focus mostly on the business side of the organization, leaving the baseball operations department in Anthopoulos’ hands. After the team won the AL East on the backs of his many acquisitions over the last year, the general assumption was that he’d done enough to earn autonomy as the guy putting together the team’s roster.

But perhaps we should have seen this coming, given that the organization was clearly looking for a former GM to take their presidents role, rather than focusing solely on someone with a business background. They made a point of hiring a baseball guy to be Anthopoulos’ new boss, and it’s probably difficult to assume that you’re going to be allowed to make decisions if your boss was hired in large part because he’d done your job before.

So now a great 2015 Blue Jays season ends with a stain, as the team will have to undergo changes in the baseball operations department as well. Shapiro’s lengthy tenure in Cleveland helped produce many front office members around the game and the team’s position should help attract quality candidates; I’d suggest this might be the kind of job that could get Ben Cherington to reconsider taking a year off from working in baseball, for instance.

But this is an awkward cap to put on a great year in Toronto. Anthopoulos absolutely did trade away huge chunks of the team’s farm system, but in acquiring guys like Josh Donaldson, Troy Tulowitzki, Devon Travis, and Russell Martin, he made moves that set the team up to win not just in 2015, but beyond as well. And focusing solely on the cost of the acquisitions without balancing that against the obvious rewards of reinvigorating a city that hadn’t seen playoff baseball in 20 years seems short-sighted at best.

The Blue Jays will probably be fine without Anthopoulos, but the Jays are going to have to do some pretty nifty PR to not squander the significant excitement for the franchise they just spent so much time generating. And while there aren’t any other GM jobs open at the moment, it seems pretty likely that Anthopoulos will find a job in the not too distant future, and probably one where he’s allowed to call his own shots, rather than reporting to a GM-turned-president who doesn’t share his same philosophies.

Building off of Eno’s comparison between the Mets and Royals, I built a quick dashboard that shows team offensive and pitching stats for all 30 teams, calling out the two World Series participants. This is just a visual representation of some of the most popular stats on our leaderboards. There are a few interesting extremes such as the three true outcomes (TTO), which Eno looked at yesterday, and batting average.

These plots are box plots without the boxes, so the location of the dot on the y-axis represents the team’s stat in that particular category. A dot’s size and color are just for call out purposes. They are also interactive so you can explore where other teams fall.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, after the completion of the various divisional series, I compiled win probability added (WPA) for the current postseason. In this post, I’ve updated that data to include all three rounds of the postseason thus far through Game 6 of the ALCS. Since WPA is accrued, many of the players at the top will have a higher WPA because they’ve played more games.

Batters

Read the rest of this entry »

David Price can’t pitch in the postseason, maybe you’ve heard. It’s a decent 56.2 inning sample at this point, but it’s just a little bit more than a month’s worth of work. He’s had six worse months in his career.

Still, to be fair to the hand-wringing, if he had a month with a 4.10 FIP, we’d be talking about it here as well. So let’s try to look at why David Price has struggled in the postseason. Because his regular and post-season strikeouts minus walks are almost identical, it’s obviously about the home runs. His home run rate in the postseason is 77% higher than it is in the regular season!

And there’s a little something to this. A combination of a couple little things — one in his control, one not — may have lead to more home runs in the postseason than he’s seen in the regular season.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just to be clear, there are two separate positions here.

Position: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Director, Quantitative Analysis

Location: Anaheim

Description:
This position is responsible for developing and overseeing the research and analytics initiative within Baseball Operations, reporting to the General Manager and Assistant General Manager. Angels Baseball is an equal opportunity employer.

Responsibilities:

• Direct and develop Quantitative Analysis staff by identifying strong candidates, supervising projects, and providing constructive feedback.
• Perform advanced quantitative analysis on baseball datasets to improve Baseball Operations decision-making, including predictive modeling and the development of an internal player projection system.
• Effectively present analysis through the use of written reports, tables, and data visualization methods to disseminate insights to other members of the Baseball Operations staff and aid in decision-making.
• Identify new techniques, models, and algorithms for application to internal processes.
• Meet with vendors and make recommendations for investment in new data and technology resources to enhance Baseball Operations decision-making.
• Contribute to general baseball decision-making and generate ideas for player acquisition, in-game strategy, and roster construction.
• Manage components of Baseball Operations budget related to Quantitative Analysis department.
• Other projects as directed by General Manager and Assistant General Manager.

Qualifications:

• Advanced degree or equivalent experience in statistics, mathematics, computer science, or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate complex concepts to colleagues possessing a diverse set of backgrounds and with varying experience with quantitative methods.
• Minimum of five years work experience in mathematical, statistical, and predictive modeling.
• Demonstrated expertise with baseball datasets and sabermetric analysis.
• Demonstrated ability in problem-solving and project management and a desire and ability to act as a mentor to members of the analytics staff.
• Demonstrated expertise with R, STATA, SPSS, SAS, or similar statistical computing software.
• Demonstrated expertise in relational database development and administration with Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, or other database systems.
• Knowledge and demonstrated ability with computer programming and machine learning techniques.

Compensation:
This position is compensated.

To Apply:
Please submit your resume and cover letter here.

Position: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Baseball Information Analyst

Location: Anaheim

Description:
The Los Angeles Angels are seeking a Data Scientist for the team’s Baseball Analytics group. The Baseball Information Analyst will work closely with the Director, Quantitative Analysis and our analytics team to research, develop, and test mathematical, statistical, and predictive models that support Baseball Operations. Angels Baseball is an equal opportunity employer.

Responsibilities:

• Research, design, and test predictive and statistical models to enhance Baseball Operations decision-making.
• Provide guidance for and aid in the development of junior members of the analytics staff.
• Work with Systems Architect to design and build decision-support tools and support the development of baseball systems.
• Effectively present analysis through the use of written reports, tables, and data visualization methods to disseminate insights to other members of the Baseball Operations staff and aid in decision-making.
• Other projects and related duties as directed by Director, Quantitative Analysis.

Qualifications:

• Advanced degree or equivalent experience in statistics, mathematics, computer science, or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate complex concepts to colleagues possessing a diverse set of backgrounds and with varying experience with quantitative methods.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Experience with baseball datasets and sabermetric analysis.
• Demonstrated expertise with R, STATA, SPSS, SAS, or similar statistical computing software.
• Proficiency with Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, or other relational database systems.
• Experience with computer programming and machine learning techniques.

Compensation:
This position is compensated.

To Apply:
Please submit your resume and cover letter here.

It’s dark in Chicago right now. It’s especially dark at Wrigley Field, and it will remain that way until next spring. The Cubs lost to the Mets tonight by a score of 8-3 and are done for the season.

Despite their bright future, it will be a winter of discontent for the supposedly-cursed franchise. That’s always the case when you enter a league championship series with high expectations, only to fall short. It’s even worse when you’re unceremoniously swept.

The beat down was methodical and severe. To many, it was preordained. After all, these are the Cubs. As Steve Goodman sang in A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request, “You raise up a young boy’s hopes and then just crush ’em like so many paper beer cups. Year after year after year after year after year after year after year after year.”

But to be honest, that refrain has grown old. History and hexes had nothing to do with the sweep. They lost to a darn good team. In Game One, it was a Dark Night who beat the Cubs, not a black cat. In Game Two, it was a Met named Murphy who did the damage, not a goat named Murphy. Steve Bartman didn’t reach out and cause the run-scoring wild pitch that gave New York a lead they didn’t relinquish in Game 3. As for Game 4, Chicago hosts a Lebowski Fest and Lucas Duda’s nickname is The Big Lebowski. That’s ironic as hell, but it’s not a curse.

On the off chance you missed tonight’s game, Duda crushed the souls of Cubs fans with a three-run jack in the first inning. He then drilled a two-run double in the second to put the home team in a 6-0 hole.

The early onslaught that buried the Cubs was exactly what multiple Mets were looking for. Following Game 3, Michael Conforto told me his team “can’t afford to take anything off the throttle, because they’re very explosive and you don’t want to let them get anything started.” Tyler Clippard agreed, saying, “We have to keep our nose to the grindstone, because once a team starts to get a leg up on you, momentum can shift pretty quickly.”

Momentum was a foreign word for Joe Maddon’s team all week. Chicago never held a lead in the four games, largely because they didn’t have an answer for New York pitching. They certainly didn’t have one for Daniel Murphy. The Mets second baseman went an unreal 9 for 17, and homered in each game. Curse him if you want, Cubs fans, but he had an NLCS for the ages. Along with his teammates, he’s on his way to the World Series.

As for the team that calls Wrigley home, a “Let’s Go Cubbies” chant broke out as the Mets dogpiled on the mound. It was brief — much like the just-completed series — but it was heartfelt. These are, after all, the Cubs.

The purpose of this post, nominally, is to provide some manner of brief but substantive comment on the exploits of second baseman Daniel Murphy, which player just recorded his sixth home run in as many postseason games for the (likely) National League champion Mets. The purpose of this post simultaneously is to capitalize on the enthusiasm of the public for Murphy’s accomplishments by providing an internet link on which they might idly click.

For those reading these words, the second objective has been accomplished. To satisfy the terms of the first objective, the author has produced the following — namely, a table of the 16 qualified batters from 2015 (out of 141 total) who recorded fewer home runs this year over 162 games than Murphy himself has over a half-dozen of them.

Qualifiers with Fewer Homers Than Postseason D. Murphy

	Name	Team	PA	HR
1	Brock Holt	BOS	509	2
2	Ben Revere	—	634	2
3	Nick Markakis	ATL	686	3
4	Alcides Escobar	KCA	662	3
5	Erick Aybar	LAA	638	3
6	Angel Pagan	SFN	551	3
7	Dee Gordon	MIA	653	4
8	Andrelton Simmons	ATL	583	4
9	Yadier Molina	STL	530	4
10	Chris Owings	ARI	552	4
11	Billy Burns	OAK	555	5
12	Anthony Gose	DET	535	5
13	Ender Inciarte	ARI	561	6
14	DJ LeMahieu	COL	620	6
15	Jace Peterson	ATL	597	6
16	Jean Segura	MIL	584	6

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been pointing out that the strike zone graphic used by TBS is not representative of the actual strike zone used in MLB, and is giving fans the wrong impression of the quality of the home plate umpiring in the playoffs. After nearly every NL game, we’ve seen a cascade of calls roasting that night’s umpire for making a bunch of bad calls, but in most cases, PITCHF/x has confirmed that the umpires are calling the same pitches they always call.

Today, though, I’m not going to defend last night’s umpire. Ted Barrett worked the plate for the Cubs/Mets game, and his zone was atrocious.

Those two called strikes off the plate to left-handed batters — one against Lucas Duda, one against Curtis Granderson — are bananas. That down and away pitch that Pedro Strop threw to Kelly Johnson is almost never called a strike either.

But Mets pitchers got their own share of nutty calls as well, especially at the bottom of the zone. Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, and Chris Denorfia all had strikes called on them on pitches so far down that they shouldn’t have been reasonably expected to swing. And Kyle Hendricks took a pitch from deGrom at the very edge of even the shifted right-handed zone, because apparently a pitcher hitting against another team’s ace also needs a huge strike zone to contend with.

Barrett’s zone went both ways, and he wasn’t favoring one team or another, but last night’s strike zone was worth complaining about. This wasn’t just TBS misleading viewers with a poorly drawn graphic. Ted Barrett’s strike zone last night really was enormous.

Walking around Wrigley Field before tonight’s game had a different feel to it. The everything-is-possible electricity that permeated last week’s NLDS showdown against St. Louis was gone. There was energy in the air, but it was a nervous energy. Cubs fans seemed apprehensive, if not a little bit scared.

You couldn’t blame them. Not only was their team down two-games-to-none, the losses came with Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta on the mound. The bats were turned stone cold by Mets’ pitchers at frosty Citi Field, and now they were up against Jacob deGrom, the best of a talented New York staff.

They cheered to mask their fear. Prior to the first pitch, a “Let’s Go Cubbies” chant drowned out the introduction of the New York starters. Solo homers by Kyle Schwarber and Jorge Soler proceeded to raise the roof. The annulment of a Mets run – courtesy of a ball-in-the-ivy ground-rule – elicited one of the loudest sighs of relief you’ll ever hear.

Beyond that, the noise appeared almost obligatory in nature. It was cheering for the sake of cheering. Base runners were at a premium for the home team all night, while the visitors had no shortage of traffic. Sloppiness also marred the effort. Chicago didn’t play a clean game, with a Trevor Cahill wild pitch the most egregious of the mistakes. It brought in a run, and the Cubs – despite their best efforts – weren’t scoring many of their own.

The atmosphere was subdued by the later innings. Smatterings of applause greeted the final outs of the top of the ninth inning, but nothing more. It was uncomfortably quiet in the bottom half. The Mets won 5-2, but it felt like 10-2.

Drizzle is falling as fans file out of the ballpark. It’s only fitting, because while a glimmer of hope remains, their fears are coming to fruition. The Cubs are on the brink of elimination.