Position: Milwaukee Brewers TrackMan Operator

Location: Viera, Fla.

Description:
A game-day position in Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Operations for the 2015 season. This position will report to the Assistant Director-Video Scouting.

Responsibilities:

• Work each home game; arriving one hour before game time.
• Responsible for setting up rosters and tagging information.
• Will log information for the entire game – monitoring the system and making any changes throughout the game (i.e. roster changes, defensive substitutions, etc.).
• Responsible for fixing any errors, uploading the game to the TrackMan site and running data and reports for coaches/front office staff at conclusion of game.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Other duties may be assigned.

Qualifications:

• Qualified candidate must be motivated, well organized, and detail orientated.
• Previous experience using TrackMan software is preferred but not required.
• Preferred candidate lives in proximity to Brevard County/Viera area.
• One year certificate from college or technical school; or three to six months related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Knowledge of Microsoft office software including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, and Internet Explorer.
• Must be able to provide their own personal laptop and be able to work all home games.

Compensation:
This position is compensated.

To Apply:

Apply online by April 17th, 2015.

Over the winter, new commissioner Rob Manfred made pace of play one of his primary agendas, talking openly about removing some of the standing around time in between plays, and even experimenting with a pitch clock to convince everyone to move things along a little faster. It was a point of emphasis for the league, and is likely going to be one of the primary storylines of the early part of the 2015 season. So, while we only have 15 games in the books so far, did the threat of fines speed things up at all on day one?

Take this with as many grains of salt as you can find, because again, 15 games, but on the first day of the season, things did move along a at a slightly brisker pace than in previous years.

Here’s starting pitcher pace during the PITCHF/x era:

And here’s reliever pace from the same time frame.

Starting pitchers were down about half a second from last year’s average time between pitches; relievers were down nearly a second and a half. When you add those changes up over the 4,000 pitches thrown yesterday, you find a reduction of about 48 minutes, or a little over three minutes per game.

That’s not a life-changing figure, and the time between pitches yesterday was still higher than it was from 2007-2011, but I wouldn’t think that walking back years of slowing pace is going to happen overnight. Even just beginning to reverse the trend would be a good first step, and the league could make small incremental steps back towards 20 seconds between pitches. And that’s essentially what we saw yesterday; good small steps.

Again, 15 games. It’s going to take a lot more than one day before we can draw any conclusions, and it’s possible that everyone is just abiding by the rules early on and then hoping to go back to their old way of doing things once people stop paying as close of attention. But for the first day of 2015, at least, things were a little quicker. Here’s to hoping this continues.

Baseball is back, and fans came out of months of hibernation to watch their favorite team play their first game of the year. Social media, particularly Twitter, allowed fans to share their experiences, reactions and news in real time.

I was able to sample over a half-million tweets predominately from fans containing any of the 30 Major League Baseball teams’ mascot names or Twitter handles. From this I was able to construct time-series graphs reflecting the Twitter volume at any given time over the course of the two days of Opening Night and Opening Day games.

Below is a composite chart of Sunday through Monday night delineated by team. Typically, each team’s heaviest traffic comes during their first game. However, San Diego and Atlanta bucked this trend when the Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton trade was announced. In fact, this news created the highest tweet volume of the entire time frame.

Read the rest of this entry »

Armed with a mono-pod / advanced selfie stick, and the lack of ability to be embarrassed, I asked Sam Fuld if he would do a video interview with me about preparation before the A’s first game of the year. After all, the players have been preparing for games every day for a month now, but this one’s different. And how has his pre-game and offseason routine changed?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re here on FanGraphs, you’re probably familiar with the concept of lineup optimization. If you’re familiar with the concept of lineup optimization, you probably know that the No. 2 hole has been criminally misused, according to the numbers, by managers throughout baseball history.

Throughout time, the No. 2 hole typically has been occupied either by a.) light-hitting up-the-middle players because they’re fast, or b.) light-hitting up-the-middle players, because they can bunt.

The Book says that’s a flawed way of thinking:

The Books says the #2 hitter comes to bat in situations about as important as the #3 hitter, but more often. That means the #2 hitter should be better than the #3 guy, and one of the best three hitters overall. And since he bats with the bases empty more often than the hitters behind him, he should be a high-OBP player. Doesn’t sound like someone who should be sacrificing, does it?

It seems like managers have been getting better with this in recent years. The Reds finally gave in and (correctly) started batting Joey Votto second last season. Same with Joe Mauer. You saw Evan Longoria there sometimes, and even Jose Bautista made a few appearances in the 2-hole. Progress was being made.

And if this year’s Opening Day lineups are any indication, we’re witnessing a breakthrough. Here’s the names of some guys who hit second for their ballclubs on Opening Day:

• Russell Martin
• Carlos Gonzalez
• Jonathan Lucroy
• David Wright
• Joey Votto
• Derek Norris
• Yasiel Puig
• Mike Trout
• George Springer

Sure, there’s still some Odubel Herrera’s, and… uh… hey, Mike Moustakas, but there’s three catchers in that list, zero middle infielders, and it’s a group of guys who likely wouldn’t even have been considered to hit second just a handful of years ago.

I wanted to see if this might be an actual league-wide trend worth noting, so I did some number-crunching. I used the excellent BaseballPress to find all 30 of last year’s Opening Day lineups, and I plugged in the 2014 projected OBP — according to ZiPS and Steamer — all the players to find league averages for each spot in the lineup. Then, I did the same thing with this year’s Opening Day lineups and projections, and then I compared the two. Of course, there’s more to optimizing a lineup than just on-base percentage — power and speed play a lesser role, too — but nothing trumps OBP, and this took longer to do than I thought it would, so OBP will serve us just fine.

The results are encouraging:

Offense is down across baseball and so, naturally, we find lower OBPs across the board. That is, except for in the 2-hole. I didn’t include pitchers, so the 9-hole only has half the sample size and could be subject to some noisy fluctuation. But there’s no mistaking that the No. 2 spot in the order, at least for Game 1 of 162, is finally being better utilized by managers across baseball.

At some level, Opening Day represents the birth of a new season and facilitates all the optimism associated with new beginnings. At the same time, however, that new season is also embedded within a perpetual cycle of recurring baseball seasons and their attendant narratives and symbols.

Pursuant to that latter point, one finds that while certain things are changing, at least one thing is also staying the same — namely, Edwin Encarnacion’s weird T-Rex arm that emerges any time he records a home run. This phenomenon has been documented before. Below, it’s documented again.

First, Encarnacion hits a home run in the third inning against Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka:

Read the rest of this entry »

We know that Craig Kimbrel stands atop any reliever leaderboard you can gussy up. Does he stand so far away from second place that he’s a one of a kind guy right now? That’s easy enough to answer.

Read the rest of this entry »

The site is now being updated nightly with 2015 stats!

As a reminder, we have a bunch of live and constantly updated data during the day which may prove useful.

Live Scoreboard, Lineups, and Game Odds: Our live scoreboard page includes up to the minute lineup info, game odds, and as soon as the game starts, live win probability graphs and easy access to box scores and play-by-play data.

Live Player Stats Pages: Each player page has a live stats box that gives you what a player is currently doing and his updated season totals for the year.

Updated Playoff Odds: Playoff odds are updated throughout the day as games are completed.

Live Leaderboards: We have live leaderboards for both the season and for just today.

Happy Opening Day!

Position: Colorado Rockies Data Management Part-Time Staff

Location: Denver, Colo.

Description:
The primary purpose of the job is to assist the Baseball Analytics department with the design, implementation, and management of the Baseball Department’s information architecture. The candidate will assist the Baseball Analytics staff to maintain data infrastructure, support needs, implement solutions, and drive innovation in baseball’s data-driven decision process. Key functions will include data modeling, integration, warehousing, and consumption. This is an 2015 in-season, Denver-based, 35-40 hour a week, hourly paid position.

Responsibilities:
Data Modeling

• Understand and document existing database structures, historical design decisions, business rules, and future requirements
• Develop and document a comprehensive information model that describes the data and maps the workflow that transform and manipulates it into usable information
• Ensure “single version of the truth” consistency across applications and reports

Data Integration

• Create and manage ETL (extract, transform, load) data integration processes
• Understand the format, definitions, limitations, and content of external and internal data feeds
• Reconcile differences across data sources and consolidate into a single master repository
• Knowledge of managing and reading XML, JSON, CSV, among other data formats into proprietary databases
• Assist efforts to identify, obtain and integrate new data sources useful for decision-making

Data Warehousing

• Design and manage a data warehouse to support reporting and analytics
• Review and assess technical proposals requesting changes or upgrades to the existing databases
• Data Consumption
• Support data and reporting requirements for a variety of applications, analysts, and end-users in all departments
• Provide technical and strategic advice of the management in the creation and implementation of new data standards, databases, products, and vendors

Qualifications:
Education and Work Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Computer Engineering or related field (candidates still in school with extensive work towards such degree will be considered)
• Information technology experience
• Business intelligence, data warehousing, OLAP, and/or data integration experience
• Proven data modeling experience
• Experience designing, implementing, and managing large and complex data warehouses and cubes in Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services
• Thorough knowledge of design and integration principles for complex, heterogeneous databases
• Experience with ETL and BI reporting tools (e.g. Microsoft SSIS & SSRS)
• Advanced knowledge in query development, including SQL, MDX, and stored procedures
• Experience parsing XML, JSON and CSV formatted data
• Candidates with some, but not all skills are encouraged to apply

Relevant Skills

• Knowledgeable about software development best practices and long-term maintainability of code
• Ability to effectively diagnose, isolate, and resolve complex problems pertaining to data infrastructure, integrity, and incompatibilities
• Familiarity with baseball and sabermetrics strongly desirable
• Experience using statistical programs (R, Python or others) and/or data mining (WEKA or others) applications is desirable
• Advanced Excel knowledge (VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, Conditional Formatting)
• Familiarity with any of application development and/or web technologies is desirable

Functional Skills

• Ability to work evenings and weekends required
• Effective communication with both co-workers and guests
• Passion for baseball, strong intellectual curiosity and strong communication skills
• Ability to develop and maintain successful working relationship with members of the Front Office

Compensation:
This position is compensated.

To Apply:
Email baseballjobs@rockies.com with a resume and cover letter by April 8th, 2015.

When reports emerged in February alleging that Josh Hamilton had suffered a drug relapse, it appeared likely that he would be subject to a suspension under Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Agreement (JDA). Because Hamilton had previously violated the JDA on at least four occasions, I wrote at the time that he would likely be treated as a five-time violator under the rules, subject to a suspension to be determined by the commissioner. That analysis was based on the assumption that Hamilton’s alleged relapse violated the terms of his individual drug treatment program.

MLB announced today, however, that an arbitrator has ruled that Hamilton did not violate his treatment program:

MLB issued the following statement today regarding Los Angeles Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton: pic.twitter.com/FSDjHF4TyZ

— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) April 3, 2015

Without having access to each side’s arbitration papers, it is difficult to know why the arbitrator ruled in Hamilton’s favor. One possibility, though, is that Hamilton’s individual treatment program was written in such a way that only a failed drug test would count as a violation. And because Hamilton allegedly self-reported his relapse, he was never tested, thus potentially explaining why the arbitrator ruled in his favor. This might also explain MLB’s stated displeasure with the arbitrator’s decision, and its vow to address the issue via collective bargaining.

Alternatively, it is also possible that the arbitrator determined that considering Hamilton self-reported the violation, and has generally remained clean for the last decade, this single relapse shouldn’t trigger a suspension under the JDA.

On a different note, MLB’s statement regarding the Hamilton arbitration decision could itself have arguably violated MLB’s JDA. Under Section 5 of the JDA, information related to a player’s case is generally considered confidential. This explicitly includes the decision of an arbitration panel. While MLB is allowed to announce a suspension or acknowledge that it is investigating an alleged violation that has been publicly reported elsewhere, neither of these exceptions would seem to apply to today’s press release. So it would appear that the players’ union could potentially file a grievance over the press release itself, should it so choose. Considering that the announcement helps absolve Hamilton of wrong-doing under the JDA, though, the union may decide not to press the matter.

Regardless, the long and the short of it is that Commissioner Manfred will not be able to suspend Hamilton for his alleged drug relapse this past off-season. As a result, Hamilton will be free to return to the Angels once his current injury heals. And the Angels will not be able to avoid paying him any of the more than $75 million owed under his contract.

In the meantime, you can add another item to the growing list of issues for MLB and the players union to resolve in the next round of collective bargaining.