Job Posting: Seattle Mariners – Multiple Openings

Analyst, Baseball Projects

Department: Baseball Projects
Reports To: Director, Baseball Projects
Status: Exempt

Primary Objective:
Responsible for delivering projects across player acquisition, player optimization, in-game strategy, and other areas of the broader baseball operations group, with an emphasis on creating innovative tools & streamlining communications.

Essential Functions:

  • Deliver dashboards, reports, and educational materials to facilitate evidence-based decision-making throughout broader baseball operations.
  • Identify novel strategies & technologies to streamline Mariners computational and communications processes.
  • Engineer and support data pipelines for post-game feedback and pre-game preparations.
  • Curate and deliver data-driven in-season player plans across all levels of the organization.
  • Formulate a holistic offseason experience for all Mariners players, including evidence-based season reviews, offseason objectives, and individualized training programs.
  • Stimulate growth of Mariners amateur scouting infrastructure, including draft room processes, amateur statistical databases, and player pool management.
  • Spearhead player acquisition exercises to evaluate potential trade concepts, major/minor league free agent signings, and Rule 5 Draft selections.
  • Contribute to player acquisition decisions in both formal & informal contexts.
  • Field ad hoc requests from coaches, scouts, and other staff about internal metrics & processes.
  • Will complete other duties as assigned.

Education and Experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree in statistics, computer science, mathematics or any other STEM field related to data science preferred. Equivalent, relevant work experience in lieu of formal education may be approved by management.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA’s):

  • Proficiency handling large datasets in R, SQL, Python, and/or comparable languages
  • Shiny application or other web development experience
  • Demonstrated capacity to define stakeholder needs and organize project visions
  • Working knowledge of baseball analytics, strategy, and trends
  • Experience building predictive models is preferred.
  • Basic Spanish fluency preferred.
  • Competent in required job skills and knowledge. Completes work assignments thoroughly and completely in an accurate, and prompt. Identifies and corrects errors.  Is careful, alert and accurate, paying attention to details of the job.
  • Demonstrates through their actions and interactions with others a commitment to Mariner Purpose, Mission and Values.
  • Effective negotiation skills that include analyzing a problem to determine the interests of each party in the negotiation and effectively communicating that between the parties involved.
  • Handles sensitive and/or confidential information professionally, involving only those who need to be involved or informed.
  • Identify, collect, and analyze relevant information to a problem and create multiple solutions
  • Initiate and maintain actions to attain goals, regularly monitoring progress.
  • Know when to make a unilateral decision and when to consult with the team or superiors, and how to involve them in the process.
  • Navigate a variety of social, emotional, and interpersonal situations to leverage the capabilities, insights, and ideas of all individuals.
  • Shares and expresses thoughts in a clear and effective manner through verbal and written communication skills. Exhibits effective listening skills and builds positive relationships with all team members, vendors, and guests.  Is diplomatic, tactful and professional in all forms of communication.

Physical Activities and Working Conditions:

  • Seattle-based and works out of T-Mobile Park. Remote opportunities may be available on a case-by-case basis.
  • Night, weekend, and holiday work may be required.
  • Travel to Spring Training, relevant conferences, and/or Mariners affiliated games may be required.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.


Intern, Baseball Analytics

Department: Baseball Operations
Reports To: Director of Analytics
Status: Part-time, Nonexempt

Primary Objective:
Responsible for supporting all areas of baseball operations through baseball related data science, including statistical modeling, research, visualizations, and other projects.

Essential Functions:

  • Statistical modeling and analysis of a variety of data sources including Trackman, Hawkeye, and proprietary data sets.
  • Ad hoc queries and quantitative research.
  • Will perform other relevant duties as assigned

Education and Experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree preferred. Education and experience may be considered in lieu of education requirements if approved by management.
  • Proficiency in programming with either R or Python required.
  • Proficiency with SQL required.
  • A strong foundation in mathematics, statistics, computer science, and/or engineering required.
  • Track record of original baseball research preferred.
  • Experience building and interpreting predictive models preferred.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA’s):

  • Strong technical skills in predictive modeling, data analysis, and research.
  • Shares and expresses thoughts in a clear and effective manner through verbal and written communication skills. Exhibits effective listening skills and builds positive relationships with all team members, vendors, and guests. Is diplomatic, tactful and professional in all forms of communication.
  • Understands and supports the team and is quick to volunteer to assist others. Others view most interactions as being positive with a willingness to achieve common goals. Effective in working with others to cooperatively solve problems. Workplace behavior is consistently respectful of others.
  • Takes personal responsibility for getting things done in a way that positively and professionally represents the organization.
  • Demonstrates through their actions and interactions with others a commitment to Mariner Purpose, Mission and Values.
  • Competent in required job skills and knowledge. Completes work assignments thoroughly, accurately, and promptly. Identifies and corrects errors. Is careful, alert and accurate, paying attention to details of the job.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.


Intern, Baseball Operations

Department: Baseball Operations
Reports To: Director, Baseball Operations
Status: Non-exempt

Dates: Preference will be given to candidates who can start by March 1, 2023, and work through mid-October 2023.

Primary Objective:
Responsible for coordination, support, and assistance to the Baseball Operations department in research, administration, and day-to-day scouting operation tasks.

Essential Functions:

  • Support all areas of the Pro/Amateur Scouting departments, including player evaluation, research, video clipping, and preparation for Amateur Draft meetings.
  • Provide support in advance scouting, including preparation of the advance report, as assigned.
  • Provide additional statistical analysis, economic and financial research as assigned.
  • Will perform other duties as assigned.

Education and Experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree preferred. Equivalent, relevant work or playing experience may be considered in lieu of formal education if approved by management.
  • Basic Spanish proficiency preferred.
  • Background in player evaluation preferred.
  • Background in video preparation preferred.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA’s):

  • Working knowledge of statistical baseball data and its application as it pertains to scouting information, baseball strategy, and current in game management trends.
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Excel & PowerPoint.
  • Shares and expresses thoughts in a clear and effective manner through verbal and written communication skills. Exhibits effective listening skills and builds positive relationships with all team members, vendors, and guests. Is diplomatic, tactful and professional in all forms of communication.
  • Understands and supports the team and is quick to volunteer to assist others. Others view most interactions as being positive with a willingness to achieve common goals. Effective in working with others to cooperatively solve problems. Workplace behavior is consistently respectful of others.
  • Takes personal responsibility for getting things done in a way that positively and professionally represents the organization.
  • Demonstrates through their actions and interactions with others a commitment to Mariner Purpose, Mission and Values.
  • Competent in required job skills and knowledge. Completes work assignments thoroughly and completely in an accurate, and prompt, manner. Identifies and corrects errors. Is careful, alert and accurate, paying attention to details of the job.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.


Intern, Baseball Projects

Department: Baseball Projects
Reports To: Director, Baseball Projects
Status: Non-exempt

Primary Objective:
Responsible for contributing to projects at the intersection of baseball analytics and broader baseball operations, with an emphasis on creating innovative tools & streamlining communications.

Essential Functions:

  • Develop dashboards, reports, and educational materials to facilitate evidence-based decision-making throughout broader baseball operations.
  • Provide quantitative support to player plan, high performance, advance scouting, and other player improvement processes.
  • Contribute to amateur & professional player acquisition decisions in both formal & informal contexts.
  • Field ad hoc requests from coaches, scouts, and other staff about internal metrics & processes.
  • Will perform other duties as assigned.

Education and Experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree in statistics, computer science, mathematics or any other STEM field related to data science preferred. Equivalent, relevant work will be considered in lieu of formal education may be approved by management.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA’s):

  • Proficiency handling large datasets in R, SQL, Python, and/or comparable languages
  • Shiny application or other web development experience
  • Demonstrated capacity to define stakeholder needs and organize project visions
  • Working knowledge of baseball analytics, strategy, and trends
  • Experience building predictive models preferred.
  • Basic Spanish fluency preferred.
  • Competent in required job skills and knowledge. Completes work assignments thoroughly and completely in an accurate, and prompt. Identifies and corrects errors.  Is careful, alert and accurate, paying attention to details of the job.
  • Demonstrates through their actions and interactions with others a commitment to Mariner Purpose, Mission and Values.
  • Effective negotiation skills that include analyzing a problem to determine the interests of each party in the negotiation and effectively communicating that between the parties involved.
  • Handles sensitive and/or confidential information professionally, involving only those who need to be involved or informed.
  • Identify, collect, and analyze relevant information to a problem and create multiple solutions
  • Initiate and maintain actions to attain goals, regularly monitoring progress.
  • Know when to make a unilateral decision and when to consult with the team or superiors, and how to involve them in the process.
  • Navigate a variety of social, emotional, and interpersonal situations to leverage the capabilities, insights, and ideas of all individuals.
  • Shares and expresses thoughts in a clear and effective manner through verbal and written communication skills. Exhibits effective listening skills and builds positive relationships with all team members, vendors, and guests.  Is diplomatic, tactful and professional in all forms of communication.

Physical Activities and Working Conditions:

  • Seattle-based and works out of T-Mobile Park. Remote opportunities may be available on a case-by-case basis.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Seattle Mariners.


Sunday Notes: James Click Won’t Care About Houston’s Infield Positioning

The Astros inexplicably jettisoned General Manager James Click six days after winning the World Series. Jim Crane, whose reputation isn’t exactly stellar, offered Click just a one-year deal to remain in Houston — a veritable slap in the face given what the team had just accomplished. For all intents and purposes, the owner’s offer was an invitation to vamoose. Crane wanted Click gone.

With rumors of his dismissal rampant, Click fielded a barrage of questions regarding his future when he met with the media during this week’s GM meetings in Las Vegas. Not wanting to beat what was essentially a dead horse, I asked the highly-successful executive about something entirely different: Which position will be most affected by the forthcoming limitations on defensive shifts?

“My gut reaction would be second base,” replied Click. “You could make a credible case for any of the four infield positions, but I also don’t know how much it’s going to really change the game. We’ll still see teams shift as much as they can within the rules. We’ll see shortstops almost directly behind second base, or second basemen directly behind the bag. So the question becomes: ‘How much do those few feet really change the batter’s approach, and the result?’ That said, I do think we’re going to need more athleticism at all positions. Any time you’re not able to position a guy exactly where the ball is most likely to go, you’re going to have to be able to move a little more to get to those balls.” Read the rest of this entry »


Effectively Wild Episode 1928: Boras, Boldenone, Boondoggles, and Bo

EWFI
With Meg Rowley off, Ben Lindbergh talks to three guests: James Wagner (4:55) of the New York Times about Scott Boras puns in the paper of record, why players who test positive for PEDs have disproportionately been from the Dominican Republic, and why players wear perfume and cologne on the field; Ian Araujo (41:46) about the origins, appeal, process, and future of his viral TikTok videos about identifying sports games in the backgrounds of movies and TV shows; and Jeff Pearlman (1:20:24) about his new biography of Bo Jackson, The Last Folk Hero, Jackson’s life and career, separating Bo facts from Bo fiction, and hypotheticals about Bo, plus a closing baseball news brief (1:59:45) and a Past Blast from 1928.

Audio intro: The Americans, “Guest of Honor
Audio interstitial 1: Jim Lauderdale, “If You Look Real Close
Audio interstitial 2: Boogie Down Productions, “Bo! Bo! Bo!
Audio ioutro: Crowded House, “Be My Guest (Home Demo)

Link to Alden’s list of Boras puns
Link to video of Nimmo pun
Link to Correa’s Dior line
Link to James’s NYT pun mention
Link to Boras episode of EW
Link to James’s PED/DR article
Link to NYT article on Tatis
Link to James on perfume/cologne
Link to Ian’s TikTok account
Link to The Athletic on Ian
Link to Ian’s The Office video
Link to Mel Magazine on Ian
Link to Ben’s Elementary article
Link to The Irishman Reddit thread
Link to Defector on the buzzer-beater
Link to second buzzer-beater story
Link to Hilbert’s problems wiki
Link to baseball Hilbert’s problems
Link to article on TikTok security
Link to The Last Folk Hero
Link to Seitzer/Jackson excerpt
Link to Bo’s tweet about autographs
Link to 91-yard TD video
Link to Bo scaling the wall
Link to Jeff’s website
Link to The Bad Guys Won
Link to “Sho Knows” t-shirt
Link to Astudillo report
Link to MLBTR on Click
Link to Jay Jaffe on Click
Link to MLBTR on Powers
Link to Dan Szymborski on Kershaw
Link to FTX bankruptcy report
Link to FTX sponsorship news
Link to MLB/FTX press release
Link to Ohtani/FTX press release
Link to Emma’s tweet
Link to tweet about Triple-A ABS
Link to J.R.’s World Series data
Link to 1928 story source
Link to SABR on the DH rule
Link to Jacob Pomrenke’s website
Link to Jacob Pomrenke on Twitter

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Subscribe to Stathead (Code: WILD20)
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 Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com


Job Posting: Washington Nationals – Biomechanist

Biomechanist

Summary:
The Washington Nationals are looking for someone with wide-ranging expertise in applied biomechanics to join our team and enhance our Player Development and Performance Science processes. This individual will play a leading role in helping various stakeholders such as on-field coaches, Strength and Conditioning staff, the Sports Medicine department, as well as Baseball Operations and R&D staff, leverage biomechanical data to optimize player performance and health.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Collect, analyze, maintain, and communicate Performance Science data from a variety of data sources (on and off-field) in a digestible, applicable manner 
  • Build infrastructure necessary for the efficient dissemination of findings from biomechanics analysis or other Performance Science initiatives to players and staff 
  • Stay informed on latest academic research and technology pertaining to baseball Performance Science 
  • Ensure that player performance decisions incorporate insights supported by existing Performance Science research  
  • Collaborate with staff in Strength and Conditioning, Sports Medicine, R&D, Scouting, Hitting, and Pitching to develop pathways for implementing biomechanics data and research into their respective processes 
  • Develop educational materials or programming to help introduce or teach biomechanics concepts to staff throughout the organization in an intelligible manner 
  • Validate Performance Science equipment and establish corresponding data collection protocols 
  • Execute internal research projects to deliver insights capable of maximizing player performance or wellness 
  • Integrate Performance Science data with on-field performance data to improve individual player development plans or existing player evaluation models
  • Lead the process of designing, evaluating, and rolling out novel Performance Science initiatives 

Requirements:

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

  • A graduate-level degree in biomechanics or a related field (Kinesiology, Biomedical Engineering, Motor Control, etc.) or demonstrated experience collecting, interpreting, modeling, and applying biomechanics data 
  • Demonstrated experience with biomechanics or Performance Science research and data collection processes, including proficiency with markered and/or markerless motion capture, force plates, IMUs, computer vision, and/or EMG systems

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities necessary to perform essential functions

  • Strong ability to teach, explain, and effectively communicate biomechanics or Performance Science concepts/findings to stakeholders of different backgrounds
  • Previous research and/or applied experience working alongside athletes/coaches in elite sport is strongly preferred  
  • Previous experience applying biomechanics specifically to the context of baseball is strongly preferred 
  • Proficiency with R, Python, or another similar programming language is strongly preferred
  • High proficiency with the scientific method, including research question design and hypothesis testing is desired 
  • Spanish fluency is a plus 
  • Experience with markerless baseball biomechanics systems such as Hawk-Eye or KinaTrax is a plus 
  • Excellent attention to detail, critical thinking skills, and creativity
  • Ability to work unconventional or long hours, including nights, holidays, and weekends

Physical/Environmental Requirements

  • Must be able to lift and transport up to 50 lb.
  • Must be able to access all areas of facility and spend prolonged periods of time in those areas.

All applicants for employment at the Washington Nationals are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to commencing employment. Applicants who receive a conditional offer of employment will be required to produce proof of vaccination status prior to their first day of employment. Applicants with qualifying disabilities or bona fide religious objections may be exempted from this requirement or otherwise accommodated if they are unable to be vaccinated.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Washington Nationals.


Despite Overseeing a World Series Winner, James Click Is Out as Astros GM

James Click
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

It wasn’t hard to see this coming. Despite taking over their jobs in the wake of the team’s sign-stealing scandal and leading the Astros to the AL’s best record since then, with a 2020 trip to the ALCS, a ’21 pennant and ’22 World Series win to boot, general manager James Click and manager Dusty Baker were both working without contracts beyond this season. Normally, such successful leaders are offered extensions well before their deals expire, but Astros owner Jim Crane refused the courtesy, sending both into the postseason as lame ducks. Both Click’s three-year deal and Baker’s one-year deal officially expired on October 31, before the final out of the team’s World Series triumph. Amid the celebration, Crane said he’d address the matter the following week, and while Baker agreed to return via a one-year deal, Click rejected a one-year offer, ending his tenure atop Houston’s front office.

Frankly, under such circumstances, a single-year offer is an insult, particularly for an organization’s highest-ranking baseball official, the person who is supposed to be the architect of the team. At this point in his storied career, the 73-year-old Baker may be fine with going year to year, but Crane had to know that the 44-year-old Click, who spent 14 years in the Rays’ front office but had never served as a GM before being hired in February 2020, would decline such an offer. With no current GM openings, the parting of the ways may mean that Click spends part or all of 2023 as some team’s special advisor or vice president, not unlike what Alex Anthopoulos did with the Dodgers between his runs as general manager with the Blue Jays and Braves. It does seem likely that by this time next year, Click will get to execute his vision via the security of a long-term deal.

Click inherited a roster that had been put together by predecessor Jeff Luhnow, who was suspended for a year by Rob Manfred as well as fired by Crane when the commissioner issued his report detailing the Astros’ illegal sign-stealing activities in January 2020. Maintaining and augmenting that roster over the past three seasons was no small task given the departures of stars Gerrit Cole, George Springer, and Carlos Correa via free agency. While Click was able to do so largely with players who entered the organization on Luhnow’s watch, it still takes the right judgment to decide that rookie Jeremy Peña, with zero major league experience, was ready to fill Correa’s shoes as of Opening Day, or that Framber Valdez. Cristian Javier, and Luis Garcia could replace the likes of Zack Greinke and Wade Miley. That Click did so with Crane — a demanding boss whose background is with his air-freight logistics business, not in a baseball front office — nosing his way into the operations side post-Luhnow shouldn’t be held against him. Read the rest of this entry »


Clayton Kershaw Set To Return to Dodgers on One-Year Deal

Clayton Kershaw
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Another solid pitcher has come off the free agent list on Thursday evening, as Clayton Kershaw is apparently close to a return to the Dodgers on a one-year contract. No financial terms have yet been revealed, but I would expect that the bottom-line figure is similar to the $17 million he made last year, or just a few million dollars more. The team didn’t extend him a qualifying offer, but that may reflect less on what the dollar figure is and more on the fact that he is Los Angeles’ longest-tenured player and a crucial part of the franchise’s history. Bouncing back from an elbow injury that ended his 2021 before the playoffs, Kershaw returned to his usual late-career form, with a 2.28 ERA and 2.57 FIP over 22 starts, good enough for 3.8 WAR and to make him the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game.

Kershaw has attained the service time and respect with the organization that he’s now one of those players who, as long as he wants to keep returning, can likely receive endless contracts, a status similar to that earned by players such as Adam Wainwright and David Ortiz in recent years. While he avoided a recurrence of the dreaded flexor tendon soreness from 2021, his ongoing back problems limited him to 126 1/3 innings, an expectation that seems likely to repeat going forward. Since leading the league with 232 2/3 innings in 2015, he has only been healthy enough to qualify for the ERA title twice in the last seven seasons. The bigger question wasn’t whether Kershaw would be back in Dodger blue but whether he would be back at all; the general consensus has been that he would either return to the Dodgers, go to his hometown Rangers, or retire.

2023 ZiPS Projection – Clayton Kershaw
Year W L ERA G GS IP H ER HR BB SO ERA+ WAR
2023 10 5 3.41 22 22 121.3 107 46 17 25 129 122 2.3

2023 ZiPS Projection Percentiles – Clayton Kershaw
Percentile ERA+ ERA WAR
95% 197 2.11 4.1
90% 167 2.49 3.5
80% 147 2.82 3.1
70% 138 3.01 2.8
60% 129 3.22 2.6
50% 122 3.41 2.3
40% 111 3.73 2.0
30% 105 3.96 1.7
20% 97 4.30 1.4
10% 89 4.68 1.0
5% 81 5.13 0.6

ZiPS suggests a one-year, $17.6 million contract or a two-year, $31.8 million deal, so the projection is likely in the same zip code, if not the same neighborhood. Read the rest of this entry »


Choice Overload on the NL MVP Ballot

Manny Machado
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

As announced on Monday, the MVP finalists for the 2022 season are Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, and Yordan Alvarez in the American League, and Manny Machado, Nolan Arenado, and Paul Goldschmidt in the National League. If you check the FanGraphs leaderboards as regularly as I do, that list might sound familiar; not only are those the top three vote-getters for MVP in each league, but they also happen to be the top three players by WAR as well.

That’s not entirely surprising. Since 2008, every position player to have won the MVP finished among the top three in his league in WAR (Legacy WAR, to be specific). There’s nothing wrong with this per se, since the entire purpose of WAR is to measure player value. Still, it’s a little on the nose to see the finalists line up so perfectly with our leaderboards this year, especially in the NL, where the top eight position players all finished within a single win of one another. Read the rest of this entry »


Rangers Go Bargain Shopping for Pitching With Trade for Jake Odorizzi

Jake Odorizzi
Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

The Rangers spent more than half a billion dollars in new free-agent contracts last year — by far the largest outlay in baseball — and wound up losing 94 games anyway. But while it was not a successful year by any stretch of the imagination, many of those long-term deals set the foundation for the roster as Texas attempts to exit a long rebuilding cycle. And with a solid, if expensive, core to build the lineup around, it isn’t hard to see where the major holes on the roster are: the pitching staff. Last year, the Rangers allowed 4.59 runs per game, 23rd in the majors, and their starters put up ERA- and FIP- marks of 119 and 111, respectively. With Jon Gray essentially the only established option written in pen for the rotation, they have a lot of work to do this offseason.

To that end, the Rangers acquired Jake Odorizzi from the Braves in exchange for Kolby Allard on Wednesday. Atlanta will be covering $10 million of Odorizzi’s $12.5 million salary in 2023 after he exercised his player option prior to being dealt. The unique two-year deal that he signed with Houston in 2021 included a number of performance bonuses and escalating clauses that pushed his player option from a base of $6.5 million to the current $12.5 million salary the Rangers will pay. Those escalators also increased the size of the buyout on his option from $3.25 million to $6.25 million. By meeting all of the thresholds and maxing out his potential salary, his decision to exercise his option became an easy decision. To make things even sweeter, his player option for ‘23 also includes a number of performance bonuses that could increase his total salary to a maximum of $15.5 million.

Odorizzi will be joining his sixth organization in his 12th season as a big leaguer. Over the last two years, he’s posted a league- and park-adjusted ERA (104) and FIP (107) just a hair over league average across 45 starts and 211 innings. These past couple of seasons have been a bit of a disappointment after what seemed like a breakout season back in 2019, when he put up career-bests in FIP, strikeout rate, and WAR. Unfortunately, a host of minor injuries cost him most of the shortened 2020 season and have prevented him from pitching a full season since then. Last season, with a healthy starting rotation full of better options, the Astros traded him straight up for Will Smith (the reliever) at the trade deadline. Read the rest of this entry »


Postseason Managerial Report Card: Rob Thomson

Rob Thomson
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Rob Thomson is a folk hero in Philadelphia now. He brought the Phillies back from an early-season funk and eked into the playoffs, then charged to a World Series berth behind a barrage of home runs and an underrated bullpen. If the team had won two more games against the Astros, I might be talking about Thomson’s unexpected ascent to King of Philadelphia. Instead, I’m grading his managerial decisions.

As usual, I’m focusing on in-game decisions only. That covers lineup and pinch-hitting decisions on the offensive side, as well as defensive replacements in the rare case where that comes up. It covers pitching usage, both starter length and bullpen deployment. It doesn’t cover keeping your bench players involved in the game, or getting your relievers ready to enter in any given inning, or keeping team morale up when all seems lost. Those are all monumentally important, and also impossible to observe from my position. Let’s get to those in-game decisions, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »


Job Posting: Washington Nationals – Data Engineer, Full Stack Web Developer

Data Engineer, Baseball Research & Development

Summary:
The Washington Nationals are looking to hire a software engineer focusing on data engineering and infrastructure to join our Baseball R&D group. The data engineer will help ensure our datasets are well organized and accessible for our analysts and web developers. We are looking for candidates who are passionate about building impactful solutions around data workflows and enthusiastic about working in a baseball front office.

The Washington Nationals Baseball R&D group is responsible for deriving insights from our baseball datasets and building proprietary metrics and data products which are used to inform baseball decision making throughout our organization.

We prefer candidates who are willing to relocate to Washington, DC area for in person/hybrid work at Nationals Park but are willing to consider a fully remote option for exceptional candidates.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Build robust data imports that pull data from a variety of sources (HTTP API’s, cloud object stores like AWS S3, relational databases) and write to our internal data systems.
  • Develop validation processes to monitor data quality and flag potential sources of error.
  • Help with the deployment, orchestration, and monitoring of our data pipelines. We use Prefect for orchestration, utilizing Docker and AWS ECS.
  • Design and build solutions to make working with our internal datasets easier. This work includes maintaining database tables and views, merging datasets from different sources for easier access, and possibly building internal API’s or other microservices to make data more accessible.
  • Assist with the maintenance of our cloud computing infrastructure: manage and configure servers, databases, and other internal tools.
  • Research and advocate for any new tooling that can aide in timely, accurate and accessible data delivery
  • Write documentation
  • Participate in code reviews

Requirements:

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, information science, or a related field.
  • 3+ years of relevant work experience.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities necessary to perform essential functions

  • Fluent in Python and experience with Pandas.
  • Proficient with MySQL, PostgreSQL, or other relational database systems.
  • Experience with Docker.
  • Comfortable working on the command line in a Linux environment.
  • Experience using git for version control.
  • Some experience with R is preferred, but not required.
  • Ability to work independently with close attention to detail.
  • Enthusiastic about working in baseball.
  • Authorized to work in the United States.

Physical/Environmental Requirements

  • Office: Working conditions are normal for an office environment. Work may require occasional weekend and/or evening work.

Our Stack

  • We write most of our imports in Python, using Prefect for orchestrating our data workflows, which are dockerized and deployed on AWS ECS. Our analysts work mostly in R.
  • Our servers run Ubuntu Linux.
  • We utilize several AWS services, primarily EC2, RDS, S3, ECS, Batch, EFS.
  • We use MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB for our databases. We also leverage SQLite, DuckDB, DynamoDB for certain applications.
  • We use Terraform, Ansible, and Packer for managing our infrastructure
  • We use a self-hosted GitLab instance for our code repositories and for CI/CD.

All applicants for employment at the Washington Nationals are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to commencing employment. Applicants who receive a conditional offer of employment will be required to produce proof of vaccination status prior to their first day of employment. Applicants with qualifying disabilities or bona fide religious objections may be exempted from this requirement or otherwise accommodated if they are unable to be vaccinated.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.


Full Stack Web Developer, Baseball Research & Development

Summary:

The Washington Nationals are seeking a full stack web developer to join our Baseball Research & Development team. We are looking for candidates who are both passionate about building web applications and enthusiastic about the opportunity to work on software that has a significant impact within a baseball organization.

The developer will work on a small team to build and maintain an internal web application used by scouts, coaches, player development staff, and the baseball operations front office. Some key features of the site include scouting reports, video, player projections, custom reports and tools, and the display of both public and proprietary metrics related to player performance and evaluation.

We prefer candidates who are willing to relocate to Washington, DC area for in person/hybrid work at Nationals Park but are willing to consider a fully remote option for exceptional candidates.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Design, build, and test new features, working on both the frontend and backend of the application
  • Support and maintain existing features
  • Investigate and resolve bugs
  • Develop and deploy data imports and other background processing jobs
  • Work closely with R&D analysts to display public and private metrics
  • Write documentation
  • Participate in code reviews

Requirements:

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, information science, or related experiences
  • 2+ years of full-time web development experience

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities necessary to perform essential functions

  • Ability to communicate clearly and effectively
  • Ability to write clean, concise, and maintainable code
  • Ability to work both collaboratively and independently
  • Experience with modern programming languages (e.g. Ruby, Python, JavaScript) and frameworks (e.g. Rails, Django, Flask, Node/Express). Experience with Rails is preferred.
  • Experience with frontend JavaScript frameworks, such as jQuery, Vue.js, or React.
  • Understanding of relational database schema design, experience using MySQL & PostgreSQL, and comfort writing direct SQL statements.
  • Experience with data visualization is preferred.
  • Experience with Linux and using command line tools is preferred.
  • Experience working with a large inherited codebase is a plus.
  • Authorized to work in the United States

Physical/Environmental Requirements

  • Office: Working conditions are normal for an office environment. Work may require occasional weekend and/or evening work.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

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