AI and Statistical Analysis will win World Series 2017

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World of Sport Reporter: @worldofsport

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With the World Series starting this week @worldofsport takes a look at what made the two finalists: Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros so successful, and how it will affect not only the future of baseball, but potentially all sports. Rather than traditional training methods, both finalists have used statistical analysis as their main tool of operation. All clubs in all sports use computers to analyse everything, but never in the history of baseball, at least, have two teams used technology as much as the Dodgers and Astros.

In 1988, when the Dodgers last went to the World Series they won in part because an old scout with a good eye for detail told the team that Oakland Athletics star relief pitcher Dennis Eckersley would throw a slider to left handed hitters if the count was 3-2. Kirk Gibson a Dodgers outfielder remembered that advice as he faced Eckersley in the ninth inning of the first game trailing 4-3. And sure enough Eckersley threw the 3-2 slider and Gibson – on gimpy knees – knocked the ball into the bleachers for a two-run home run that won the game.

What the Dodgers and Astros do now is much more complex than analysing the opposing pitcher or predicting when he might throw his fastball. All clubs need now is to look on the database and they have all the information they need. Not even the decision makers are “sports people”. On Houston’s staff are a former blackjack dealer and a NASA researcher, while a former Wall Street analyst and a MIT graduate with a doctorate in philosophy give the nod for LA.

Not only do they use the statistical approach in preparation for games, but also signing players. This year LA signed little known Tony Cingrani from Cincinnati. He’d had no success there but the Dodgers analysis team thought they could fix his throwing problems. They nurtured Cingrani and developed his slider technique and his fastball to the top right, and as a consequence he’s turned out to be one of the Dodger’s most important relievers.

The Astros have their own statistical approach. In 2014, Ben Reiter described how the Astros offices were a evaluation database, which contained everything they need to know about each player.

In a now famous Sports Illustrated story from 2014, Ben Reiter described an enclave in the team’s offices where a group of employees have created an evaluation database that contains piles of information about every player in the organization, as well as those the team considered drafting. It wasn’t just about statistics, but also a player’s health and family history, his pitching mechanics, shape of his swing, and even his personality.

Such depth is only the start. Almost everything about the players in this World Series has come from a computer somewhere. While their approaches are not without some human interpretation, the mountains of data on each player reveal information never known to these teams before.

So, given the success the Astros and Dodgers this year, Scouts with a good eye for detail are becoming a thing of the past. A future where flash drives and clouds are more useful in preparation than a bat and mitt, or when probability predictions become more practiced than hitting as many home runs as you can, is no doubt coming.

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Photo Sources:

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www.ncaa.com
www.yimg.com
www.mlb.com
www.yardbarker.com

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