D1 schools with great analytics departments...

https://tippie.uiowa.edu/people/jeffrey-ohlmann

Contact this guy. I read an article about him a few years ago about how he got into analytics because of his love of baseball and statistics. I discussed with him when one of my guys was choosing a college. And close to u!

I am not sure what type of degree  but as far as I know one guy makes up the baseball analytics dept for the baseball teams. Most D1 programs and all MLB teams use Rapsodo to give them the info that they need, but you have to learn to interpret. When my son was at FAU he went to Driveline to learn about Rapsodo before they bought the product.  He then worked with a student who was a math genius to interpret.

Many programs have a graduate or paid position, at Florida one person makes up the Analytics team. Not sure if he has students working under him.

I assume most universities have analytic business depts, it that what he is looking for?

Here's an article about what they are doing at Stevens Tech, which is also a very strong engineering school:

https://stevensducks.com/news/...tain-and-thrive.aspx

I have a correction. At Florida, there is one person head of analytics, the team consists of pcoach,  vcoach and more than likely student asst. The difficult part is explaining the results to the players, but they are smart and embrace the results on improving their game.

Maybe you can create your own job title like this guy …

https://www.unc.edu/discover/t...room-to-the-diamond/

@RJM posted:

Maybe you can create your own job title like this guy …

https://www.unc.edu/discover/t...room-to-the-diamond/

This job title is not unique, maybe worded differently.

All of these guys began the same way. It's not anything new.

The article is 3 years old. Every big program and most D1 programs use analytics.

I think a lot of schools collect the data, not all know how to use it. If schools are going to invest in all the tech, they should have a paid position to implement it.   Our school has every data collection system possible, but the info is just available to the players instead of making it part of the program where they dedicate any time to going over it.  When they were making changes to my son's delivery that was the first question I asked... what does this do to your spin rate and movement?  Are they looking at that?  The answer was not that I know of.

I know Rice just put in a pitching lab and bought a ton of new systems (and then got rid of the guy who brought it all in and understood how to use and apply it). But most schools do have it and it may be easier to find a position at a school that doesn't already have an analytics team and is willing to let someone come in and  improve the program as an intern.

@baseballhs Did Rice get rid of him or he got a better position somewhere else?

They got rid of him.

Disclaimer: I'm a proponent of using whatever is interesting to young people to hook them on the field of data science and analytics.

Find the applied mathematics program and campus culture that gets him excited the most, and has a club baseball team. Develop the analytical thinking skills, and the data production skills (python, R, SQL, Tensorflow) for a career getting paid excellent money for thinking up and answering awesome questions about anything he is curious about.

And play club baseball to stay connected to the game, and become BMOC on the internet by contributing quant-driven analysis of awesome new talent . I doubt any baseball program would turn away a student with interesting questions and a willingness/ability to apply data toward answering them. Or maybe they would... not all baseball programs are enlightened... probably wouldn't want to compile that program's stats, anyway.

Applied mathematics - the great analytics people I work with come from all kinds of applied mathematics backgrounds. Electrical engineering, political science, computer science, physics. I can think of just one who came out of a business program. For someone starting out in their career, I would be wary of "data science" programs cropping up everywhere.

@TPM posted:

This job title is not unique, maybe worded differently.

All of these guys began the same way. It's not anything new.

The article is 3 years old. Every big program and most D1 programs use analytics.

Used ….

Here’s your answer from the expert. They all have them.

@Long415 posted:

Disclaimer: I'm a proponent of using whatever is interesting to young people to hook them on the field of data science and analytics.

Find the applied mathematics program and campus culture that gets him excited the most, and has a club baseball team. Develop the analytical thinking skills, and the data production skills (python, R, SQL, Tensorflow) for a career getting paid excellent money for thinking up and answering awesome questions about anything he is curious about.

And play club baseball to stay connected to the game, and become BMOC on the internet by contributing quant-driven analysis of awesome new talent . I doubt any baseball program would turn away a student with interesting questions and a willingness/ability to apply data toward answering them. Or maybe they would... not all baseball programs are enlightened... probably wouldn't want to compile that program's stats, anyway.

Applied mathematics - the great analytics people I work with come from all kinds of applied mathematics backgrounds. Electrical engineering, political science, computer science, physics. I can think of just one who came out of a business program. For someone starting out in their career, I would be wary of "data science" programs cropping up everywhere.

With a son leaving on Sunday to begin a 4/1 data science program with dreams of working in a front office once his playing days are done I am curious what your last sentence implies.

@ASR posted:

With a son leaving on Sunday to begin a 4/1 data science program with dreams of working in a front office once his playing days are done I am curious what your last sentence implies.

I'm saying that I would be wary of programs focusing on the top layer of that 4/1 without the foundational technical education. There is a glut of for-profit/exec education programs focused on data science, and these may be great for mid-career professionals but not where I would point a kid.

@Long415 posted:

I'm saying that I would be wary of programs focusing on the top layer of that 4/1 without the foundational technical education. There is a glut of for-profit/exec education programs focused on data science, and these may be great for mid-career professionals but not where I would point a kid.

On top of some advanced math classes, his course load will include statistics, mathematical modeling, python, R, data visualization, database systems and machine learning so hopefully he'll come out with a marketable masters degree to pursue a career in baseball analytics or fall back on another industry.

As noted above, UNC has a strong track record.

https://twitter.com/DiamondHee...ZwTYQWKKgDM1K_yGf8zw

@ASR congrats to your son! Sounds like a great opportunity.

This is not exactly what you asked, but:

"Syracuse University, home to the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, started offering a sports analytics major in 2017. The degree compiles a series of fields, emphasizing math, statistics, research methodology and computer programming. Current students have received internships with organizations such as the Pittsburgh Pirates and Buffalo Bills."

https://www.usatoday.com/story...-college/4574635002/

When are the programs presented to an individual pitcher, before the game, at practice, off season, during a game? Does the Head Coach set up a consulting schedule? When does the "Social Psychologist" have his input?

Bob

Here is my purely subjective list of non-D1 programs (except for top three, nobody can argue this...intelligently) ...in case you he wants to play ball AND do STEM.

Top of the class: Nobody even close to the top three

1. Caltech.

2. MIT.

3.. Harvey Mudd. (CMS)

Next Level

4. Rose-Hulman

4. Johns Hopkins

4 Carnegie Mellon

5. Colorado School of Mines (yes look them up)

Check them out:

NECSAC Schools

Trinity University (TX) Biased opinion but modeling engineering/science program after MUDD

Emory

WashU (STL)

Late add:

https://www.bachelorsdegreecen...schools-stem-majors/

I will also add that any time I see a young family I always ask "How are you doing in math?" My limited view of the world is "If you can do math you can do anything" and "math is the keys to the kingdom"

I might add "I wanted to be an engineer and now I are one'

@baseballhs posted:

They got rid of him.

I wonder how some of the new breed of pitching coaches would view a guy like Kershaw who has pretty average pitch metrics across the board.    Here is a quote from Clayton:

Some people might be more apt to understand the scientific, mechanical, analytical side. Some people, you might just need to tell them, ‘Stop thinking — just compete,’ and we have a lot of those guys.

I plan on preparing the way I always have. I don’t really know how they’re planning to give me the information — I guess I’ll find out. To me, it’s up to them… it’s not our job to conform to them. It’s their job, as coaches, to learn the players and how they take in and process information and help them with that. It’s their job to figure that out.

I think this is the area that some of them struggle with and I think they get too hung up on metrics vs the bulldog who just goes out there and wins games.   

@d-mac posted:

I wonder how some of the new breed of pitching coaches would view a guy like Kershaw who has pretty average pitch metrics across the board.    Here is a quote from Clayton:

Some people might be more apt to understand the scientific, mechanical, analytical side. Some people, you might just need to tell them, ‘Stop thinking — just compete,’ and we have a lot of those guys.

I plan on preparing the way I always have. I don’t really know how they’re planning to give me the information — I guess I’ll find out. To me, it’s up to them… it’s not our job to conform to them. It’s their job, as coaches, to learn the players and how they take in and process information and help them with that. It’s their job to figure that out.

I think this is the area that some of them struggle with and I think they get too hung up on metrics vs the bulldog who just goes out there and wins games.   

I 100% agree with this.  I think most of the guys that truly understand this are highly intelligent and have a hard time translating it into useful information for the athlete. Or in the case of an analytics dept., they might struggle with why the metrics say what they do and are only able to show what the data says.  Some athletes love it and it's helpful, for others it is just another thing to worry about.  It is rare to have someone who both really understands it and understands what causes some of the changes you might see.  That said, I think coaches need to have a basic understanding of it.  To me, if you suggest a change to an athlete as a coach, you could/should use it as ONE tool to evaluate what your change has done.  For example, if you change a kid's delivery and then the next time he throws, he is getting hit (you see it with your eyes), go to rapsodo and see what the change did to the movement profile .  If that also backs up what you saw, that change may not be what you need.  Every athlete has to be coached individually to best develop.  Once you get to college, most coaches don't have the time or the maybe the desire to invest. The problem is when coaches make changes, they don't work, they don't understand why, and they leave them flapping in the wind and move on to the next kid.

The great hitters Roberto, Willie, Henry, Ted made "little games" when they faced a new pitcher. They would swing at a pitch out of the zone "on purpose" as they wanted the same pitch again.

Of course, they hit it "off the wall".

ANALYTICAL VS THE FOX!!

BOB

UNC-Charlotte's Sports Analytics degree in its School of Data Science is heavily integrated with its baseball program and other sports.

Sports analytics Degree