Summary[]
Ben and Sam talk to Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Pirates beat writer Travis Sawchik about his new book, Big Data Baseball.
Topics[]
- Travis' new book Big Data Baseball
- Pittsburgh Pirates
- Travis' impression of the Pirates when he started at the Tribune-Review
- Clint Hurdle
- Neal Huntington
- What makes a good manager?
- Cooperating with the Pirates to write the book
- Do teams need to be so secretive?
- Adjusting expectations for the 2015 Pirates
Notes[]
- Travis thinks that while Clint Hurdle may look like a "gray beard old school guy" he is not, and has been very open to thinking about new ways of managing the Pirates.
- Clint Hurdle was first exposed to analytics and new ways of thinking about the game when he worked for MLB Network in 2008 after being fired by the Rockies.
- Sam doesn't think the Pirates have been very secretive about the things that have contributed to their success, and has not seen that hurt them yet.
- Travis did not get special inside access to write the book but the Pirates were accommodating in making available the people he wanted to talk with.
- Travis began to write the book without a book deal in place.
Links[]
- Effectively Wild Episode 680: Travis Sawchik on the Pirates and Big Data Baseball