Pittsburgh Pirates Get Smarter

The Pirates analytics department gained another massive IQ this week.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been developing advanced systems to improve baseball operations since Neal Huntington hired Dan Fox from Baseball Prospectus.  In that vein, the Pirates continue to add to their Baseball Systems Development team.  Another man with a massive IQ has joined the Pirates analytics department it was announced this week.  The latest hire is Stuart Wallace who took the position of Quantitive Analyst.  Don’t know what that means?  It’s what business is all about these days and yet another reason that shows why the Pirates have been successful.

The Pirates had posted the postion on Fangraphs on July 30.  The summary is listed below.

"This position will focus on creating and analyzing baseball data sets through the use of andvanced statistical analysis with the tasks of creating, implementing, and maintaining predictive models to aid in the decision making process.  The position will report to the Director of Baseball Systems Development and act as a resource to other staff on the proper use and implementation of statistical techniques and their suitability for baseball analysis."

It was announced yesterday that Stuart Wallace was hired for the position, which was pretty cool.  We have read some of Wallace’s work over the years at Beyond the Box Score, Gammons Daily, and you probably have to without even realizing it.  Wallace wrote for many blogs including our favorite Baltimore Orioles blog Camden Depot.  Wallace wrote a short goodbye on his blog here and here is an article from Camden Depot that explains a bit of his background and congratulates him on the job.  

Wallace wrote a very cool article on Scott Boras.  It included one of the best paragraphs, I’ve read on the superagent.

Stuart Wallace on Scott Boras

The most interesting part of the article on Boras is this line from the man who represents some of the most talented Pirates players.  The ext uncharted frontiers in baseball are injury analytics and what pharmaceutical agents can be used to improve player health and performance

Wallace has written numerous stories on players health, for example his look at Michael Wacha’s scapula injury is sick.   One would have to believe there is a similar article on Pedro Alvarez now that Wallace is on board.  It’s cool to see the Pirates hire smart people.  Why Wallace is in Bradenton is also very interesting.  But 400 words later, it’s just interesting fun a blog.  Actually it’s thankless.  Over the years we have spent way too much time analyzing the Pirates, but it’s very cool to see the Pirates getting smarter.

See, bloggers aren’t all bad.