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Sox serious about analytics


gogosox1959
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Article in The Athletic (pay): https://theathletic.com/4089120/2023/01/14/white-sox-san-mondry-cohen-arbitration-deals/

Sox hire former Washington assistant GM Sam Mondry-Cohen. He spent the past year as a consultant for the Phillies. He's a senior fellow for Wharton’s sports analytics and business initiative at Penn. At Washington 2009-2021, he created their research and development dept and developed their internal stat data base. His "experience with the Nationals is rooted in trying to distill analytical information into actionable takeaways for players on the field"

To me,  what shows this is really legit is that he will be traveling with the team all season.  Good article; worth the read if you have access.

 

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I’m sure this person is very smart and does a his job very well, but if you don’t have the talent on the field, I can’t see how this can help us.   There are at least 6 to 7 American League teams with better talent than what we have.   We had a chance this off season to help this team close that talent gap, we did very little.   The organization told us for years they would step up when the time came, that was a total lie.  Hiring a smart analytical person is NOT going to cut it for me!!

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3 hours ago, Johno said:

I’m sure this person is very smart and does a his job very well, but if you don’t have the talent on the field, I can’t see how this can help us.   There are at least 6 to 7 American League teams with better talent than what we have.   We had a chance this off season to help this team close that talent gap, we did very little.   The organization told us for years they would step up when the time came, that was a total lie.  Hiring a smart analytical person is NOT going to cut it for me!!

I think of this offseason as similar to one of those Hahn in-season classic lines: Injured player returning is our big trade deadline acquisition.

I feel like they’re hoping the new staff and organizational approach will help Yoan, Eloy, Robert, etc unlock their full potential, and those will essentially be viewed as their huge free agent additions.

That might happen, and I do like the new approach. But in typical Sox fashion, they’re putting all their eggs in this basket and not complimenting it with more impactful additions. ‘Good enough’ is still their overall philosophy it seems.


 

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On 1/15/2023 at 7:24 AM, Johno said:

I’m sure this person is very smart and does a his job very well, but if you don’t have the talent on the field, I can’t see how this can help us.   There are at least 6 to 7 American League teams with better talent than what we have.   We had a chance this off season to help this team close that talent gap, we did very little.   The organization told us for years they would step up when the time came, that was a total lie.  Hiring a smart analytical person is NOT going to cut it for me!!

Analytics should impact both player acquisition as well as in-game strategy.

One of our major gripes as a fan base last year was the horrible decision making by the coaching staff. Analytics hires like this, to me, show that we’re going to change that.

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Ben Hansen who left the Sox for an sports biometrics group at Intel, looks to have moved to Mets to be director of performance technology.

He was an interesting guy, hope this new hire can continue to keep up our investment in technology in player dev.

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Blah blah more stuff about what they should've done before the rebuild. These things need to be implemented throughout the system not just the White Sox with people at all levels who are capable of doing the same thing and exchanging info with the new guy while learning from his expertise .

This new guy will be over loaded if he's trying to do this for every player at every level. Same goes for biomechanics ,super slo-mo analysis and everything else that goes into making your minor league system better.

Improve players from the ground up, not just at the top when getting players to make changes is a lot harder

On 1/16/2023 at 5:55 AM, Harold's Leg Lift said:

So they're gonna start taking Cease out in the 5th inning while he's throwing a no-no.  Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa........

I know the Rodon situation has been played out but they did abuse him in the 1st half in 2021. Just way too many innings for a guy who hadn't pitched significant innings in a while in the 1st 2-3 months of the season. He wilted down the stretch which was to be expected since the beginning of the season. But he's such a horse that he pitched through the tired arm and into the playoffs but he wasn't close to as effective which led to everyone thinking he was injured again.

I think keeping Cease healthy so he can be effective down the stretch in a close race and into the playoffs should always be the most important goal. It should be allowed once in a while to go 7 and 8 innings once a month just for endurance . I wouldn't keep a starter in that long in back to back games no matter how good he is pitching. Rest, recuperate, stay strong.

In the grand scheme of things, while a pitcher of course want's a no hitter ,it is a team game and staying healthy is what helps the team most and ultimately helps  the player have a lengthier , healthier career . This has been evident throughout the window when we can't get the best young players the Sox traded for to stay on the field.

Availability is still the best ability.

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It's good that they are Investing in it but most important is that coaches and scouts are forced to use the stuff.

Kyle boddy from driveline said a couple years ago that there were teams hiring analytics, biomechanics etc guys who would write in depth analytical reports and some of the old school coaches and scouts would put those emails in the trash without reading them.

Most teams now do have biomechanics, analytics, data etc guys but what teams like the Astros, dodgers, rays or guardians do better is getting everyone to pull on one string and have a really streamlined approach while the worse development and scouting teams have the advanced stuff more as a "you can use that if you want" thing and still have many old school people who don't act accordingly to the analytics information or even actively fight against it ("we have always done it that way").

Many GMs have failed modernization that way, they bring in good analytics and good ideas but don't have the power against a wall of old school baseball lifer types who are loyal to each other and stand together to push against change.

Here the owner is really important, you need the owner to tell the old school guys "my way or highway".

Edited by Dominikk85
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