So you think you can be the General Manager?

Who’s the best hitter in baseball?  Does trading a solid, veteran player for prospects really benefit a team? Should Felix win the Cy Young even with the worst win-loss record?  Ask these questions to fans in the 30 different major league baseball cities and you will get 30 decidedly different responses.  What matters when considering a question as seemingly simple as “who’s the best hitter?”  Are you talking about batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, runs created or wins above replacement?  While most observers make claims from their heart and experience at the ballpark, the science of Sabermetrics has been developed over that past 30 years to give fans and general managers, alike, an objective strategy for evaluating the statistics that characterize baseball.

This project week is designed to introduce you to sabermetrics, to provide you with statistical tools to evaluate offensive performances of today, as well as from past players.  Using available resources online, the writings of sabermetrics pioneer Bill James, baseball columnist Rob Neyer, writer Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball), as well as films and documentaries, you will develop a battery of analytical strategies to address key questions such as:  What was the real impact of bringing the humidor into Chase Field? Could Alex Rodriguez' amazing rookie season have been predicted from his minor league stats? Are players as good at ages 30-34 as they are at ages 25-29? 

Using baseball statistics as our foundation, we will also examine new questions surrounding analytics in other sports, such as basketball, football, and soccer. We will explore how general managers identify undervalued skills and utilize them in constructing their teams and strategies. At the end of the week, we will have fantasy baseball draft in which you can demonstrate your newly-learned skills in a fun and competitive setting.