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Old 10-14-2019, 11:15 PM   #1
SmoothGentleman
Major Leagues
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 394
Modern Analytics: A Baseball Story

13-2.




Who knew that I would be almost 24, sitting in an office and gleaming over my teams start to a season?




To be honest, I wouldn't have. Three years ago, Malcolm and I decided to make the Baseball Analytics Institute a reality. We sent texts to his Sean Mantione who joined us in pitching East Carolina University Head Coach, Jason Hull our analytics program using the technology we could get our hands on, sabermetrics, and experimental coaching methods to increase player performance.

Coach Hull responded quite negatively to our group e-mail writing, "I don't need a bunch of kids giving me advice on baseball. I've been coaching for twenty years." Coach Hull was correct. However, his coaching career had mixed results...at best. He was fired from ECU after the 2020 season, who saw that coming?

Malcolm, Sean, and I were all students at ECU when we made the pitch. All huge fans of baseball, and deeply researched within modern analytics and the technology beginning to come to light in scouting and player development aspects of the sport.


Malcolm was a math major. He can compute and dissect numbers better than anyone I've ever met. He grew up with his dad in Washington, North Carolina, where he was often picked on for being a 'nerd' and not fitting in with his African American counterparts. He often told me about his childhood issues, but his dad encouraged his love of math, science, and baseball. His dad Maurice was a high school football player but didn't force his love of football onto his son. We met during our freshman year at ECU.

Sean was an engineering major who can solve mathematical equations in the same vein as Malcolm. In fact, they met in a college calculus class. They bonded over numbers and baseball, quickly diving into sabermetrics and how technology will change the game for the better.

Myself? I was studying business and political science. My love of baseball came from my father who played in since defunct baseball leagues in Australia and Italy. Once he retired, he began coaching in Greenville, North Carolina where I grew up, which is also the home of ECU.

Our initial goal was to help our struggling baseball program, especially with football in a deep decline. Yet, we didn't allow Coach Hull's spurn of our talents to keep us from pursuing our baseball goals. It took Sean an entire twenty seconds to respond, "I'm in" after we shared our idea.


That was the beginning of the Baseball Analytics Institute. We would begin by making YouTube videos of our aspirations and our theories on baseball development and scouting. To our surprise, several of our early videos soared passed 100,000 views.




The advertising revenue allowed us to bring Malcolm's younger brother Christopher into the institute, followed by my younger sister Josephine. As we continued to grow our friends Audrey Hudson, an above-average softball hitter; Richard Colon who pitched in community college, and Allison Boyd who learned to scout from her dad would all join us.




In February of 2020, we have enough capital to rent our own facility in Greenville, North Carolina. High school and MLB minor league players would soon come to our facility for our coaching and consultation. Soon Baseball Analytics Institute would be featured in popular baseball scouting outlets, and I was asked for several interviews. Crazy right?




Life would become even more unimaginable when teams began contacting me for jobs within their front office. At first, nothing was serious enough to make me consider leaving the institute, especially since the offers were only for my services. I wasn't about to leave those who helped me build something this evolutionary.

However, in January 2021, you know several months ago, the offers became a bit more serious after the Baseball Analytics Institute's reputation continued to grow. The Arizona Diamondbacks offered me to come in as their General Manager, but I would answer to the President of Baseball Operations and wouldn't have full control over their player development department. The offer seemed almost as a publicity stunt, rather than an opportunity for me and the Baseball Analytics Institute team to change how their organization operates. The $210,000 salary was a large number, but I wouldn't have been able to bring in everyone I wanted. It was hard to pass on the offer, especially since the three-year deal would have taken care of me financially for the rest of my life.


The Colorado Rockies offered a $420,000 salary over two years to become the Executive Vice President, Player Development & Scouting. Yet, they made it well known there would be a short leash and a lot of pressure to quickly install the BAI program and foster results.




We talked about it as a group and decided that wasn't the fit for us. Charlie Monfort wasn't the boss we were looking for.


Everything would change on March 1st. Pranay Naimish, owner of the Baseball of India team, Vadodara Dynamo offered a far lower salary but would allow me to bring in my entire team. His National Congress background gave him the confidence to offer, and he ensured that the offer was not a publicity stunt. Naimish ensured that he would remain 'hands-off' and just wanted to make sure he would make a profit while fielding a competitive team.




This is exactly what I wanted to hear. The team talked it over, and we accepted the offer on March 2nd. Our first moves were to bring in new voices to lead our pitching staff and scouting department while dumping the necessary money into our player development program to bring over what we needed from the United States and begin building it in India.




After those decisions, I decided to take full advantage of the BOI rules allowing for both ten foreign-born hitters and pitchers. I and the scouting department poured over independent leagues looking for contracts to purchase.


Which to this point of the season has paid off quite well.









BOI has a 120 game season, and I decided to travel with and watch every game from various parks throughout April. We just defeated the Nagpur Bobcats 6-0 to end a successful month and a 4-1 series victory against Nagpur in Vadodara.

I'll still watch some games live throughout the season, but I need to get hands-on with the player development network, international complex, and deal with the press more directly than I have.





"Jessica, the car is waiting," Malcolm says bursting into the office without knocking on the previously closed door. "We have an early day tomorrow."



"Just because we've been dating for a year, doesn't mean you don't have to knock," I reply coyly. I know Malcolm is taking his role seriously and wants to see us succeed. "My mistake madam President, shall I try again?"



I could only smile towards him as I got up from behind the desk, "Let's get going."











Vadodara Dynamo Office & Staff


Baseball Operations

Owner: Pranay Naimish (Lenient and Hands-off who wants to make money) ->62

President, Baseball Operations & General Manager: Jessica Creger (Hired March 2, 2021 at the age of 23) [March 15 birthdate] ->24

Executive Vice President, Baseball Analytics: Malcolm Dillahunt ->24

Assistant General Manager: Agniruha Premkumar ->45

Assistant Director, Baseball Operations: Josephine Creger ->21



Player Development & Scouting


Senior VP, Scouting Director: Cudakarana Ramamuthe ->47

Senior VP, Player Development Engineer: Sean Mantione ->24

Director, Amateur Scouting: Ansh Amin ->34

Director, Pro Scouting: Dhruv Laghari ->41

Director, International Scouting: Allison Boyd ->23

Assistant Player Development Engineer, Video: Christopher Dillahunt ->22

Assistant Player Development Engineer, Hitting: Audrey Hudson ->24

Assistant Player Development Engineer, Pitching: Richard Colon ->25

Assistant, Scouting Director: Asapurna Mohaiemen ->32 [In game Scouting Director]

Assistant, Amateur Scouting: Chetan Jha ->30

Assistant, Pro Scouting: Dalip Patel ->33

Assistant, International Scouting: Colby Bassett ->27

Minor League Pitching Coordinator: Dylan Short ->24

Minor League Fielding Coordinator: Adit Grover ->34


Medical & Training Staff

Head Athletic Trainer: Jayasvamin Melliyal ->47

Assistant Athletic Trainer: Bhakti Melliyal ->24

Assistant Athletic Trainer: Kabir Lal ->36


Coaching Staff

Manager: Devayukta Hazare ->44

Bench Coach: Ksitisa Sanaka ->33

Pitching Coach: Bhuvanacandra Himani ->38

Hitting Coach: Kazuhiro Kiyohara ->53

1st Base Coach, Outfield Coach: Abhipala Kaushal ->33 [In game Bench Coach]

3rd Base Coach, Infield Coach: Adhipa Ramchandra ->53 [In game Bench Coach]

Catching Coach, Run Prevention Coach: Nick Avila ->32 [In game Pitching Coach]

Bullpen Coach, Assistant Pitching Coach: Anderson Donaldson ->26

Assistant Hitting Coach: Hajime Miki->44 [In game Hitting Coach]

Bullpen Catcher: Kyle Matterson ->24

Organizational Pitching Coach: Agendra Suchin ->32 [In game Pitching Coach]

Organizational Hitting Coach: Raj Vadivelu ->32 [In game Hitting Coach]

Organizational Fielding Coach: Todd Leroux ->40 [In game Bench Coach]

Director of Coaching, International Complex: Aly Gonzalez ->30 [In game Manager]

Coach, International Complex: Thomas Barksdale ->30 [In game Bench Coach]

Coach, International Comex: Preston Vancil ->34 [In game Pitching Coach]

Last edited by SmoothGentleman; 03-30-2020 at 02:23 AM.
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