baseballWe like baseball here at Corona.  Well, at least Leo, Dave and I like baseball. We enjoy the crack of the bat, the smell of the grass, and, because we’re data junkies, the mountains of statistics.

Baseball and statistics are inseparable.  There seems to be a stat for every aspect of the game from the classic batting average, ERA, and strikeouts, to the more complex “sabermetrics” BABIP, BsR, and EqA.  Compiling the voluminous data to create these statistics is a monumental task, but making use of the numbers is a greater challenge.

Bloomberg, known for their financial analysis, is hoping to use their expertise to help major league baseball teams.  Bloomberg is focusing on determining trends in order to predict future performance.  Major league teams already compile much of the same information, but the advantage of the Bloomberg system is the speed at which teams can access the data and having one repository for all stats.  The data is not limited for distribution to major league teams; Bloomberg also has a similar product available to fantasy baseball players.

One more way analytics can provide a competitive advantage.  In this case, literally.  The three of us just hope our team, the St. Louis  Cardinals, are making full use of it.