by Justin Mattingly ‘17
Three sport management majors and Professor Dr. Rodney Paul attended the conference, which took place from March 12-14, with an additional sport management major contributing to research. The group was joined by a sport management minor and a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Gregory Ackerman, representing the class of 2015, along with Colby Conetta and Joey Weinberg, members of the class of 2017, attended the conference in Phoenix, Arizona and took part in the Diamond Dollars Case Competition. The two other members of their team were Justin Mattingly, a sophomore newspaper and journalism and political science major and sport management minor, and Raymond Garzia, a graduate student studying mathematics.
The Diamond Dollars Case Competition was founded by SABR President Vince Gennaro and during the competition, students from colleges and universities across the U.S. compete against each other by preparing an analysis and presentation of a baseball operations decision. The question asked was: What is the perfect Cole Hamels trade? The team came up with a few new statistics, including one called the “Trade Benefit Factor” that put a dollar value on each player involved in a trade and put a dollar value on the overall cost/benefit for the teams involved.
The competition took place on the morning of March 12 and throughout the rest of the day, the student attendees, all members of the Baseball Statistics and Sabermetrics Club, were able to meet and network with personnel from various Major League Baseball organizations and other baseball-centric companies.
Both Ackerman and Dr. Rodney Paul presented research at the competition.
Ackerman presented on behalf of the Baseball Statistics and Sabermetrics Club. In the fall, the club began its main research project for the year. Ackerman presented, “Why Does a Team Outperform its Run Differential?” More than 25 members of the club conducted the research.
Paul presented the paper, “The Impact of Length of Game on Major League Baseball Attendance Demand” which looked at attendance over past MLB seasons and analyzed the impact of the pace of play as Major League Baseball moves forward with changes with the hope of speeding the game up. Paul, Mattingly and sport management student Jeremy Losak, a member of the class of 2016 researched the paper.
Attendees attended panels with representatives from more than 20 MLB organizations, including general managers and directors of both baseball and business analytics.
The conference will again be held in Phoenix next year and the Baseball Statistics and Sabermetrics Club has not yet decided if it will look to present its research at the SABR Analytics Conference or another conference.