Nationals assistant GM on winning World Series, Tips for Jobs in Analytics

On this week’s edition of the Sports Info Solutions Baseball podcast, senior research analyst Mark Simon (@MarkASimonSays) opens the show by talking about the defensive analytics concepts he hopes a manager would know (1:16). Mark then talks with Nationals assistant general manager for baseball research and development, Samuel Mondry-Cohen. They discuss Sam’s path from batboy to front office executive (4:19), how the Nationals analytics department is structured (7:57), what it’s like to work with the coaching staff and with ace pitcher Max Scherzer (9:53), what his group was working on when the team was 19-31 (12:54), what role the analytics group played in the team’s acquisition of Daniel Hudson (14:12), and tips for pursuing a job in sports analytics (spoiler: Learn to code!) (15:59).Afterwards Mark is joined by SIS research associate Andrew Kyne (@Andrew_Kyne). They review the White Sox signing of Yasmani Grandal and look at three other free agents of note (20:16). They also offer their own version of 8 MLB Awards ranging from “Hall of Framer” to “Flat Bat.” (25:20)Next podcast episode will be in December. See you then!Supplemental linksMark’s article in The Athletic on how free agents will impact a team on Defensehttps://theathletic.com/1357020/2019/11/07/eighteen-free-agents-who-can-have-an-impact-with-their-defense/Tyler Kepner on Samuel Mondry-Cohenhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/sports/baseball/washington-nationals-data-world-series.html