University of Minnesota Athletics
Casey & McDevitt Talk Analytics at SportCon
1/11/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
St. Paul, Minn. - University of Minnesota assistant coaches Patrick Casey and Ty McDevitt spoke about baseball analytics at SportCon hosted by the University of St. Thomas Tuesday.
MinneAnalytics and Inside Edge invited Gopher baseball to speak about the application of analytics, sabermetrics and metrics.
"None of this would be possible without the support of John Anderson and Rob Fornasiere along with our student managers, who we believe to be the absolute best in college baseball." Casey said, "Over the last few years our managers have provided us with an unprecedented work ethic to record and analyze data from both game and practice competition which has allowed us to provide objective feedback for our student athletes."
Casey and McDevitt spoke on a panel with the Minnesota Twins' Derek Falvey and Jack Goin. Some of the topics that were covered included how individuals use analytics to better their team, some of the challenges in analytics and how data will be used in the future of sports.
Gopher baseball's use of analytics began when Anderson originally met with Inside Edge founders Jay Donchetz and Randy Istre back in the early 1980s and began the discussion of implementing software to track and record the analytical usage of statistical data in baseball. In college baseball, Minnesota is at the forefront of using data and implementing it on a daily basis.
Other panelists were ESPN's VP of Stats & Research Jeff Bennett, Inside Edge cofounder Jay Donchetz, Milwaukee Bucks Director of Basketball Analytics Michael Clutterbuck and former Twins' third baseman Corey Koskie.
"What really inspires us the most here is Gopher Baseball's mission to foster and grow the amateur game at all levels in Minnesota." Casey added, "Analytics and data gathering is a platform to get more people involved in the game of baseball who have a passion for it. This type of industry allows people, from all different backgrounds, the chance to leave their footprints on the game, create opportunities and continue to foster and grow the development of college baseball. We couldn't be more proud to have Gopher Baseball at the forefront of this exciting new horizon."
The mission at Gopher Baseball is to foster and grow the game of baseball at all levels. The Maroon and Gold open their season February 17 at UC Irvine.
