Baseball Analytics Program

In this Issue:

• Community Safety Advisory
• An opportunity for your students with the Baseball Analytics program

Community Safety Advisory

This morning, a community safety advisory was issued regarding a stabbing incident reported at 9:30 a.m. in Bailey Park near Wake Downtown. There is no ongoing threat and no one from Wake Forest University is involved. Read more.

An opportunity for your students with the Baseball Analytics program

Baseball is said to be the American pastime – and particularly for Wake Foresters, since we have had a tremendous baseball program, especially in recent years.

A lot of justifiable attention has been paid to the success of the team. Today I want to talk about a program you may not be aware of, but could be of big interest to your students: the Baseball Analytics program. They are looking for new members of their student team, and I was fortunate to sit down with one of their first-year students, Connor Little (‘27) to talk about the program.

Betsy Q: Tell me a little bit about the Baseball Analytics program.

Connor A: Our team is made up of 22 graduate and undergraduate students. Team members work on projects, scouting reports, in-game data collection, and post-game report generation to help our coaching staff better develop and prepare our players for games. We capture data using a combination of different technologies and manually-recorded statistics. A few of the technologies we utilize are TrackMan, a ball tracking technology that captures pitch velocity, spin, and movement, KinaTrax, a markerless motion capture technology that measures the body’s movements during the pitch and swing, and 6th Tool, which measures player sprint speeds, reaction times, and other player-tracking data points for position players and baserunners. We then synthesize this data into tables, graphs, reports, and development plans for our staff and players to access.

Q: How and when did you get involved with the Baseball Analytics program?

A: I love baseball and I was really fortunate to find this program the summer before my first year at Wake. I wanted to find an extracurricular program that would help me connect to fellow students but also one where I could grow my skills. I love baseball, but didn’t know much about how to code data and was eager to learn. So I came onto the program to grow my data analytics skills. Other people are here because they love a specific aspect of the game, like pitching. But you don’t have to know coding or know baseball – all you need is an interest in learning and applying your talents to this work.

Q: What is the application process and how competitive is it?

A: It is a competitive process. We are looking for a small number of students every year, usually between 6 and 8, who will be committed to the program throughout their time at Wake. Students from all majors are welcome to apply. There are three parts to the application: an initial Google form, a take-home project, and an interview. We take a lot of care in our application process to make sure we find students who genuinely want to be a part of our program and who are willing to make the commitment necessary to succeed. The application is live now and is due May 10th. It is open to current as well as incoming ‘28 students. 

Q: Who runs the program and gives you assignments?

A: Chris Lewis is the Director of Data Analytics. He’s a Double Deac graduate of Wake Forest and had worked with this program in his student days. He was instrumental in the team’s success in our run to the College World Series last year. The Wake Forest Magazine did a great article about him. 

Q: What kind of time commitment is involved?

A: The time commitment depends on the time of year. During the spring semester, it is usually around 15 hours per week. The fall semester is usually a bit lighter, likely between 10-12 hours per week. At first glance that sounds like a lot, but that time includes the time spent at games/practices/scrimmages as well as team meetings. So the actual time you are working on your assigned project is maybe 6-8 hours a week, and most of it you can complete at a time of your choosing, though we do have a kind of office hours where our analytics team can be working on their projects in our team room, so you can run ideas past each other.

Q: Is it a paid position?

A: No, it is not paid, it is voluntary. But I would argue that the real-world work experience we are all gaining through learning these sorts of analytics more than make up for a lack of salary. This is a real competitive advantage students can bring into internship or job applications, because we have a track record of proving we can work on a high-functioning team, we have analytical and coding skills, strong critical thinking skills, and more.

Q: What haven’t I asked you that you want to be sure my readers know?

A: We hope that students who are accepted into our program will find a lot of fulfillment in their work and make new friends and professional connections. Regardless of whether a student dreams to work in professional sports or otherwise, we believe that this program gives students a unique opportunity to work with large datasets in a real-world setting. We hope that students will develop both their programming and communication skills, and learn how to leverage data to find competitive advantage. 

Q: Where can interested students or families learn more?

A: You can see profiles of our analytics team here, and this gives you a great view of the depth of interests and backgrounds of our team. We have a Baseball Analytics X/Twitter account that is worth a follow. We also have a state of the art pitching lab that is incredibly cool and may interest people.