This story originally ran in April, 2009. Bumping it as Luhnow has now accepted offer to join the Houston Astros as General Manager. This is great insight into what should be a good hire for the team. Check it out:

For those of you who don't know, Jeff Luhnow is the VP of Amateur Scouting and Player Development for the St. Louis Cardinals. As you'll read from the interview, Jeff comes from a business background, and among other things has had a hand in integrating data-based analysis into some of its personnel decision-making processes in the Cardinals' organization. He was over the '05-'08 drafts, which included highly-regarded prospects such as Colby Rasmus, Brett Wallace and Chris Perez.

Jeff was nice enough to agree to a little Q and A before the Cardinals kicked off their season. The questions are a group effort from the BtB staff sent over email, so I hope you don't mind if they are a little scatter-barrel.

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While I wouldn't call advanced statistics in baseball mainstream just yet, we have certainly seen a marked increase in their usage among baseball fans, the press, as well as in broadcast media. Many were surprised earlier this year when some broadcasts mentioned wins above replacement (WAR) during their in-game coverage, and when WAR and BABIP made their way into Baseball Tonight's broadcasts.

Some were skeptical as to whether the general public was ready for more advanced statistics, whether they were being introduced in the most effective way, and whether shows claiming to focus on "the numbers" were simply capitalizing on the increased awareness without really digging into meaningful statistics.

Which brings us to a new show, Clubhouse Confidential, set to debut tonight on MLB Network. The show will be hosted by former ESPN anchor Brian Kenny. The show bills itself as an open forum to discuss and debate the day's news and moves using modern statistical research and value projection. While not explicitly "saber", the show puts advanced statistics and analysis front and center.

I was fortunate enough to sit down with Brian for a short interview where we talked about his move to MLB Network, how coverage of baseball has evolved to incorporate advanced statistics over the years, and how he and his colleagues plan to advance that evolution on his new show.

Bill Petti (BP): So I have to get the perfunctory question out of the way. You obviously had a very long and successful run at ESPN. Can you talk about what led to your decision to leave and move over to MLB Network?

Brian Kenny (BK): Oh, there's so much that goes into it. Baseball is my first love, and I loved what they were doing here on the network. It was a very tough choice for me and my family.We’d enjoyed our time at ESPN, but it just felt like we had so many reasons to come to MLB Network. The management was terrific, they’ve been paying close attention to my attention to detail and baseball which I appreciated. Just a perfect fit.

BP: Given that your new show, Clubhouse Confidential, has been very explicit in its inclusion of advanced analytics, can you talk about how the coverage of baseball and the use of analytics in that coverage evolved while you were at ESPN and how that compares to this show where the use is much more explicit?

BK: Well, it is something that is the first of its kind. There has not been a show on television based on just what should be real baseball analysis. It’s kind of been put on the back porch, and now this will be front and center. I think there are two ways to analyze baseball: one way is as a craft and the other way is as a science. And I think they both blend together. The baseball industry has recognized this, knowing that you still need to do your proper scouting but you also need to analyze with all the latest tools available. Every single major league club does this.

And by the way, so does Larry Bowa, so does Dan Plesac, who also look at things analytically. It’s just that there are different labels on things. And so now, I love this show in that it’s up front and we’re saying this is what we do. We’re using logic--whether you call it analytics, sabermetrics--it’s just a logical way to look at baseball.

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On Monday, September 12th, ESPN debuts their newest daytime show, Numbers Never* Lie.

According to Marcia Keegan, ESPN's VP of Production:

"Numbers Never* Lie was developed for the fan craving statistics, whether it is the traditional box score or in-depth fantasy analysis. Like all sports fans, we actively engage in lively, stat-driven sports discussion around the water cooler.  This show will capture some of the most debated topics." 

It appears that for 30 minutes the show will feature debate and discussion by the show's two hosts, former athletes, and "ESPN analysts and statistical experts" on the meaning of various statistics. 

On the surface, this seems like a great idea. Any show that focuses on sports analytics is, I think, a step in the right direction, provided that the discussion is conducted by those that truly understand sports analytics.

It's on the latter point that I am a bit concerned.

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Tom Tango, aka Tangotiger, is without question one of the most influential sabermetricians (though he might say saberist) alive. Not only did he, along with Mitchel Lichtman and Andrew Dolphin, pen The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball, Tango continues to guide the eye-popping explosion of saber-acceptance through one of the best (and the most sober) saber site of all, The Book Blog.

...and that will be the pinnacle of sabermetrics."

Tom was kind enough to agree to a question and answer session conducted via email. Here's what we have -- hope you enjoy:

[BTB] How did you get into baseball and when did you start seeing the potential for analysis that you've done with The Book?

[TT] I definitely remember the Bucky Dent game, with Yaz popping out to Nettles to end the game.  But I've also got baseball cards from 1976 and 1977, though I don't remember any games from back then.  So, I got into it when I was in elementary school.  Probably no different than most kids from my generation.

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Pinstripe Defection is a quick, rather to-the-point book by Clay McKinney that chronicles the journey of one Arkansas lawyer that finds himself taking on the legal behemoth New York Yankees. In that journey, the reader observes some of the inner-workings and darker sides of baseball business through the author's interpretation of his subject's point of view.

The story takes place in the early-to-mid 2000s and centers around the acquisition of Cuban ex-pat Michael Hernandez. If you've seen Sugar, a nice indie film with a similar subject (albeit more about the emotional impact of not being quite good enough to make it after going through the harrowing journey of migrating to the US -- and the subject is from the Dominican Republic), you'll recognize the competing themes of hope vs manipulation that seem to follow many Latin American baseball prospects.

Where this tale differs is that it is more of a legal drama focused on the Mexican League team that initially brought Hernandez in after his escape from Cuba, their attempts to acquire their agreed-to fees from the Yankees for doing the legwork, and the attorney that helped them do it.

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Finally, after a long wait, "TPR11" will be released on March 21st as PDF format and in print as well as a Kindle version soon to follow. It'll cost $9.80 for an eBook version and $14.80 in print. If you enjoy reading well written, Rays related material, boy you're in for a treat.

TPR11 consists of everything you need to know about the Rays going forward as well as a fantastic review of the success story (also known as "The Process") of the Tampa Bay Rays. The book not only features an extended and descriptive view of what life as a Rays fan is like, but also as a Rays player. Going from worst to first, as Jonah Keri highlights in "The Extra 2%," a lot happened on the way to the the triumphant Rays era. The magnificent progress that Andrew Friedman, Matt Silverman, and the rest of the Rays management made as a team displays a fantastic set of organizational leaders whether they were inexperienced (such as Friedman) or not.

The steps that Friedman and co. took to becoming one of baseball's most successful organizations are enhanced in this book with flavor. How else do you make the words "Scott Kazmir" still look attractive? Continuing, the dozens of player profiles, yes, I said "dozens" of player profiles take up a another fantastic portion of this book. The scouting reports are from the best Rays writers around, so that kind of content is like no other. Also, the analysis and not statistic-use by these great writers give any kind of reader the ability to understand TPR11. The time spent on TPR11 certainly paid off as every detail in this 104 page book open up a reader to a new and exciting aspect of life as a Rays fan, player, or executive.

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I love keeping score at baseball games.  For my money, there's no better way to engage yourself in every pitch than to keep score.  Like most people, I started out as a kid using the scorecards that come with the team programs you get at the ballpark.  From there, I moved on to buying my own scorebooks, and my current favorite is one I reviewed here.

But I'm also a bit of a techy, and so when I saw that there was an iPhone app that lets you keep score, I decided to check it out.  I've scored four games with it now, and I'm pleased to say that iScore Baseball Scorekeeper is a perfectly viable alternative to the traditional scorecard/pencil.  And, in fact, for some purposes, like those responsible for keeping score at amateur games, it probably is a significant upgrade.

Installation and Set Up

ESPN iScore (the branding partnership with ESPN is very recent) is available in the App store for $9.99, and is a fairly small download.  I'm running version 2.75.92.  There is also a version available for the iPad, but I am Ipad-less and thus can't speak to it. You can also purchase yearly subscriptions to download updated MLB rosters and day-of-game lineups for $19.99 (I didn't), and server space for a team website for another $19.99.  The latter option might be very appealing for those taking on the role of team scorekeeper for little leagues, for example.  

When you start the application, you're presented with a screen  that lets you edit teams, rosters, or start right into scoring a game.  The app definitely works best if you have team rosters set up ahead of time: this is where the $20 download of MLB rosters comes into play.  Nevertheless, it's fairly quick and easy to add payers to a team's roster: I can input a 25-man active roster from scratch, including names, numbers, positions, handedness, etc, in under 10 minutes.  But if you're short on time, as the helpful tutorial videos on their website show, it's very possible to generate a team and add as many players as you need with generic names ("player A," "player B," etc) in a matter of seconds.  You can then later go back and edit in the appropriate names.

Scoring a Game

Once you have your teams created, you can create a game and start scoring.  The lineup screen comes in first, and initially can be confusing.  If your rosters are set up, drag players up and down to set your lineup.  A key point is that if you want someone to bat, you must select him and toggle him the Batting flag on his record.  Furthermore, if someone is not in the lineup, he needs to not have the batting flag set!  This allows a lot of flexibility--if your league allows 20 hitters in a lineup, you can do that without a problem.  But it's not necessarily intuitive, especially when you're scoring a game using MLB rules.  Once you understand what's happening, though, it's easy enough to set a lineup.  It would be nice to be able to mass-select players and turn on/off their "batting" flag, or set their position, though, as entering every player's record and checking "batting" is a bit tedious.

If you don't have a lineup ahead of time, you can go back and do this mid-game via the "Misc" button without having to use substitutions--a very helpful feature for amateur games as well as tv games where you don't see the home lineup until the bottom half of the first inning.  

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