Dunn: For good measure, analytics part of youth baseball now, too
From Tyler Dunn at ASU Cronkite News on May 31, 2019, with mention of SABR member Jimmy Sanderson:
With the game tied 9-9 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Mathew Swedler smashed a line drive to center field, scoring Kyler Thruston for the go-ahead run.
Swedler, 13, advanced to second with a five-pitch walk to teammate Jackson Forbes and made his way to third after an error by the opposing shortstop. One pitch later, he scored easily on a single to left field.
Just inside the dugout of AZBC 2024, a Peoria-based 13-and-under club team, assistant coach Kevin Forbes sat hunched over an iPad, inputting each step of Swedler’s trip around the bases.
In many ways, youth baseball resembles the game of Forbes’ childhood: Saturdays spent at the ballpark, a dust-coated mixture of eye black, chatter and competitive tension swirling in the air. But that iPad, and the wealth of data stored in it, represents a revolution within a sport long resistant to change.
Read the full article here: https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2019/05/31/youth-baseball-analytics/
Originally published: June 3, 2019. Last Updated: June 3, 2019.