2023 Diamond Dollars Case Competition

The 2023 Diamond Dollars Case Competition winners were announced Friday, March 10 during the SABR Analytics Conference.

The winning teams selected were from Washington University of St. Louis, Rice University, Arizona State University, and The Branson School.

Pictured above, the Washington University of St. Louis team — which was picked to deliver an encore presentation in front of the full SABR Analytics Conference on Saturday — included Cooper Yan, Simon Todreas, Max Hanley, and Jake Engelberg.

The Rice University team (above) included Aya Nadalin, Calvin Aberg, Jeffrey Brover, Rahul Prakash, and Jacob Hahn.

The Arizona State University team (above) included Obren Manjencich, Sam Pearson, Jacob Benabou, Griffin Limongelli, and Mitch Hansen.

The Branson School team (above), based in Ross, California, included Wilson Wendt, Audrey Knowles, Luke Shane, Charlie Zwibelman, and Kaden Gustafson. Wendt, Knowles, Zwibelman, and Gustafson were also part of a winning Case Competition team at the 2022 SABR Virtual Analytics Conference.

This year’s case involved measuring the impact of incorrect ball-strike calls and analyzing the way in which these missed calls might have affected the final score and outcome of selected games from the 2022 MLB season.

In the Diamond Dollars Case Competition, high school and college students from schools across the country compete against each other by preparing an analysis and presentation of a baseball operations decision — the type of decision a team’s GM and his staff is faced with over the course of a season. The cases are developed by former SABR Board President Vince Gennaro, co-founder of the SABR Analytics Conference, author of Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball, and consultant to MLB teams. The Diamond Dollars Case Competition is the first national competition to be based solely on baseball operations issues.

Four- to five-person student teams are asked to evaluate a baseball operations case problem. The student team presents their analysis and recommendations to a panel of judges that includes MLB front office executives.

This year’s judges included Chris Alexander (MLB), Adam Brodie (Houston Astros), Cody Callahan (Arizona Diamondbacks), Tani Cohen (MLB), Sam Elias (Los Angeles Dodgers), Sean Fischer (Cincinnati Reds), Sarah Gelles (Houston Astros), Jasmine Horan (Chicago Cubs), Brian Jones (Colorado Rockies), Matt Lehman (Cincinnati Reds), Shanna Shi (MLB), and Mark Simon (Sports Info Solutions).

Callahan is a former winner of the Diamond Dollars Case Competition at the SABR Analytics Conference.

Other participating schools were: Elon University; Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School; NYU-Tisch Institute for Global Sport; Syracuse University; Tufts University; University of Arizona; and University of Florida.

For more coverage of the 2023 SABR Analytics Conference, visit SABR.org/analytics.

More than 120 alumni from the 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 Diamond Dollars Case Competitions have secured internships or permanent positions within Major League Baseball.