On Saturday, June 28, 2025, the Texas Minor League Baseball Panel was held at SABR 53 at the Westin DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, Texas.

Panelists included Tim Purpura, former President and Treasurer of the Texas League from 2017 to 2021 and a former General Manager of the Houston Astros; Rick Herrscher, who spent seven seasons in professional baseball, including three years in the Texas League with the Milwaukee Braves organization and as an original New York Met in 1962; and Bob Baillargeon, a native of Montreal who spent seven seasons pitching in the minor leagues from 1959 to 1965. The moderator was C. Paul Rogers III, president of SABR’s local Banks-Bragan DFW Chapter.

• Audio: Click here to listen to the SABR 53 Texas Minor League Baseball Panel (57:31; MP3)

Here are some highlights:

ON HIS TENURE AS THE FINAL PRESIDENT OF THE TEXAS LEAGUE

• Purpura: “I did it in, I guess. No, it was a very interesting time. I had just come off a stint working for Minor League Baseball and also with the Texas Rangers. I knew there was a lot going on at the major league level that could affect the minor leagues. But it was an enjoyable time. I picked up on some of the tracks that Tom Kayser had set, most notably the starting of the Amarillo Sod Poodles. I didn’t know a Sod Poodle was something from Texas, I thought they were just making it up. … But I was able to get involved in the construction meetings and see how that evolved. There were some great people in Amarillo and it was really interesting to see how it moved and how it got going. … I knew a lot of people because I had been a farm director and we always had a team in the Texas League. The one thing that was very meaningful to me was the relationship I had with umpires. … When I was at Minor League Baseball, I was responsible for the umpire program and we put together an umpire school with the Florida Board of Education. I decided to take a player development approach to developing minor league umpires. They had to have the technical abilities, of course, but there were people skills and other things that they needed to develop. We got them better food quality in their dressing rooms, we dealt with family issues. It’s amazing the staying power the young (umpires) have to keep gutting things out. … Roland Hemond used to tell me, players come number one. Well, to me, umpires came 1-A, or maybe 1-B, because they were dedicated to the game and gave their all to the game.”

ON GETTING CALLED UP TO THE MAJOR LEAGUES

• Herrscher: “I thought I was going to the Mets when I was traded (by the Milwaukee Braves in May 1962.) But they gave me the ticket and I looked at it. It said Syracuse. I thought, ‘Well, that’s not New York, New York.’ I had to go to the International League and play for a month or so. Then the day before I was going to the Mets, they put me in left field. I had always been an infielder. Bob Bailey hit a shot over my head and I raced into the fence to try to catch it. And my thumb got damaged. They took an X-ray of it. So I’m meeting with (Mets coach) Johnny Murphy when I get to New York and he said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t tell Casey Stengel about your thumb because all we’ve had are injuries around here!’ The trainer fixed up a roll and a rubber tube on my thumb, and I ended up hitting a little bit like Ty Cobb (with a split-handed grip). I ended up hitting like .220 that year, which was kind of a drop-off. I had been told to give it five years and if you can’t make it after five years, you better get something else going. So I applied to dental school. … But first I had to ask Casey Stengel what he thought. He kind of gave it to me straight, he didn’t give me the double-talk. He said, ‘Hershner … he didn’t get names right … go back to dental school.’ And that ended my career.”     

ON GOING TO LAW SCHOOL

• Purpura: “I grew up in Chicago as a White Sox fan. It was basically the family religion for generations. I was really drawn into the game. I didn’t have any ability to play the game, but I loved it. When I got done with college … baseball was still ringing in my ear. I was watching batting practice at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego one day and I recognized a gentleman from my White Sox days, Roland Hemond. And so I went up to him and said, ‘I’ve followed your career and I’d love to have a chance to get into player development with a major league team.’ And he said, ‘Here’s my one piece of advice: Go to law school, because someday lawyers are going to run the game.’ So I went to law school at night and on weekends in San Diego while working at a university. My first internship was with the California Angels. I would go out to spring training in Mesa, Arizona, and do everything. I was around players and some of the scouts took me under their wing. So I did that for three springs. In 1994, an opportunity came up with the Houston Astros. … And this is where minor league baseball comes in. I’ve had a long love affair with minor league baseball. And it began in 1994 with my first job in baseball.”  

ON THE 2024 WHITE SOX ‘BREAKING’ THE 1962 METS’ RECORD FOR MOST LOSSES IN A SEASON

• Herrscher: “It’s tough to take, it really is. I used to talk once in a while with Marv Throneberry and we kind of basked in the glory of being that bad. Who knows, it’s the White Sox now and maybe another team will take it soon. We’re going to try to graciously relinquish our spot as the worst.”

For more coverage of SABR 53, visit SABR.org/convention.

On Saturday, June 28, 2025, the Beckett Baseball Cards Panel was held at SABR 53 at the Westin DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, Texas.

Panelists included Dr. James Beckett, founder and publisher of Beckett Publications, which grew into the largest sports and entertainment collectibles publisher in the world, and a recipient of SABR’s Jefferson Burdick Award; and Rich Klein, a SABR member since 1985 and a sports card identification specialist for COMC. Klein also spent nearly two decades working as a price guide editor for Beckett Media. The moderator was C. Paul Rogers III, president of SABR’s local Banks-Bragan DFW Chapter.

• Audio: Click here to listen to the SABR 53 Beckett Baseball Cards Panel (1:00:35; MP3)

Here are some highlights:

ON HAVING THE ‘COLLECTOR’ GENE

• Beckett: “I pity the people who collect nothing. … It was a socializing experience to have the cards, to trade the cards. When you spend a lot of time with a person or a thing, you get attached. And then there’s this problem that every year there’s new cards. So over time, you get very attached to a card or some cards … and for me it was all cards. I never really thought I’d work in the industry or work in sports. But I loved sports. I think I always saw it as a hobby and my hobby turned it into a business. Now you might say if your hobby turns into a business, you need a new hobby. No! I thought, ‘I’m going to keep it as a hobby and keep it as a business.’ And then when I sold my business, I went back to being a hobbyist. And it’s more fun being a hobbyist than being in business.” 

ON THE IMPACT OF DAN DISCHLEY

• Beckett: “Dan was one of the founding fathers of SABR. He was a good friend of Rich and mine. I was a subscriber to The Trader Speaks. It was a hobby publication that he put out, but it had some SABR influence in it.”
• Klein: “I once bought a collection that had all of the The Trader Speaks, so I actually read all of them while compiling information for the almanacs. For the first three or four years of his publication, it was amazing how intertwined the idea of baseball research was with the publication. … There were only 16 founding members in 1971 in Cooperstown. The Bob Davids Award is named after the person who got that motley crew together. And we thank him for it.” 

ON FOUNDING BECKETT PUBLICATIONS AND THE PRICE GUIDE

• Beckett: “I think it was audacious. I sought counsel from people who unanimously said I was crazy, it can’t be done. But I knew I could do it. The audacity was really (in) trying to be comprehensive. There were other people who were trying to get a handle on what certain cards were selling for. But I thought this hobby will never get to the next level until every card has a price, in different conditions. And there would be full understanding of the supply and demand in a hobby that had increasingly huge numbers that skewed (the prices). In those days, it was still very, very difficult. But I was a very active dealer, so I had a base of knowledge. I had good relationships with dealers and collectors around the country. I was hitting the big shows. And so I just jumped in. It took a year to get the first one, and then after you’re updating something. So the first one was my big contribution, getting something out there. There’s a lot of people who think about things and get started on things, but I said I’m going to finish it. And after I finished it, I realized I had a tiger by the tail. This was going to be an annual production. It was a labor of love, and it started out with an emphasis on love and then it became an emphasis on labor.”  

ON THE PROCESS OF CATALOGUING CARDS 

• Beckett: “Part of what we were doing was not just the price guide, it was the cataloguing aspect, which really ties in with SABR. We were cataloguing all these sets, mainly major league baseball but (also) minor leagues and other obscure subjects. And you can’t price something if you don’t know what it is or who it is. We leaned heavily and had quite a bit of overlap with SABR and the biographical aspects of it. Rich was masterful. He really took the cataloguing aspects to the next level, because he had access to all of you and the work there. If you don’t know the players and the game, then you don’t know if the price reporting you get is an anomaly, an error, a mistake, a mistaken identity. But if you do know all those things, then you can say this is not an outlier, we can bring order out of the chaos of all these cards. If we did it right, then people could look them up and they could have confidence that the dealer and the collector could get a fair deal and they could meet in the middle.”
• Klein: “Knowing who the players are, knowing the differences in the game — you have to know that the 1960s were pitching-dominated and the 1990s were hitting-dominated, and you have to make certain adjustments for that. Numbers still matter, but how good is the player? When you do baseball research, you learn the game. And when you learn the game, you learn the cards. And when you learn the cards, you’ve learned everything.”  

For more coverage of SABR 53, visit SABR.org/convention.

On Thursday, June 26, 2025, the Texas Rangers Ballparks Panel was held at SABR 53 at the Westin DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, Texas.

Panelists included Tom Schieffer, former Texas Rangers president; Rob Matwick, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for the Texas Rangers; and Fred Ortiz, the Global Practice Director, Sports & Entertainment, and Partner at HKS, the design architect for Globe Life Field and The Ballpark in Arlington in Texas. The moderator was Chuck Morgan, Texas Rangers public address announcer since 1983.

• Audio: Click here to listen to the SABR 53 Texas Rangers Ballparks Panel (57:17; MP3)

Here are some highlights:

ON BUILDING THE BALLPARK IN ARLINGTON IN 1994

• Schieffer: “That was part of the incentive to buy the team. The city of Arlington had allowed anyone to buy the land for it. You were getting a team, but you were also getting an opportunity, a big piece of property, to build a ballpark. … That park changed the Texas Rangers. … It was as if we had finally joined the major leagues. When we bought the team, the Rangers were 24th or 25th out of 26 teams in revenue. And you can’t compete at the bottom. The revenues at that point were about $30 million. We bought the team in 1993, which was the last season in Arlington Stadium, and we had doubled the revenues to $60 million. And when we moved into the Ballpark, we doubled them again to $127 million. Those are quaint numbers today, but it had a huge impact. … And then we began to win.”   

ON DESIGNING THE NORTH PLAZA ENTRANCE OF GLOBE LIFE FIELD

• Ortiz: “When we looked at the whole development at macro scale, we said we needed a window large enough to actually represent the park and relate to what’s going on out there. You had Six Flags to the north, Nolan Ryan Expressway coming down, the old ballpark to the right, AT&T Stadium, Texas Live, the convention center. All that stuff was popping up. And we said, ‘What if we turned those arches and create a large window?’ One of the coolest things the Rangers were pushing for was to create a backyard feel, so that families and friends could come and enjoy the ballpark. So why not open your windows up to the district? When you’re in the ballpark, it’s a great experience because a lot of that natural daylight comes in.”    

ON WORKING WITH THE CITY OF ARLINGTON

• Matwick: “I think it goes back to Mayor (Richard) Greene and the formulas the city of Arlington came up with to fund the Ballpark in Arlington, the same mechanism they used on AT&T Stadium and on Globe Life Field, with sales tax revenue. As the mayors will tell you and the city manager will tell you, it’s other people’s money. I don’t make my home in Arlington, but any time I spend a dollar in Arlington and sales tax is taken out of that dollar, it’s helping to contribute to the city’s portion of the payment for those facilities. And it’s a formula that’s worked extremely well for Arlington.”   

ON THE RETRACTABLE ROOF AT GLOBE LIFE FIELD

• Matwick: “We had to solve the weather issue. You don’t spend $1.2 billion when you’ve got a beautiful building (and not letting people go to the game.) … And we needed more premium products. Being able to use the building 365 days a year, which this building allows us to do. We’ve booked probably 200 non-baseball events into Globe Life Field over the past few years. I think those are the drivers, in addition to the development that takes place around it. Now that we have the ability to have a retractable roof and play indoors and outdoors, I don’t see Globe Life Field being replaced for a long, long time.”

ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NUMBERS AT GLOBE LIFE FIELD

• Ortiz: “It’s more exciting to design a baseball park than a football field because of its geometry, and it can be quirky. We took a diagram of every single major-league ballpark and overlapped it, and it was a zig-zag of stuff. Whether you’re shoehorning a ballpark into a downtown environment, it’s going to create some unique experiences out there. The fence heights, the wall heights, the distances: 334 for Nolan Ryan, 407 for Pudge (Iván Rodríguez), 372 for the year the Rangers came to town. And behind home plate was 42 feet in honor of Jackie Robinson. So there are some really cool stories there.”   

For more coverage of SABR 53, visit SABR.org/convention.

On Friday, June 27, 2025, the Seitz Decision 50th Anniversary Panel was held at SABR 53 at the Westin DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, Texas.

Panelists included Don Fehr, former Executive Director of the MLB Players Association; Steve Rogers, Special Assistant, MLB Players Association, and former Montreal Expos All-Star pitcher; and Ed Edmonds, Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School. The panel was moderated by Bradford William Davis, an editorial writer and columnist at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

This panel discussed the 50th anniversary of arbitrator Peter Seitz’s landmark decision on baseball free agency. In 1975, pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally played the season without signing their contracts, then filed a grievance with baseball’s arbitrator, Peter Seitz, claiming that the standard reserve clause no longer bound them to their clubs. On December 23, Seitz upheld their grievances, making them free agents. The subsequent 1976 collective bargaining agreement codified a procedure for free agency for the first time.

• Audio: Click here to listen to the SABR 53 Seitz Decision 50th Anniversary Panel (57:23; MP3)

Here are some highlights:

ON THE IMPACT OF THE CURT FLOOD AND CATFISH HUNTER CASES

• Fehr: “Curt Flood, of course. Most people, if you talk to them today, think he won because his name is associated with free agency and what followed. But because of the way the case developed and the individual that he was … he came to symbolize this approach: ‘Isn’t what happened to him terrible? … Couldn’t it be different?’ The thing that broke the dam open was (Catfish) Hunter (in 1974). … The arbitrator ruled in his favor. The result was that the magnitude of the salary restraints was demonstrated. The guaranteed value of the contract increased by around 30 or 35 percent. Then you have Messersmith and McNally a year later. I always thought once Hunter had been decided — with the same arbitrator, by the way — you would have had to have been an extraordinarily cruel individual not to rule in Andy and Dave’s favor at that point. This wasn’t an academic matter anymore. This was something that had been conclusively demonstrated. It also demonstrated that what this was about was the money.” 

ON WHAT MADE ANDY MESSERSMITH AND DAVE McNALLY RIGHT FOR THE MOMENT

• Rogers: “Andy was a well-known pitcher, great changeup, a dogged competitor. He was not the kind of guy who talked a good game. He just went out and played. He was quality. You could tell, he got it in his mind and he was exactly the right guy. He was a dog with a bone. He was going to wrestle this thing to the ground. As far as Dave McNally, it was a fortunate accident that he was there with Andy Messersmith as a backup plan. … Dave had an understanding with the Expos, but there was something about the contract. He (had) ten-and-five (rights with the Baltimore Orioles) and he okayed a trade based on some agreement. I don’t know the specifics, but he was of the mind that they had not lived up to their end of it and that’s why he did not sign the contract. It was specifically about a breach of an understanding.”
• Fehr: “He (McNally) did retire. He did not file for retirement because that’s one of the things that kept the case alive. When a union goes through something like this, you have to have named grievances. You can’t file grievances in the abstract. You have to have, ‘Steve Rogers was hurt’ in order to do that. And if the case presents substantial risk for management, what they will do in words or substance is two things: They will threaten, ‘You’re going to lose this case and you’ll never play again, blah, blah, blah.’ Or they will attempt to buy them off. So you have to have an individual or individuals who understand and are willing to withstand that kind of pressure. And while the tactics I just described to occur in non-sports and non-entertainment circumstances, in sports the level of attention and media focus is such that you really have to have a backbone. … Not too many people could do that.”  

ON KEEPING THE UNION SPIRIT ALIVE FOR FUTURE PLAYERS

• Fehr: “You rely on former players who are the fathers of current players to tell them what was going on. One of the strongest union supporters I ever had — and quite apart from steroids, the best athlete I ever saw — was Barry Bonds. Barry understood from his dad (former major-leaguer Bobby Bonds) what the world used to be like. And he would sit and tell people. And Junior Griffey’s father would sit and tell people. And Ray Boone would sit and tell his kids, and in that family it goes all the way down to four generations now. And it really mattered. You have to make it personal. And you have to remind them it’s about the money, and they are producing the money. People don’t come to watch anyone except the players. … The proof that it’s (about) the money is what a salary cap is: a salary cap is an artificial upward limitation on what players can be paid, either individually or in the aggregate. … When they tell you it’s not about the money, you can fill in the rest.”

ON THE IMPACT OF ARBITRATOR PETER SEITZ

• Edmonds: “There was definitely a thought about removing him after the Catfish Hunter case. But the owners and the commissioner (Bowie Kuhn) didn’t ultimately remove him. But he tried very hard to get management to not force him to make that decision. One thing that is interesting is that the owners had opted out of the Basic Agreement as of December 31, 1972. The decision was (three years later) on December 23, 1975. And when (MLBPA attorney) Dick Moss went into the arbitration hearing, for the first 15 pages of what is an 800-page document, (the owners) argued that the case filed in the Western District of Missouri was frivolous because what they were trying to do was convince the arbitration panel from starting before (the end) of the year, otherwise you would have had no bargaining agreement in place.”
• Fehr: “There would have been an argument that the arbitration system wasn’t in place. I think ultimately it would have been a loser, but it would have taken a while to resolve that. There was talk, I was told, about firing Seitz and the decision was made not to. But a little later on, they did. … The efforts made by Seitz to settle were quite profound, as I understand it. And (federal judge) John Oliver kept suggesting to the owners that they ought to find a way out of this. But in neither case did they take advantage of those opportunities.”

ON HOW PLAYERS FEEL ABOUT THE NEGOTIATING PROCESS

• Fehr: “What you had in 1976 was an agreement was reached on six-year free agency with all the other bells and whistles, not because it was perfect, not because you couldn’t make other arguments, but because it was good enough. And it was better than the alternative, which would have continued a lockout indefinitely or running into one the following year. And Marvin (Miller) made the bet two ways. The first one was that the owners would compete for players and that would educate the players as to what free agency meant. And second, because salary arbitration was in place, you would get enough movement down so there would be dramatic increases in the salaries of the younger players coming through.”
• Edmonds: “If you look at the current Basic Agreement, which made a couple significant changes, it moved the minimum salary from the $500,000 range to the $700,000 range. It created a $50 million pool for pre-arbitration eligible players to get paid a bonus for actual performance on the field. And I think that came because the consensus was, in this round of negotiations, we want to do something for players earlier in their careers. … Negotiations have got to be based on consensus of the players. When you look at the solidarity of players over the years, the Players Association in baseball has been able to maintain that because they really believe in the benefits the negotiations have given them.”

For more coverage of SABR 53, visit SABR.org/convention.

On Friday, June 27, 2025, the Texas Rangers Pitchers Panel was held at SABR 53 at the Westin DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, Texas.

Panelists included Ferguson Jenkins, the first native of Canada to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame who won a career-high 25 games with the Texas Rangers in 1974; Charlie Hough, one of just two pitchers in major-league history with at least 200 career wins and 60 saves who made his first All-Star team at age 38 with the Rangers in 1986; and Colby Lewis, who helped lead the Rangers to four American League West Division titles and two World Series appearances. The moderator was Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.  

• Audio: Click here to listen to the SABR 53 Pitchers Panel (59:43; MP3)

Here are some highlights:

ON FACING DISCRIMINATION AS A BALLPLAYER 

• Jenkins: “Well, segregation was still real popular when I signed (with the Philadelphia Phillies) in 1962 out of high school. They just had the reunion for players of color who played in Little Rock a month ago, with Dick Allen, Marcelino López, Ricardo Quiroz, and myself … a Cuban, Panamian, American, Canadian, four of us. We were in Little Rock that first time in 1963. I felt safe on the field, nobody ever bothered me. You’d hear the odd word here and there. … But the Phillies put us there for a reason, to this day I don’t know why. … Alex Johnson (who joined the Arkansas Travelers in 1964) didn’t like it because we always had to give our money to a White player so they could buy us our food on road trips. And then they’d bring us our food back to the bus and we’d eat on the bus. … In Tampa, Florida, we stayed at a brothel. After the ballgame, the bus dropped us off at a fancy hotel and then (we’d go) to a Black area and we got our rooms. … And in St. Pete, we stayed at a funeral home. They embalmed the bodies in the basement, the second floor was where the caskets are, and on the first floor was three bedrooms. Alex Johnson would not go to sleep. He slept on an armchair. ‘Oh no, I can’t sleep, it’s just creepy.’ … But we survived, all of us.”

ON LEARNING HOW TO THROW THE KNUCKLEBALL

• Hough: “It was a bad arm that started it off. In 1969, my shoulder was awful. It was my third year pitching in Double-A. And I went to the instructional league and a minor-league coach named Goldie Holt said to me the first day I was there, ‘Have you ever tried to throw a knuckleball?’ I said, ‘Show me how.’ And he just put my hand on the ball and showed me the grip and he said, ‘Just push it out.’ And then I played catch for five minutes and I threw one that didn’t spin. I don’t know why it felt right. … And I walked in to the clubhouse, (Tommy) Lasorda was running the club, and I said, ‘From now on I’m going to throw the knuckleball.’ And he said, ‘Well, you better because you have no chance at making it the other way.’ … This was in October 1969. And in August 1970, I got a five-inning save against the Cubs in Chicago on my second day in the big leagues. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with it. I just threw it as hard as I could toward the catcher.” 

ON WHICH HITTERS GAVE YOU THE MOST TROUBLE

• Jenkins: “Roberto Clemente was a tough out with Pittsburgh. They were in our division with the Cubs. I faced him at 19 years old in winter ball. He seemed like he wasn’t interested. But during the season, he was tough. Way off the plate, deep in the batter’s box, charged the ball. He got his share of hits off me. Him and Pete Rose were probably the two toughest guys in the National League for me. I got (Willie) Mays out easy and (Henry) Aaron. I don’t know why, but I did. I used to pitch Pete down and away, let him go to left field. And he’d oblige me and hit it over the shortstop. … With Reggie Jackson, I could just throw my glove out there and he’d fly out.”
• Hough: “You remember the name Mark Salas? He was a backup catcher. Whenever I pitched against his team, he was the catcher, the star, the (cleanup) hitter. In (1987), he was in Minnesota and they were battling the Angels for first place. And I’m sitting in the clubhouse on the trainer’s table with Bill Ziegler. The radio is on and I got a cigarette and a crossword puzzle. They announced that Mark Salas has been traded to the Yankees for Joe Niekro. And I looked at Bill and said, ‘We win the game. I’ll shut ’em out if he’s not playing.’ I was ahead 2-1 and I went out to pitch the ninth inning and I hear that awful voice, ‘Now batting, Mark Salas.’ The trade wasn’t done until midnight so he stayed. I threw one pitch and he hit it into the second deck, a home run that tied the game. No-decision. And then he goes to New York and a few weeks later, he had like five RBIs off me.”
• Lewis: “Jim Thome was one of my tougher outs. I faced him quite a few times in Chicago and then when he went over to Minnesota late (in his career). One time I threw a heater in and I broke his bat. He goes to get another bat. I’m like, ‘OK, I’ve got him set up. I’m going to back-door a breaking ball right now. I haven’t shown him any yet.’ It’s 0-2 and he takes me oppo to left field for a homer. Next at-bat, same thing. I start him off with a heater in and break his bat. Somehow it gets by (Mitch) Moreland at first base and squiggles down to right field for a double. He had two home runs off me on another day. … Man, how do I get this guy out?”    

ON CHANGING APPROACHES IN TODAY’S GAME

• Hough: “I think lineups are deeper today. There are middle infielders who hit 30 homers. In a sense it’s tougher to pitch today. The strike zone is a little tighter, but it’s easier to strike people out. Now it’s part of the game. … I don’t think there’s much difference with any one hitter. Great hitters, you attack them the same way. Change speeds, breaking balls, knock somebody down, low and away, up and in. It’s still hard to hit.” 
• Lewis: “You used to be able to develop relationships with umpires. They knew you were going to throw more strikes, so you’d get more calls. All these umpires (today) get judged by how many strikes are in the box and (it affects) who gets to go to the postseason and who doesn’t. The framing has gotten a little better with catchers. But when I was coming up, you’d have (umpire Jim) Wolf throwing knuckleballs back to you and joking around. You’d develop relationships and get more strikes here and there. … As a young pitcher, in one of my first starts, I felt like I wasn’t getting any calls on both sides of the zone. And about the third inning, the umpire came down to the dugout and said, ‘Stay right there, kid.’ And I knew I had that reassurance that I was going to start getting these strike calls, because I wasn’t throwing a fit on the mound or anything.” 

For more coverage of SABR 53, visit SABR.org/convention. 

On Thursday, June 26, 2025, the Texas Rangers Hitters Panel was held at SABR 53 at the Westin DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, Texas.

Panelists included Iván Rodríguez, who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017 and is considered one of the greatest defensive catchers in the history of the game, earning 13 Gold Glove Awards, 14 All-Star selections, and the 1999 American League MVP Award; Elvis Andrus, a two-time American League All-Star at shortstop who helped lead the Rangers to back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011; and Tom Grieve, known as “Mr. Ranger,” who has spent five decades in baseball as a player, executive, and broadcaster with the Texas Rangers. The panel was moderated by Eric Nadel, a Texas Rangers broadcaster since 1979 and the 2014 recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award.

• Audio: Click here to listen to the SABR 53 Hitters Panel (55:54; MP3)

Here are some highlights:

ON LEARNING HOW TO HIT FOR POWER

• Andrus: “Now the game is completely different. No matter if you’re 5-foot-5, like (José) Altuve. Everyone goes up and hits homers. When I came up … Ron Washington, my manager, said, ‘Do what you do best, be the best at what you do.’ For me, that was getting hits, stealing bases, playing great defense. I worked to be the best at that. I think it’s very special when you’re able to learn something else when you’re along in your career. For me it was that year (2017) when I hit all those homers (20). I amazed myself. That was a pretty unique year. After (I broke my elbow in 2018), my whole swing had to change. I could not extend.”

ON PICKING OUT THE RIGHT BAT

• Rodríguez: “My whole career, it was a P72 bat, 34 (inches and) 33 (ounces), from 1991 all the way until 2012. I used the same bat, no changes: black, double-dipped Louisville Slugger. And the reason it was 33 (ounces), I worked with Orlando Cepeda in San Francisco and he felt my bat. It was a P72, 34 (inches) and 30 ounces. He said, ‘This is a toothpick. You need to hit with something heavier and throw your hands, and make the speed of the pitcher give you power.’ I said, ‘Oh my god, this thing is heavy but I have to use it.’ And the first time I used a 34/33, I had three hits and a home run. And since that day, I used that bat. … Sometimes you make adjustments in the season. But the more tired I was, the more the bat helped me to use my hands. And I put up some great numbers in August and September, those were the best numbers in my career.”
• Grieve: “I don’t have many regrets, but one regret I have is I used a bat that was too big. When I played, we weren’t as strong as the players today. But as a group, our bats were much bigger than they are today. I used a bat that had a fairly big handle and a big barrel, and it was 35 inches, 33 ounces. I never thought twice about it. But as I’ve watched baseball over the years, I pick up the bats the players are using, the guys that are hitting home runs — there’s no bat like that. My son (Ben) picked up a bat at home and he said, ‘Is like the weighted bat you swing in the on-deck circle?’ He’s 40 pounds heavier than I am and he wouldn’t even think of using that bat. … I feel like now that my whole career, I used a bat that was too big. … But everyone used them and there’s nothing I can do about it now. I wish I could go back and use a different bat.”

ON PREGAME PREPARATION AND SCOUTING REPORTS

• Rodríguez: “I was very good at anticipating the game. That’s why I think I was very successful because I can pick things up before the play happens. I threw a lot of people out on the bases because I studied the counts, I studied when the runner was going to go. … It just comes to preparation, being ready as a catcher. As a hitter, I don’t have anything to tell you. I just see the ball and hit it.”
• Andrus: “When I got to the big leagues in 2009, you’d see the video and go through the (opponents’) whole rotation and bullpen. But it was very short. Tonight, it’s two pitchers, the other three we don’t even worry about it. Rudy (Jaramillo, the Rangers’ hitting coach) was very simple and I loved it. At the end of the career, it was very boring. It felt like I was in a university. The meeting would take like 40 minutes and I was thinking, ‘Are we going to take a test or are we playing baseball?’ … One thing you learn playing with guys like Pudge, Adrian (Beltre), Michael (Young), Ian (Kinsler), that was my job. You have your iPad, you go home at night and you’re facing Félix Hernández the next day, that would be my homework. Pretty much in the meetings, I was always trying to be annoying to someone. But you already had your plan and you knew what you were going to do and attack (the pitcher) that day.” 

ON THE PITCHERS YOU ENJOYED FACING THE MOST

• Andrus: “Félix was good because he was so nasty. A lot of people ask me how I was able to lay off so many of his changeups or splitters. He asked me that, too. For some reason, I never swung at his split-finger, which struck out 10 or 12 guys every game. My answer kind of surprised him. I said, ‘Dude, I do want to swing but it’s so nasty that you feel like someone’s holding you back.’ … But my answer is kind of easy: anyone in the Cleveland Indians organization. No matter who was the pitcher, that was a team where I was like Pudge — I watched no video, I just knew I was going to do good. Cleveland was that team for me.”
• Rodríguez: “They were all tough. They were all major-league pitchers and they were all very talented. But I always hit really good against (Roger) Clemens and power pitchers. I was ready for a fastball all the time. When you’re facing guys like Pedro Martínez, Clemens, Randy Johnson, what am I going to be looking at? Fastballs! If you’re going to be throwing me a fastball, that toothpick, the black P72, is going to be on it. And I just hope I don’t miss it.”
• Grieve: “Personally, I was a really streaky hitter to an extreme. If I was in a good streak, it really didn’t matter to me who was pitching. And if I was in a bad streak, it didn’t matter. One pitcher I would never want to face, if I had to pick one, was Jim Palmer. He was really tall and had a big windup and threw over the top and the ball came down on you. From the dugout, it didn’t look like he was throwing very hard. We didn’t talk about spin rate back then, but you can pick the pitchers who had good spin rate because their fastballs seemed to stay on a plane longer than others. And he was one of them. He must have had that good spin rate.”

ON TOUCHING ADRIAN BELTRE’S HEAD

• Andrus: “I think he knew what was going to happen. The risk for me was getting slapped. If you know Adrian, if you shake his hand, he had gorilla hands. For me, it was not touching the head … it was not getting killed out there after I touched his head! He knew, he was just being playful. We did it when he hit a homer. He was never going to be 100% mad, he just hit a home run. So we always used that to our advantage.” 

For more coverage of SABR 53, visit SABR.org/convention. 

On Thursday, June 26, 2025, Chris Young of the Texas Rangers delivered the Welcome Remarks at SABR 53 at the Westin DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, Texas.

Young is the President of Baseball Operations for the Texas Rangers and in his third full season as the club’s top baseball decision-maker. He joined the organization as Executive Vice President and General Manager in December 2020 and, after luring manager Bruce Bochy out of retirement, the Rangers won the first World Series championship in franchise history in 2023. Young spent 13 seasons as a major-league pitcher, beginning with the Rangers in 2004 and making the American League All-Star team in 2007. He helped the Kansas City Royals win a championship in 2015, picking up wins in the AL Division Series, Championship Series, and the World Series.

The session was moderated by author and podcast host Rob Neyer.

• Audio: Click here to listen to Chris Young’s Welcome Remarks at SABR 53 (1:00:01; MP3)

Here are some highlights:

ON WINNING A WORLD SERIES AS A PLAYER AND EXECUTIVE

• “Those two moments in my career were everything I have strived for, one as a player and now as an executive. The best part of both of those championships, unequivocally, are the civic pride that those moments provide to communities. … The Kansas City championship was special because it was my childhood dream. I had worked my whole career, my lifelong dream, to be a World Series champion. That was the number one thing I wanted to accomplish in my major-league career. … And to contribute in a meaningful way during that World Series was really special on a personal level. … As a general manager, when we won our first World Series, that was the most gratifying professional experience in my life in part because it was about everyone else. It was about a community and an organization that has touched my life in so many ways. I grew up in Texas, I was a Ranger fan my entire life, I got to play for the Rangers, and then I got to come back to be in the front office for the Rangers and help them win their first World Series. To see how much that moment meant to our fans, now it’s motivating for me to give you all that experience again.”   

ON MOVING FROM THE FIELD TO THE FRONT OFFICE

• “I had to be real with myself and say, ‘Am I ready for this?’ One of the best pieces of advice I got was from someone I now work with and admire greatly, Bruce Bochy. At the time he was managing the Giants in 2019, we were talking about the future and what I wanted to do. And he said, ‘C-Y, don’t put these jobs on a pedestal. Don’t think you are not qualified and can’t do this job.’ And that always stuck with me. Even though I wasn’t quite sure what the job fully entailed … what I did know is I would approach it with humility, intensity, and the focus that made me a good player. I knew that I knew the game of baseball and if I was open-minded and surrounded myself with great people, together we may make mistakes but we would learn and grow and be better for it.” 

ON FINDING DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH

• “I think we have three or four guys who were non-tendered or released or DFA’d last year, who are now performing very well in our bullpen. It is a collective effort by a number of people: our R&D team identifying characteristics or traits, our pitching analysts understanding and synthesizing information, looking at it from a biomechanical standpoint, our strength and conditioning, our medical team. By the way, we do the same for hitters and pitchers, we use this process. It’s scouting, understanding what made a player successful in the past, what does he look like now, how we can get him to the best version of himself, how can we improve. … And then I think the most important component in all of this is understanding the player, and his willingness to change, his motivation to improve, and catching the player at the right moment in his career that he’s willing to listen to that and willing to change. … At the end, betting on hungry, motivated players is often where you look really good, because those guys often perform.”   

ON COMPARISONS WITH THE ‘OTHER’ CHRIS YOUNG

• “The other C-Y is a great guy. I think he’s doing a great job broadcasting (with MLB Network) if you haven’t heard him before. … One thing we have a mutual respect for is we’re both good people. You’ve never seen either of our names come across the ticker for a disciplinary issue or something negative and I think we’re both grateful for that. There’s been a couple times where young kids hand me a baseball card and I say, ‘This isn’t me.” And they say, ‘Well, you’re Chris Young.’ Yes, but that’s not me! … There was no extra motivation facing C-Y just because we had the same name. … I think the one person I’ve never been confused with, and I don’t think he has either, is the country music singer Chris Young.”  

For more coverage of SABR 53, visit SABR.org/convention.

• Listen: Click here to listen to Bruce Bochy’s remarks during the Roland Hemond Award presentation at SABR 53 (MP3; 22:26)

Thank you, C-Y, for those remarks. They told me this award was for a lifetime of service. Well, that’s baseball’s polite way of saying you’re old — but we like you. I’ve been thrown out of more games than I care to admit. But I’m getting honored here today for sticking around. So thank you.

It’s an honor to be with all of you tonight. I’ve had the privilege of managing three incredible clubs, San Diego, San Francisco, and here with Texas. Some of the greatest lessons I’ve learned throughout my career weren’t just in the dugout. They were from men and women who found the players, who saw the potential, who believed in a young kid throwing about 88 (mph) at a high school that nobody else showed up to see.

I watched my brother, who was a career scout, travel the countless miles, the sketchy hotels, the bad coffee, but a guy who was in love with the hunt. Joe could recognize talent, but more importantly, he could see the heart behind the people. I’ve never forgotten how important scouts are, these lifetime scouts who allow us to do what we do. Now my son, Brett, who just finished his first career year as a professional scout. I’ve stood in awe at how seriously he’s taken his job.

We’re in the limelight, but we’re standing on the shoulders of countless men and women who are behind the scenes making it possible for us to do what we do.

Yesterday, we’re standing around the clubhouse and guys are asking what my plans are on my day off. I said, “Well, I’m going to the SABR convention.” Not many of them knew what it was. One guy was kidding around and asked, “Is it sandwiches and baseball?” I said, “No, it stands for people who know more about your career than you do.”

SABR is baseball’s conscience and compass. To be among the people who love the game as much as I do, it really is an honor for me. I look back and see what you do to help shape it, to study it, to preserve it, thank you for that. Hopefully when I say I’m honored to be here, you know I am sincere.

I’m up here in a little disbelief. You never set out on a journey thinking you’re going to get a lifetime award. You set out because you love the game and you want to give it everything you’ve got. To be associated with the name Roland Hemond, that’s pretty incredible for me. This award carries special meaning to me because Roland Hemond wasn’t just a legend, he was a listener. He listened to the scouts, to his field people, to old-timers with the wisdom, and to the young guys with hope.

Most importantly, Roland lifted up the people behind the curtain who built this game up and kept promoting them. Roland was the kind of guy, he treated interns and All-Stars the same, with the same kindness.

The reason I know this is because I had a chance to spend a lot of time with Roland, at the winter meetings, at All-Star Games, and of course when he was with Arizona (Diamondbacks). Every time I was there, he would come down and talk … about everything. He just had a heart for people. He saw things in people that others missed. He was kind, he was generous, and he had a memory that would put most of us to shame. He remembered your story, not just your stats. He remembered your name, your wife’s name. He wasn’t just a builder of rosters, he was a builder of relationships. He made the game personal.

His mentorship, he never hoarded wisdom. He handed it out. He was a builder of scouts and coaches, and players of the game. His stewardship of the game, he reminded us all that this game was a gift. He believed the game didn’t belong to any of us, it belonged to all of us.

If we’re honest with each other, we’re all drinking from wells dug by others. I didn’t have the kind of career I’ve had because I had this figured out. I’ve had great players, loyal coaches, front offices that trusted the process. I’ve had mentors like Bobby Cox, Joe Torre, Felipe Alou, and people like Roland Hemond, who poured into me.

I’m going to tell you what baseball has given me. If there’s anything I’ve learned in this game, baseball will give you a platform. It’s up to you to make it matter.

Today, I’d like to touch briefly on three intangibles that this game has given to me. These are things you’re not going to see on the stat sheet or at a press conference. These are things I’ll carry with me long after the last out.

Baseball will humble you fast. Success is fleeting, but criticism is free. One day you’re a genius, and the next day you’re a bum.

It’s taken me a while to figure this out. But this game has taught me to stay grounded, not to get too high or too low. We play this game for the fans. We play this game for the soldier who may be on leave who wants to see his favorite team. We play for the families who may not be able to afford a vacation but they can afford to come to the ballpark. We play for the mom or dad who may be dealing with battling cancer but just wants another great evening at the ballpark. I try to remind myself of who we’re playing for, and that’s how I keep things in perspective.

Resilience. Sometimes we don’t talk enough about how hard this game is. The grind is real. The losses are heavy. The travel is endless. The losing streaks, the doubters. The silence in the dugout when that momentum is changed. I can tell you that, a couple of days ago, when we had a four-run lead and four batters later, we’re down 5-4.

But that’s when you find out what you’re about. The game toughens it. And if you let it, it’ll soften you. It makes you more compassionate. Because you know every guy in that clubhouse has a story. And part of my job is to make sure they know they matter, even if they’re 0-for-20.

The beauty of the game is that every day, there’s another chance to get it right. To show up and do better. And that’s what I love about scouting. There’s always another player, another unknown, with big-league dreams.

Some of my deepest friendships I’ve made are from this game. And not just players or coaches. I’m talking trainers, scouts, clubhouse guys, grounds crew, bus drivers, guys who all become like family to you. In my case, some actually are family.

You win with them, you lose with them. You grind out 162 games. And if you’re fortunate, you get to play a few in October. You fight, you laugh, you grow old together. And if you do it right, you lift each other up and you make each other better along the way.

People often ask me what is the secret to winning. There’s no secret. There’s just showing up, day after day, and paying attention. Trusting your people, listening more than you talk, giving credit, taking the blame. And never forgetting where you’re from or forgetting those who believed in you before you believed in yourself.

That’s why I love that this award bears Roland Hemond’s name — because that’s the kind of man he was.   

I’ve been called a players’ manager, an old-school manager, a calming presence in the lineup. And that’s fine. But the truth is, inspired by how Roland lived his life, I just wanted to be someone worthy of this jersey, someone who tried to leave the game a little bit better than how he found it.

So let me wrap this up by saying thank you. Thank you to SABR for keeping stories alive, the stats, the legends, the untold contributions of scouts and player development people who shape these players before a single highlight reel ever existed.

The award may have my name on it, but I share it with every scout who sat in a cold bleacher with a stopwatch and a dream, who bet on a young kid who didn’t have that perfect swing or those clean mechanics, but had a deep passion for playing the game right. And I share it with everyone in player development, who saw a spark in a player where others saw a flaw. And with every person who has given their life, not just to the game, but for the game. You are the backbone of this thing we call baseball.

And I have to share it with someone else, my wife Kim, a special lady who has been in my life since almost my career started. … I have to tell you a little bit about her. We got married in 1978. We had a little apartment in Cocoa, Florida. I didn’t make the Triple-A team, I ended up going to Columbus, Georgia, and playing in the Southern League.

In July of that year, I got called up to the major leagues, which she still takes credit for, believe me. (Houston Astros manager) Bill Virdon called me and said, “You’re here for 10 days, don’t bring your family out here.” About three weeks go by, I’m catching every day, I go in to Bill and ask, “Is it OK if I bring my wife out here?” He says sure. We’re on the road, so Kim and my sister Terry drove to Houston from Columbus the night before. They got there to the hotel across the road from the Astrodome and our traveling secretary didn’t have a room set up for her. So my wife and Terry spent the night in the car. Welcome to the big leagues!

Four months later, I got her in Venezuela playing winter ball and I still see her sitting on the floor, there’s this little frying pan in this little motel room we had. That’s how we had dinner every night. It had this concoction on the shower, you had to stand on a rubber mat to get hot water, or you would get electrocuted.

Through the bumpy rides on our journey, including four more years of winter ball, never one complaint. She was along the ride. I can’t thank her enough for her support and for her sacrifice, for allowing me to do what I loved to do. So thank you, Kim.

And lastly, this story is about two guys who loved the game, Frank and Joe. They played baseball throughout their life, Little League, Babe Ruth, high school. They weren’t good enough to play professionally, so they kept playing in these different leagues according to their age. And they’re playing in the over-70 senior league. They’re having coffee one day and one of them says, “I wonder if there’s baseball in heaven. We gotta make a deal that if one of us goes first, somehow, some way, we gotta let the other one know.” Frank passed away first and Joe continues to play. He’s sitting in the dugout one game, it’s about the fifth inning, and suddenly he sees this bright light. Joe hears his name and says, “Frank, is that you? Is there baseball in heaven?” And Frank says, “Yeah, I got good news and bad news. The good news is, I’m playing with Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle and all the greats. It’s incredible.” And Joe says, “Well, what could be bad?” And Frank says, “Well, I see you’re scheduled to pitch here on Tuesday.”

I don’t know who’s pitching on Tuesday. That’s up to the good Lord. But before that time comes, as long as I’m able, I will do what I can to contribute to this game that I love, this game that has done so much for me. Thank you again for honoring me. This is a very special award.

On Friday, August 9, 2024, the SABR 52 St. Paul Saints Panel was held at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. Hosted by SABR’s Minor Leagues Committee, panelists include Derek Sharrer, the Saints’ Executive Vice President/GM; Tom Whaley, Executive Vice President; and Sierra Bailey, Vice President/Assistant GM. The moderator was Liz Fedor of Twin Cities Business magazine. Mascot Mudonna and “Coach” also made a surprise guest appearance at the beginning of the panel.

Sharrer is Executive Vice President and General Manager of the St. Paul Saints. He has been with the organization since 2004. He received Executive of the Year honors in the American Association for three consecutive seasons from 2015 to 2017. He oversaw the opening of CHS Field in 2015. He previously worked for the Charleston RiverDogs and Fort Myers Miracle, and his teams have set attendance records and drawn national attention for their creative promotions throughout his career.

Whaley is Executive Vice President of the St. Paul Saints, a position he has held since 2002. He is responsible for the team’s business development and he was one of the instrumental people in making CHS Field a reality. He previously worked for the Tampa Bay Rays and the Brockton Rox, and also spent six seasons with the Saints from 1993 to 1998 as Director of Operations and Assistant General Manager.

Bailey is Vice President and Assistant General Manager of the St. Paul Saints. She began her baseball career as a Saints game-day intern in 2009 while attending the University of Minnesota, where she earned her degree in Sport Management. From there, she went on to work for the Minnesota Twins, Timberwolves, and Lynx before making her way back to the Saints in 2013.

Fedor is Senior Editor for Twin Cities Business magazine. She oversees the magazine’s Trending sections, which provide business leaders with the latest information on specific industries. She spent 11 years at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporting on the airline industry, housing market, agriculture, and consumer issues. She previously worked as the editorial page editor, reporter, and columnist at the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota.

• AUDIO: Listen to highlights from the SABR 52 St. Paul Saints Panel (55:17; MP3)

Here are some highlights:

ON WORKING WITH FORMER CO-OWNER MIKE VEECK

• Whaley: “Mike’s fingerprints … are baked into what we do. And hopefully long after the three of us are gone and the team’s still here, we’ve baked that in to those coming after us. So it’s about never letting up from a promotional angle, never losing your edginess, never losing your sense of humor. … You do that by being unrelenting when it comes to those values that were instilled in us. Every day, you get up and you’re trying to think of the next great idea.”

ON PLAYING AT OLD MIDWAY STADIUM

• Sharrer: “They would bring players in and the coaches would say, ‘Just wait until the game starts.’ They’d bring them into this high school locker room … two shower heads, no lounge area that players have now, and they’d say, ‘Just wait for the game. Just wait until you walk out onto the field.’ And then they’re chanting, they’re singing a song about you, they’ve picked their favorites, they’re doing the choo-choo when the train goes by. Honestly, that was the answer: it was the crowd, it was the people.”

ON THE ATMOSPHERE AT CHS FIELD

• Bailey: “I think once we became affiliated (with the Minnesota Twins), we did get more of the baseball crowd. But we still definitely cater ourselves toward the families who want to have an affordable night outside and to enjoy themselves. But I think we can cater to all people. … In center field, we have a play zone area for kids who can’t sit in their seat for nine innings. … We have a craft beer bullpen in the left field corner with 40 different local breweries on tap; people love to go have beers all night long and don’t even watch a single play of the game. … It’s always been in our nature to market the entertainment side. It’s just a nice place to go, to have everyone be together from all different walks of life.”

ON BECOMING A TRIPLE-A AFFILIATE OF THE MINNESOTA TWINS

• Sharrer: “I don’t think we’ve changed much at all. The baseball has always been very important to us. As an independent team, we had an opportunity to build a team that was made up of our guys who were playing to win a championship. Externally, we knew the market wasn’t made up of all baseball fans and if we wanted to survive, we needed to make sure it was fun for everybody. … The transition from independent to affiliated did give us an opportunity to focus a little more attention to what’s happening between the white lines, as it relates to individual players. Last night, Zebby Matthews pitched and a lot of the Twins player development staff took the Green Line over to watch the game. … It’s a wonderful opportunity to highlight what’s happening, especially on social media.”

For more coverage of SABR 52, visit SABR.org/convention.

On Friday, August 9, 2024, the SABR 52 Minnesota Twins Analytics Panel was held at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. The panel included Thad Levine, the Twins’ Senior Vice President and General Manager; Josh Kalk, Vice President, Baseball Operations Strategy & Innovation; Jeremy Raadt, Vice President of Baseball Systems; and Josh Ruffin, Assistant Director of Player Development Research.

Since Levine’s hiring as GM in November 2016, the Twins have won three American League Central Division titles and qualified for four postseason appearances. The team also set a single-season major league record with 307 home runs in 2019 when they won 101 games. Previously, he spent 11 seasons as an Assistant General Manager for the Texas Rangers, a period that included two World Series runs. He has also worked with the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Kalk is in his seventh season with the Twins, where he leads the advance scouting team and assists the major league staff and player development personnel with unique information and ball-tracking data. Prior to joining the Twins in 2017, he spent nine seasons in the Tampa Bay Rays front office. He holds a Master of Science degree in Physics from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Raadt joined the Twins in 2014 as the club’s first baseball systems developer. His responsibilities include leading the baseball systems team as they develop applications and software for use across all areas of the baseball operations department, from player development and scouting to analytics. Previously, he worked at MinuteBids, Access Genetics, and at his alma mater, Bethel University, where he graduated with degrees in computer science, business finance and small business management.

Ruffin works closely with the affiliate coaching staffs to develop minor league prospects. He joined the organization in 2019 as an Advance Scouting Analyst in the major league clubhouse. A former pitcher for Duke University, he graduated with a degree in Statistical Science in 2014, and earned his Master’s degree in Data Analytics Engineering from George Mason University. He has also served as a Data Analyst in numerous efforts supporting the United States Government, including the US Army, Navy, and Department of Agriculture.

• AUDIO: Listen to highlights from the SABR 52 Minnesota Twins Analytics Panel (38:47; MP3)

Here are some highlights:

ON COMMUNICATING ANALYTICS WITH PLAYERS

• Ruffin: “We really try and focus on meeting the players where they’re at. … One big thing we do is we try to fight to make sure we have at least one coach at each affiliate (minor league) level who can speak Spanish, so we can reach out to everyone who is on our team. We have different analysts who are flying in, who can check in, and see the affiliates directly, see what the processes look like. … You get to see what they’re doing in action, so you can see where that gap is. If we see the information that’s being passed along is too complex or too busy, we’ll find ways to simplify it. If you think our players are getting a little older and they can handle a little more, their cups are getting bigger, then we’ll sit there and allow them to go as we can.”

ON HOW TO FIND AND SEPARATE USEFUL DATA

• Raadt: “There is an absolute sea of data. We can get 7 terabytes of data just off of one game, from all of the tracking systems that we have today. So how do we make that so the pitcher after the game understands how he performed and how he can get better for the next start? That’s what makes a good team good, is being able to do that. … We have extremely talented folks who can take that information down and also understand that each player is an individual.”
• Levine: “We embed people from our analytics teams within each of our departments. So we have real-time feedback from those departments. It’s not abstract. We have people embedded in our player development, our strength and conditioning, our medical staff, in each of our scouting groups, so they’re living day-to-day with those guys and understanding exactly the practical application of every tool we’re building. It’s being honed on a day-to-day basis by the end user.”

ON ADVANCE SCOUTS AND HOW TO PREPARE PITCHERS

• Levine: “It used to be when you were advancing for an opposing team, you’d sit in a relatively large room with your whole pitching staff there, and you’d go over every single hitter and tell them, ‘This is how we pitch each single guy.’ And if the guy learned that way, great. And if he didn’t, he was going to struggle. … Now we are meeting with guys on an individual basis. Some guys are visual learners, some guys are audible learners, some need video, some need handouts given to them. I think what Josh (Kalk) does masterfully is the art form of conveying some of this information in the best way to ultimately make it actionable, rather than just a piece of paper that sits in a player’s locker and isn’t utilized.”
• Kalk: “These players are human beings, and that fact is not lost on the people up here. … While we certainly have things that we’re thinking about, when a player comes into our organization, we really try to give them some time to be themselves, to get used to us and to (let) us get used to them, before we jump on them with some adjustments, whether that’s through a trade or the draft.”

For more coverage of SABR 52, visit SABR.org/convention.