Sig Mejdal takes on unique role for Houston Astros
From Brian McTaggart at Astros.com on January 31, 2012:
Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow wasn’t on the job very long in Houston when he announced he was bringing aboard Sig Mejdal to become the team’s director of decision sciences, a role which immediately gave Mejdal one of the most unique titles in baseball.
At first read, the title would make more sense if Mejdal were hired to work on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, and certainly not at Minute Maid Park. That’s the place, after all, where players spit seeds and slap high fives and where fans yell, scream and throw peanut shells on the floor.
Who needs a director of decision sciences?
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Mejdal, 46, came from the Cardinals, where he had worked since 2005 and was most recently the team’s director of amateur Draft analytics. Mejdal was involved with modeling, analysis and data-driven decision making throughout all levels of the Cardinals organization and was a key contributor in Draft decision processes.
Mejdal grew up in the Bay Area of California as a fan of the Oakland A’s and was always interested in baseball stats. As a kid, he even had a membership in the Society for American Baseball Research. He earned two engineering degrees at the University of California-Davis and later completed advanced degrees in operations research and cognitive psychology/human factors. He has also worked at Lockheed Martin in California and for NASA.
It wasn’t until he read Michael Lewis’ groundbreaking book “Moneyball” in 2003 that it occurred to him that a Major League team could use somebody with an analytical background.
Read the full article here: http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120131&content_id=26525316&vkey=news_hou&c_id=hou
Originally published: January 31, 2012. Last Updated: January 31, 2012.