1. What do you do?
I am a quantitative analyst for the Mariners. Like the movie Moneyball, I help take quantitative evidence and statistical modeling and apply it to the decisions we make to help our team win games.
I build machine learning models to describe and predict player performance and provide insights to help our players and staff. I also provide analysis on players that the Mariners might be interested in acquiring, helping evaluate how much we think a player is worth, and how we think he might perform in the future.
2. What’s the coolest part of your job?
Being able to make an impact on the field. We do a lot of work to help players develop and become the best they can be — watching them take the field and succeed and knowing you helped them succeed is a great feeling and really rewarding.
3. Why are you passionate about it?
I grew up a big baseball fan and have always loved the game. Even though I was never much of an athlete, being able to stay around baseball in whatever way I could was something I valued greatly, and when I got the opportunity to work in baseball, I knew I had to take it.
4. Which skills from Georgia Tech and your LMC degree have helped you be successful in this career?
Communication is incredibly important. You can have the biggest and best analytics department in all of baseball, but at the end of the day, it means very little if you cannot communicate your findings throughout the organization. Being able to communicate our insights effectively and clearly across our staff, coaches, and players has led to a lot of buy-in from the people in our organization and helps us work together with them to make the best decisions we can.
5. What’s your #1 tip for students and alumni interested in your field?
Work on your own research projects! There are vast amounts of data publicly available across a variety of sports that can be sliced and diced in a variety of interesting ways.
You do not need to work in a front office to start playing around with this data and uncovering new insights about sports.
John graduated with a B.S. in Literature, Media, and Communication in 2019. Explore more alumni careers here!