Last week Thomas Bjørn admitted analytics played a big part in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory – the best teams are open to ideas no matter where they come from
There is a scene in Moneyball, the story of how the Oakland A’s defied a tiny budget to come close to reaching the 2002 World Series, that neatly encapsulates the friction between gnarly, gum-chewing scouts and the newer wave of analysts who seek truths in spreadsheets.
“You don’t put a team together with a computer,” the A’s scouting director, Grady Fuson, scoffs at the general manager, Billy Beane, who has begun deep-mining data to find undervalued – and thus cheap – players. “Baseball isn’t just numbers. It isn’t science … there are intangibles that only baseball people understand.” Beane’s terse response? “Adapt or die.”
Written by Sean Ingle
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/nov/19/analytics-allardyce-bjorn-ryder-cup under the title “
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