Best Reading of the Day
Data is the currency of sports in the modern era.
We have seen the major leagues transformed over the last two decades--moneyball in baseball--and the effort is ongoing and continuous.
The latest is AI-driven analysis of extreme video footage of baseball players: both pitchers and hitters.
This story is eye-opening:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/10/op-moneyballai/
Here is a snippet from the piece.
Boddy [the owner of the data company] and his engineering team now rely on AI to blend dozens of data streams to create customized coaching regimens. I cannot emphasize enough how little this is like your weekly personal training session. Video analysis breaks down individual muscles and movements by the inch. Hardware (bats and balls) is equipped with software (sensors) that tracks every baseball action and renders them into equations that measure force and torque. Like all data-gobbling AI software, the process gets smarter as it goes; Driveline has collected enough historical performance data that it can correlate five non-baseball related physical tests into dead solid predictions of fastball velocity and bat speed.
Even in its infancy, Driveline helped Bauer become one of baseball’s best pitchers.
The most shocking part of the story? This is coming for all of our jobs yet almost none of us will be able to afford to protect our data from our employers. The conclusion of this piece is telling:
“I have friends who are lawyers and prop traders, and it’s shocking to me how far ahead sports is when it comes to these technologies,” says Boddy. “A lot of them don’t see what’s coming.”
Got your attention yet?
Happy Reading,
J.W. Gant
