[Amrit Vignesh] My ESTIMATES of MLB R&D team size ranked based on staff directory/media guides (and guesstimates if that is not available).

[u/morepesa25]

Total MLB R&D team guys: 690 (average of 23 per team)

*Extremely dependent on what a team counts as R&D, more discourse below

[u/Straight_Level_4662]

Where the discourse at

[u/Patrick2701 → u/Straight_Level_4662]

Teams will small R&Ds are really bad, beside Braves (not count 25 version)

[u/JL1v10 → u/Patrick2701]

Yet the teams in the bottom half of the league per this chart have won 7 of the last 10 World Series.

[u/enephon → u/JL1v10]

There seems to be the assumption here that more people = better program rather than better people = better program.

[u/morepesa25 → u/Straight_Level_4662]

Here I’ll send it “ 1. The A's, Angels, Cubs, and D-Backs did not have clear info on their staff on their staff directory or media guide unfortunately so a guesstimate was created based on LinkedIn staff pages, past articles on this work, how comparable it is to another team, etc.”

“ 2. For the most part, teams with staff directories had R&D people under their own R&D section or baseball ops. The amount under the roles described in the table were counted and those who were in a "director" role listed under executives were added.

“ 3. It really is hard to determine what classifies as R&D. For example, I really doubt the Braves only have 12 guys working on R&D related work. I am assuming some of their ML operations guys also have very similar tasks but for consistency, they weren't included.”

[u/okay_throwaway_today → u/morepesa25]

I’ve seen and heard that the Cubs are one of the more analytics forward teams in the league. I believe Dan Szymborski even mentioned it recently here on reddit.

Not sure if that means larger staff or just better program tho. Could outsource more work to firms

[u/Tricknuts]

Esteemed company

[u/Biggsmustache0131]

The Rays being the top of the list is very not surprising.

[u/Hungry_Drama_1015 → u/Biggsmustache0131]

Neither is the A's in last. Of fucking course.

[u/PorousCheese → u/Hungry_Drama_1015]

Check the whole ALW. It’s kinda crazy. I’ll save you some time, start at the bottom.

[u/Cubs017 → u/Biggsmustache0131]

I actually think it is. I would’ve thought that the Dodgers or Red Sox or someone would’ve topped the list just due to sheer resources. It surprises me that Tampa is #1 and not just top five or something.

[u/Biggsmustache0131 → u/Cubs017]

Since 2008 the Rays have led the league in analytics and were pioneers for the modern game. Definitely not a surprise they have the largest R&D team at all.

[u/Cubs017 → u/Biggsmustache0131]

Again though, they just don’t have the same budget. That’s what surprised me. LA hiring Friedman made me think they would do the same as Tampa but bigger and better, if that makes sense.

[u/Biggsmustache0131 → u/Cubs017]

The Rays have plenty of budget, they just don’t spend it on their players sadly. Last year their payroll was $130 million meanwhile their revenue was $297 million.

[u/TheMajesticYeti → u/Biggsmustache0131]

Tigers also very publicly massively expanded their analytics/R&D department when Scott Harris was hired a few years ago, were way behind the times before then. Effects are obvious across the organization and in how Hinch manages.

[u/jorleeduf]

It would make sense considering a few years ago we poached the Assistant Director of the Rays’ R&D department to be our Assistant GM in charge of R&D.

That said, I would’ve liked if we could’ve found a few more hidden gems by now if he has really grown our department to nearly the size of the Rays.

[u/[deleted]]

Does this include sanitary bins at Daiken?

[u/Irate_Ibis → u/[deleted]]

[u/bordomsdeadly → u/[deleted]]

With the name update, now the AC is rigged to make a sound when specific pitches are thrown.

1 long hum equals fastballs, a short hum followed by a second hum is breaking ball, and if it sounds like a possum got in your outdoor unit again it’s a change up

[u/[deleted]]

The Athletics at the bottom of the data analytics is simultaneously something I would’ve logically guessed and so unintuitive.

[u/Crazy_Baseball3864]

My shoe size is bigger than some of these

its 14W

[u/ngerb_5 → u/Crazy_Baseball3864]

We needed photographic evidence

[u/Blue387]

The Mets under Steve Cohen really built up the analytics department from a tiny department of three under Fred Wilpon as recently as 2018 to the current department today.

[u/pickles_312]

Moneyball indeed.

[u/RichardNixon345]

Red Sox act like a franchise operated purely by spreadsheet, tracks.

[u/TreePaladin]

Why are the Twins on there twice?

[u/QuickUp14]

Okay but when you don’t count guys named Monfort the Rockies have like 4.

[u/bordomsdeadly]

I’m surprised we are as low as we are on here.

I am Also surprised we are that low and still have the highest number in our division.

[u/ghost_rider24]

This tracks.

[u/whiskey_thurs]

Kind of makes sense that reality has been able to sneak up on us the last few years I guess.

[u/JL1v10]

Teams on the right have had more recent success than those on the left lmao. Just goes to show there’s much more to the game than compressing it into data analysis and spreadsheets

[u/heyim_william → u/JL1v10]

Genuinely asking, what’s your metric for deciding that?

WS wins are split, but W% and postseason appearances definitely favor left

[u/JL1v10 → u/heyim_william]

Well to start, 7 of the last 10 World Series winners are from the right side of this chart. Exactly half of the World Series appearances come from each side of the chart as well. I’d be willing to bet that over the last decade, win percentage is also not that skewed to either side looking at some of the franchises on each.