The Padres and Marlins each made a huge acquisition this week, though not the kind we typically cover here on MLBTR. Yesterday, FanGraphs stalwart Dave Cameron announced he will be joining the Padres to help build out their Research and Development department. And this morning, former MLBTR contributor Bradley Woodrum announced he’s joining the Marlins analytics team. Cameron and Woodrum were among the best sabermetric analysts operating in the public sphere, and we’ll sorely miss reading their work.
I first encountered Dave’s work about ten years ago, on U.S.S. Mariner. More than anyone, Dave was able to do incredibly intelligent baseball analysis in an understandable, easy-to-read way. Dave is a pioneer in the field of sabermetrics, and I made a point to read just about everything he wrote. I don’t remember much about the early days of FanGraphs, except that it had more graphs. When Dave joined, his writing made FanGraphs a must-read as well. Of course, the site has brought in countless talented writers and analysts since then. I first reached out to Dave in 2009 in hopes of understanding WAR better. He’s been gracious with his time over the years when I’ve approached him with many questions and has been a longtime friend of MLBTR. Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune spoke to Dave, who has had previous interest from MLB teams, about his decision to accept the Padres’ offer.
Back in 2015, Bradley Woodrum applied for a project we were launching on MLBTR: an attempt to create a model that predicts the chance of a pitcher having Tommy John surgery (updated last September). I knew Brad from his stellar work at FanGraphs and The Hardball Times. The Tommy John project was a daunting undertaking, and I was amazed by Brad’s analytical abilities, professionalism, and perseverance in getting the project to the finish line. It took the better part of a year, but Brad delivered what I considered to be the best possible TJS prediction model, given the limitations of public data. I’m proud to have hosted that work on MLBTR. Armed with the superior data of a Major League club, I expect Brad to do great things.
MLBTR wishes the best to Dave Cameron and Bradley Woodrum in their new careers!
That is absolutely awesome!!!!! I love to see guys get a big step in life forward! Good luck to those guys, and MLBTR keeps signing the guys who keep us hanging around!
That’s cool. The quality of baseball info out there on the internet these days is great… that teams are recruiting from that pool tells you just how good some of these guys are.
Wow congratulations to Dave
Congratulations, Dave & Bradley!!
A bevy of baseball bookworms bringing balanced and broad braingames to the bigs.
Congrats boys!!
Very cool to see these worlds intersecting. I’m fascinated with how this all plays out. I, too, will miss Dave’s articles on FanGraphs. His in season updates on trends were always must read.
Interesting that AJ Preller apparently reached out to Cameron, even after articles like these:
fangraphs.com/blogs/it-feels-like-the-padres-got-o…
fangraphs.com/blogs/i-still-dont-understand-a-j-pr…
I think it speaks well of Cameron and Preller both that they’re professional enough to work together despite obvious differences of opinion.
And of course the big loser in the Padres’ bringing on Cameron is Eric Hosmer:
fangraphs.com/blogs/the-2018-free-agent-landmines/
STATISTICS!
I hate sabermetrics
Im sure most left handed hitters who face the shift do as well.
So this whole time I was thinking it was Mike Cameron…hahaha
Awesome! Here’s to Cameron using all of his knowledge to help contribute to the future success of the Padres.
Should be very beneficial regarding our young prospects. We cant keep them all and itd be nice to use camerons sabremetrics expertise to really distinguish whos worth keeping vs trading to improve the team.
Also, preller loves obscure analytics. I remember grant discussing the reason they claimed kirby yates was his spin rate.
I sat next to him at a USS Mariner night at Safeco between that and the way he treated me and other people who had differing opinions I stopped reading or listening to his arrogance. Sports is not all about numbers and statistics but you can’t tell a nerd who never played that.
He doesn’t believe in team chemistry. Says there is no statistical data to back it up. I have played on teams that have gotten along and played better than we should and teams that haven’t and played worse. I have seen it and felt it. He also defends uzr which has to be one of the worst Def metrics there is. It never holds up to the eye test. Other stats do uzr doesn’t. He will defend it like he invented it.
On USS Mariner if you said anything that he disagreed with he would attack you like a child. Never could you have a civil debate then his zombie followers would start in. It would last for weeks on any post you made they would make some snarky comment about the post you disagreed with the great Dave Cameron. I don’t see him getting along with the players hope he doesn’t have much contact with them he doesn’t know how to relate to that side of the world.
Stats are fine, but the sheer number of them and the constant relying on them anymore sucks all the fun out of the game.
He got a job with the Padres, while you’re merely complaining on a web site. Obviously his baseball knowledge is more valued than yours.
I didn’t say his knowledge of stats was not greater than mine. My knowledge of stepping up to the plate is greater than his but that has nothing to do with it. He is still arrogant and treats you like an idiot if you disagree with him. How well will that go over with a player when he acts like that to them?
Baseball is one sport that team chemistry is bigger because of the grind of the long season. I agree there are teams that are just that much better and it doesn’t matter but there are teams that play above themselves because they enjoy going out to the field and being with the team. If you ever hear any of the Mariners from the team that won 216 games they all talk about the chemistry on the team and how it made them want to work harder to not let the guy next to him down. I am going with them sorry.
Team chemistry isn’t really a thing. Sure, a locker room cancer could make you talk about him behind his back, but stepping up to the plate is no different if he is or isn’t in your dugout
99/100 times I would agree with you but I’d say a team that plays well together and has good chemistry can (once in a blue moon) be the difference. It gets lost in the long regular season for sure but that 1/100 could mean a championship. I think the ‘14-‘15 Royals were an exception. They played differently and being in Kansas City, I could feel the electricity and it was apparent they were feeding off of it and each other. Most of the time team chemistry won’t matter, but I think to totally discredit it would be as foolish as saying sabermetrics don’t matter.
I give him three years tops.
Not a fan of Cameron. Sorry.
I think mlb teams are missing the boat by hiring many of these online writers like cameron (who I never cared for as a writer and definitely not his personality). There are smarter people out there. Expand your hiring pool.
Who are these “smarter people?” You?
I only checked in on Fangraphs from time to time, but there sure seems to be a divide on opinion of Dave Cameron. Seems you either love him or hate him. As a Padre fan, it’s refreshing that the team is trying to “bring in the best” people in the fields to help bring a winner to San Diego. It is also good to see that Preller is willing to listen to other opinions even if they do not line up with his. These 2 could be a match made in heaven or this could blow up in a hurry it seems. We’ll have to wait and see.
The general consensus is that he’s a touch on the arrogant side publicly, but his talent for digesting data and making it understandable is undeniable.
Padres made a really smart hire.
The photo you guys chose for this post is incredible
I never understood trying to use math to predict TJS and I was an engineer before I got sick.. If you want to predict TJ just take a look at the max velocity teams are getting out of their young pitchers Case in point James Kaprielian.. He added 5 mph to his fastball when he joined the Yankees and the following year his arm started to fall off.. Greg Maddux never would have been the pitcher he was with the way teams approach developing pitchers today..