9781422285237 - Analytics: Sports Stats & More

people in the front office. Having better players on the field is the obvious way to increase your victory total. The more good/ great players you have, the more likely you will win. However, everyone knows that, and if everyone is looking for the best players, you need to do more. What about more coaching? Teams have looked for wins by adding more coaches. In 2014, the Seattle Seahawks had 23 assistant coaches. It was not long ago that most teams did not have more than a dozen. Today, most NFL teams have about 20 assistant coaches. If everyone has great players, and the teams have the coaches to help develop them, where else can they look for an edge? The place to improve has become the front office. In the last 10 to 15 years, many teams have begun to uncover information that may not be obvious to the other teams in their league. In basketball, is there a difference when a teamhas a certain five-man lineup on the court compared to other combinations? In baseball, shifting defenses has become commonplace as teams force the opposing hitters to power the ball into the heart of the shift or have them adjust and alter their swing. In soccer, new information about how much players run and move on the field during a game has altered training techniques.

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