About this item
After twenty consecutive losing seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, team morale was low, the club's payroll ranked near the bottom of the sport, game attendance was down, and the city was becoming increasingly disenchanted with its team. Pittsburghers joked their town was the city of champions ... and the Pirates. Big Data Baseball is the story of how the 2013 Pirates, mired in the longest losing streak in North American pro sports history, adopted drastic big-data strategies to end the drought, make the playoffs, and turn around the franchise's fortunes. Award-winning journalist Travis Sawchik takes you behind the scenes to expertly weave together the stories of the key figures who changed the way the small-market Pirates played the game. For manager Clint Hurdle and the front office staff to save their jobs, they could not rely on a free agent spending spree, instead they had to improve the sum of their parts and find hidden value.
About the Author
Travis Sawchik is the author of 'Big Data Baseball' and an award-winning journalist who covers the Pirates and Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
He has won national Associated Press Sports Editor awards for enterprise writing and numerous state-level awards. Sawchik's work has been featured or referenced on ESPN, Grantland.com, and the MLB Network.
He is a Concord, Ohio native who developed a love of sports from watching Indians, Cavs and Browns game with his father and an appreciation of the arts from his mother who was an art teacher in the public schools. As a writer, he considers curiosity to be his greatest strength.
Travis lives in Mt. Lebanon, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, with his wife and son. You can find them there in the sun room where he writes while also trying to please an attention-starved cat. He is a 2002 Ohio State graduate.
