I’m becoming more and more convinced that every professional sports team needs to hire a Vice President of Common Sense, someone who cracks the inner circle of the decision-making process along with the GM, assistant GM, head scout, head coach, owner and whomever else. One catch: the VP of CS doesn’t attend meetings, scout prospects, watch any film or listen to any inside information or opinions; he lives the life of a common fan. They just bring him in when they’re ready to make a big decision, lay everything out and wait for his unbiased reaction.
The Astros boosted their commitment to a data-driven existence under new general manager Jeff Luhnow and CEO George Postolos with the hiring of Sig Mejdal as the club’s director of decision sciences … “Really someone to oversee the architecture and ongoing operation of all the systems that we’re going to utilize to make better baseball decisions,” Luhnow said.
People who work for the Astros who make bad decisions will now light themselves on fire.
