born december american analyst nasa engineer previously helped draft picks turned personal interest baseball career inspired biography grew california mother nurse father career army officer youth played little league baseball years fan oakland member according magazine fascinated stats backs baseball cards graduated bachelor degrees mechanical engineering engineering later earned master degrees operations research psychology attending college late 1980s worked dealer lake graduating worked lockheed martin satellite operations unit interest baseball recreational inspired consider pursuing career attended search job baseball ended working nasa studied sleep patterns order sleep schedules working nasa job chief analyst fantasy baseball team participating wars competition battle experts fantasy team later subject walker book sportswriter obsessive bid win world ruthless fantasy baseball recruited new department took months data college baseball games ran determine likely performance stats baseball players achieve according sports_illustrated seven seasons cardinals draft players big organization promoted senior analyst director amateur draft analysis january created formula predict risk injury baseball players contributed section injury probability bill james handbook director supported recruitment decisions based physical tests historical player performance hiring apply based decision tree player choices effort team address performance issues prior seasons helped team create stout system named combination scout making player choices system criticized players trading players making new recruits farm system ranked best baseball persuade players uncomfortable non traditional positions field embrace shifts team uses heavily team advisers credentials believed hack team database
Sig Mejdal