This broke last night, but Jeff Luhnow made two hires:
-Sig Mejdal, who had been with the Cardinals for the past six years, to be the Astros' Director of Decision Sciences.
Luhnow described Mejdal's new role as a systematic method of combining all the information you can collect on players, whether it's using previous performance information, health and medical information and opinions of scouts who have laid eyes on players.
How about Mejdal's background:
Mejdal earned two engineering degrees at the University of California at Davis and later completed advanced degrees in operations research and cognitive psychology/human factors. He has also worked at Lockheed Martin in California and for NASA.
-Stephanie Wilka, coordinator of amateur scouting. Wilka was previously with the Red Sox in PR (More Sweet Caroline, Pam!), and the executive director of the philanthropic arm of the Dodgers. She has an undergrad degree from Harvard, and a law degree from Pepperdine.
(By the by, the Sporting News' Stan McNeal firmly established himself as a douche, labeling Mejdal's title "pretentious," and calling Wilka "a former cheerleader," making specific mention of her womanness. As if that matters.)
All of this is horrifically alarming. How are we supposed to criticize moves if it's obvious that they have been vetted? What if Luhnow makes a trade with the Phillies? How are we expected to be Bloggy Bloggerson if there is this much data-driven analysis behind the team? Being a fan blogger is way different than being a fanboy blogger, but that's what I'm in serious danger of becoming.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
