SC Connecticut News

As the baseball World Series captivates fans, Brian Macdonald from Yale University provides insights into the evolving field of sports analytics. Yale's Department of Statistics and Data Science (S&DS) has seen significant growth over the past decade, expanding its faculty and moving into new facilities at Kline Tower. This growth includes a focus on sports analytics, with one-third of students in Macdonald's statistical case studies class choosing to concentrate their projects on sports.

Yale will host the 2025 Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium next spring, marking its first time hosting this event. Macdonald is a senior lecturer and research scientist in S&DS at Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and co-director of undergraduate studies for S&DS. His background includes roles as director of sports analytics at ESPN and director of hockey analytics for the Florida Panthers.

Macdonald discussed how sports analytics have advanced since the "Moneyball" era, noting that every Major League Baseball team now has an analytics unit. Similar trends are seen in other major leagues like the NBA, NFL, and NHL. He highlighted how player tracking data is transforming decision-making in sports.

"In every at-bat, there are multiple high-speed cameras recording the pitcher-batter interaction," said Macdonald about Major League Baseball's use of technology. He explained that while players may not focus on complex statistics like WAR (Wins Above Replacement), they are interested in performance trends against specific pitchers or situations.

Macdonald shared his journey into data science from a background in electrical engineering and mathematics. He emphasized working with students on diverse capstone projects based on their interests and available data.

Among notable student projects, Nathan Chen focused on figure skating analytics during his time at Yale. Other students have worked with various organizations like the U.S. Olympic Committee to analyze data across different sports such as gymnastics and tennis.

The impact of player tracking data continues to be a focal point for innovation within continuously flowing team sports like hockey and basketball. "Using player locations...you can analyze at a granular level what is going on during gameplay," said Macdonald about this evolving area of research.

In addition to his work in sports analytics, Macdonald collaborates with Luke Sanford from Yale School of the Environment on remote sensing data projects related to land cover uses globally.