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Legacy
Photo courtesy of Statcast
Now, sabermetrics harnesses technological developments to collect more extensive data.
"Since [the Moneyball era], one of the major things that's new in baseball is the technology that's now a very routine part of the game. In Major League Baseball ... they are using hawkeye cameras to track the baseball. They are tracking the pitch ball, the batted ball, the track, the players on the field, they're tracking the bat, the swing, they're tracking the motion of the batter and the pitcher. All this stuff is all new information that we didn't have 25 years ago."
Alan Nathan, University of Illinois physicist and longtime SABR contributor
Systems such as Statcast continue to develop sabermetrics by deepening the understanding of data analysis in sports.
3D model of pithcer throw, 2023, Statcast
Carry distance through Statcast, 2014, MLB
Hawk-Eye Technology, 2020, Sports Video Blog
"[Sabermetrics] was pretty big. Once it made sense in baseball, all the other sports were looking for any advantage they could get. The more data that came in, the more processing power was needed, whether computing or humans. There's too much data to just let it sit there unused."
Tom Tango, Senior Database Architect of Stats for MLB Advanced Media.
Sabermetrics leaves a permanent mark on modern sports management and analytics. Beyond Major League Baseball, sports like ice hockey, basketball, and football integrate data to evaluate players and investigate new winning tactics.
Optical motion tracking of soccer, 2022, Gear Sports
Automated EPV visualization, 2023, Wise Sport
“The Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA have resounding decision making, the Boston Celtics with the way that they shoot with three pointers … Similar criticisms that baseball encounters are that people don’t wanna see too many three pointers since they think it's running the game, perhaps, but it is more efficient … than the midrange shot than the fadeaway jumper. If you’re a team you're not optimizing for the best entertainment product you’re optimizing to win you don’t really care how ugly or beautiful that is because a W is a W …”
Katie Krall, Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University and member of SABR Analytics Curriculum Committee, student conducted interview
Real time predictions in F1, 2024, Spotfire
Statistics of Shohei Ohtani, 2025, Statcast
Shot selection of baseketball, 2023, Alma Better