Saberseminar brings together GMs, players, analysts, fans
On August 13th and 14th, hundreds of writers, scouts, officials, fans, and former baseball players attended the Sabermetrics, Scouting, and Science of Baseball weekend seminar held at Boston University’s Metcalf Science Center.
Brought together for the benefit of the Jimmy Fund and the Angioma Alliance, the annual seminar advertised that it puts “[attendees] up close with some of baseball’s top coaches, statisticians, scouts, doctors, and scientists.”
During the event, speakers from various backgrounds gave talks. They tried to convey how science blends with advanced baseball statistics, traditional scouting assessments, and more.
Over the two-day Saberseminar, primarily organized by Brooks Baseball pioneer Dan Brooks, speakers included former MLB players John Baker and Brian Bannister, Boston Globe columnist Alex Speier, Arizona Diamondbacks assistant general manager Bryan Minniti, and Boston Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.
The Tech was in attendance Saturday and was involved in the question-and-answer sessions with GMs Minniti and Dombrowski. Dombrwoski found himself primarily surrounded by Red Sox supporters, and was able to share informative stories about his endeavors in baseball and his growth into someone with a high-tiered role in a serious organization located in a passionate city.
On the other hand, Minniti was grilled with deep organizational questioning, with several minds pointing to the infuriatingly disappointing 2015-16 offseason. The Diamondbacks are in the midst of a dreadful season that even has all-star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt overlooked.
With some Arizona fans in attendance, however, Minniti was also able to talk about the upsides of his endeavors as a young assistant GM so far and handled the tough crowd at the conference with confidence and astute reasoning.
The Saberseminar organizers plan to run the instructive and wide-ranging event in future years. All money raised at the conference serves as aid for the Jimmy Fund and the Angioma Alliance. Saberseminar is open to everybody interested in learning more about baseball and how they can get involved with the game, and invites anybody passionate about the intricacies of the game to purchase tickets for future years.