Craig R. Wright

Craig R. Wright pioneered the use of sabermetrics in major league baseball, and is a baseball writer and historian.

He was a very early pioneer in integrating science into Major League Baseball and first began working under that premise for the Texas Rangers, after the strike of 1981. He soon became the first front office employee to work under the title sabermetrician, but he abandoned the title around 1990 because he felt "... the meaning had shifted too far from a scientific approach to baseball to one focused on statistical analysis of baseball." By the end of his career he appeared to be more comfortable being identified with the scouting community than with statistical analysts. In the 2000 media guide of the Colorado Rockies, he was listed in their scouting section as "Special Assignment Scout." This remained a hot topic in his philosophy in his writings during retirement. In a rare in-depth interview in 2010, he steadfastly maintained his alligiance to the value of a science of baseball while at the same time speaking at length about the dangers of focusing on statistical analysis to understand the game. "I’ve said it and written it many times: statistical analysis is too often taken for being science itself rather than a tool of science."

He worked full-time in major league baseball for over 20 years, mainly in the area of scouting, player evaluation and acquisition. His longest association with one big league team was the Los Angeles Dodgers, with whom he worked ten years as a year-round consultant during a period when they had the second best record in the league behind the Atlanta Braves. With Los Angeles, he significantly helped advance the career of Mike Piazza from non-prospect to blue chip prospect. Wright was an early proponent of Piazza's ability as a hitter and also argued for his staying at the catcher position. He pushed hard for Piazza's rapid advancement to the big leagues while persuasively arguing for the moves that cleared the way for Piazza to be the club's #1 catcher in his rookie year.

Along with Wright's consulting arrangements, from 1989 to 1996 he also provided a supplemental Advance Scout service for post-season play that was used by six pennant winners and four world champions. He ended that service to have the time to serve two years as a year-round consultant to the Arizona Diamondbacks in preparing for their expansion draft. The Diamondbacks' draft is the only expansion draft to produce a 40-homer player (Tony Batista) and two All-Stars who were not their team's token All-Star representative, i.e. not the only All-Star from their team (Batista and Damian Miller).

...
Wikipedia