TSN: Organizational alignment playing key role in Flames' success

[sureLoss]

Very good article on how the Flames' data department is helping the Flames make decisions. Read the whole thing.

https://www.tsn.ca/organizational-al...cess-1.1771318

While it’s still far too early to judge this season, things do look different now. The Flames’ current process can be summed up in one word: alignment.

“You all have to be on the same page in terms of things you value,” Flames general manager Brad Treliving said.

“When you’re bringing a player in, you’ve got to have alignment in terms of where you see the player fitting. It makes no sense for management to think one thing and the coaching staff to use the player in a different role.”

Flames assistant general manager Chris Snow manages the team’s data department and is a conduit between them, Treliving, scouts, and the coaching staff.

“You want the scout to have an opinion that aligns with the data that aligns with the background work that you do on the player,” Snow said. “The majority of the time, there is alignment, and if there’s not [alignment], there should be. If there’s not, then one of those three components of the equation is out of line. In those instances where there’s not alignment, those are opportunities to learn by talking it out and adjusting and enhancing one of those three branches.”

Much of that is balancing enhanced stats and the eye test. Does the data support the observation?

“The data and the scout won’t disagree, so much as, ‘What is the scout valuing, and what is the data valuing?’” Snow said. “It’s an evaluation proposition, meaning if the scout doesn’t necessarily like a player for his competitiveness because he lacks that, the data might magnify that the player seems to be highly intelligent and highly skilled. And then it’s just an evaluation question. What do you value and what is the fit for that particular need on the team?”

Snow is a former baseball reporter who was hired by the Flames in 2011 after three years in the Minnesota Wild front office. Snow was friends with Josh Byrnes, then the San Diego Padres general manager, and in 2012 went to the MLB’s Winter Meetings to observe and learn from the process. In the hotel lobby, he stumbled upon Wells Oliver, the Padres’ director of baseball systems.

“My enduring image of him is finding him one morning sitting cross-legged on the floor in the atrium of the Gaylord Opryland Resort, banging out computer code,” Snow said. “I thought, ‘I have to have this guy.’”

Byrnes did his old friend Snow a favour, and Oliver worked part-time for the Flames for three years building their data systems (and far more than the 15 hours a week he was paid for).

“He got us off the ground to an impressive extent with our database and the site,” Snow said.

[metroneck]

Really interesting stuff. Probably explains a lot of why certain signings and trades, that appear positive on paper, but just don't work out.