Benzie Grad Rides Statistical Wave to Big Leagues

April 5, 2015

Many sports fans are stat geeks. For them, it’s all about batting averages and ERAs, rebounds and assists, or passing yards and time of possession, depending on the sport.

The rise of baseball sabermetrics has taken things a step further, giving attention to even more complex statistical analyses, such as WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), BABIP (batting average on balls in play) and VORP (value over replacement player). Basketball and football are also delving into this kind of advanced statistical analysis.

Micah Parshall, a 2008 graduate of Benzie High School, realized he wasn’t going to play sports professionally, but while playing baseball at Alma College, he found other ways to stay connected to sports.

He worked as Clubhouse Manager for the Traverse City Beach Bums for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. That involved everything from switching out a player’s broken bat to meeting a new player in the locker room to set him up with gear.

More recently, Parshall worked as Director of Operations for Central Michigan University’s baseball team, doing administrative work for the coaches, filming practices and games for the coaches to review, and working in the press box to assist coaches, scorers and others. During summers, he helped run camps and tournaments for the program Today, Parshall work for STATS – Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems – a sports technology, data and content company. The 25-year-old is also preparing for his first season working in statistical analysis for Major League Baseball. The Express reached him at his home in Chicago.

Northern Express: Tell us about your background. What did you get from your high school baseball experience that made you want to continue in the game?

Parshall: Baseball was always a major part of my life. In middle school, my parents offered to drive me to and from practice everyday so that I could be Student Manager for the Junior Varsity team. As a student manager, I formed a bond with the players from the class above me (some of whom are among my best friends to this day).

My freshman year, John Judge was named varsity coach at Benzie Central and immediately we knew this was no longer an extracurricular activity, this was a lifestyle. He got players to buy into his philosophy. He made all of us accountable to one another.

Coach Judge wasn’t afraid to see us fail. Those who can overcome failure can grow from it. Coach Judge would schedule games for us against some of the best schools in the state. We played quite a few games where we didn’t have a chance of winning, but he knew he had to break us down to build us up. I didn’t realize until I graduated from Alma that coach Judge didn’t just groom us for baseball, he groomed us for life.

My dream was to play college baseball at a competitive level. I had some injuries my junior and senior years of high school and realized that was probably not going to work out. I wanted baseball to be part of my life and I talked to people who had positions in baseball. They said analytics is becoming a big part of baseball and I should study economics.

I had a double major in business administration and economics. It was tough to balance all three [business administration, economics and baseball], but it opened some doors.

Express: How does economics play into analytics?

Parshall: Teams want to know you have an economics or math background so you have an analytical mind set. You’re dealing with numbers everyday. It’s all a numbers game.

Express: What are you doing now?

Parshall: I’m working at STATS for the NBA. I work as a SportVu data analyst. SportVu has six cameras in every NBA venue. The cameras track player, ball, and ref movements throughout the games. My colleagues and I work overnight to collect data from the NBA games the previous evening. Our job is to clean up the data for each NBA team and send the teams the clean information by 8am the morning after their games.

Teams can determine how fast players are moving throughout the game, shooting efficiencies, and opportunities converted or missed, based on players’ past and current game movements. We’re now able to break away from common questions like "How many blocks did Andre Drummond have?" and instead answer questions like "What percentage of shots per game did Drummond put himself in good positioning to affect?"

Express: How did you get the job with STATS?

Parshall: While I was working on my master’s in sports administration at CMU, I stumbled upon the STATS website one night at 3am, while I was looking up information for my thesis on Sabermetrics and Contract Value in Major League Baseball. I saw a link for job openings for the upcoming spring working in baseball analytics, so I applied. Later that day, I received a call from STATS telling me that they weren’t hiring for baseball yet, but they were hiring for their new revolutionary SportVu Player Tracking for the NBA. Initially, I didn’t think it was feasible because I had yet to finish my master’s degree and, at the time, I was working as the Director of Baseball Operations at CMU. I told STATS to keep me in mind when baseball season came around. After mulling over my options and talking to my mom and dad, I decided that if I wanted a sustainable career in baseball, or sports for that matter, I would need to find a way to get that interview for the SportVu position.

I spoke to my professors and the coaching staff at CMU. They were all very supportive and knew that my sights were set on furthering my career in sports outside the college level. My professors made it possible for me to finish my master’s away from CMU if I was to obtain the position at STATS. I called STATS back the following day and essentially had to beg to get the interview that I had turned down the day before. A few days later, I was off to Chicago.

On my way to the interview, my car started smoking and I didn’t think I was even going to make it to STATS. By some miracle, I made it. I was so nervous about my car, by the time I actually got there, I wasn’t nervous at all and the interview went fantastic! I got an offer letter two weeks later, and a week after that I was moving to Chicago.

Express: This summer you will be working for Major League Baseball. What will you be doing?

Parshall: My official title is Stats Stringer.

As a stats stringer out of Chicago, I will be working at Cubs and White Sox games at Wrigley Field and US Cellular, with the occasional game at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

I sit in the press box and input live data that is sent back to our offices in New York, then out to the public via MLB.com Gameday (an internet application that allows users to see pitch trajectory and location in real time, plus real-time box scores and play-by-play). The public can use Gameday to either supplement watching a game live or get updated statistics if they’re away from their TV.

Each venue is different. There are two or three [people] in each venue entering stats lines. Gameday tracks the stats. Once the game has ended, the raw data is captured, then stored in databases. The information will then be compressed to show detailed stats to send to teams and to be viewed by millions of people that view MLB.com. Much like with the position at STATS, teams will also use this data to assess their players.

Express: Is this new?

Parshall: Major League Baseball has used it for about five years, but it’s evolved. There’s a group of us sitting in the press box. We’ll be working with the official scorer.

Express: How did you get this gig?

Parshall: One of my good friends and coworkers, Chris Dunn, helped me obtain the position with MLB. Chris and I started working together a year and a half ago when he came to STATS after previously working in the Australian Baseball League. He got a position with MLB last year. He approached me and helped me get in contact with the right people.

Express: Where do you see this all leading for you?

My philosophy has always been to prove my worth. By no means do I think I’m the smartest person in any room, but the things I can control, like my work ethic, won’t go unnoticed. That was instilled in me through my upbringing and throughout high school. I’ve been exposed to failure so many times that I know how to handle failure because it’s been a part of my life. By having the inspiration from my high school coaches, I knew how to cope and learn from failure. A hall of fame baseball player hits .300 in his lifetime. That means he failed 70 percent of the time. They too learned how to succeed from failure.