The Arizona Diamondbacks announced on Friday night that they have hired Mike Fitzgerald to be their Director of Research and Development. He has spent the last five seasons in the front office for the Pittsburgh Pirates as a quantitative analyst. Less than a month ago, the Pirates lost long-time scout Greg Schilz to the Phillies.
For an in depth look at Fitzgerald and what he meant to the Pirates, check out this article on Grantland from Ben Lindbergh. It’s definitely worth checking out.
This is a huge loss for the Pirates to say the least. Fitzgerald was a big part of the front office, who had a hand in everything from defensive alignments to the batting order to batter/pitcher match-ups. He worked side-by-side with Dan Fox, who heads the sabrmetrics department for the Pirates as their Baseball Informatics Director. He was on the road with the team and sat in on meetings with the coaches.
If you don’t want to check out the in depth article, then Travis Sawchik had a pair of interesting tweets about Fitzgerald that help just a little to explain his importance:
The Pirates embedded Fitzgerald, a quantitative analyst, with the team on the road (one of the first such positions in the sport).
— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) December 3, 2016
Fitzgerald also pounded the table for Russell Martin, and his pitch framing, in the 2012-13 winter. That signing was not popular…at first
— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) December 3, 2016
