Los Angeles--The man whose aggressively data-driven management approach rankled baseball traditionalists even as it worked wonders for the St. Louis Cardinals and then the Houston Astros now finds himself at the center of the game's first cyber-scandal.
Jeff Luhnow was a rank outsider when he was hired in 2003 by St. Louis Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr., who was keen to implement the statistical analysis approach to baseball management depicted in the Hollywood film "Moneyball."
Luhnow's tactics worked for the Cardinals, but he sometimes clashed with other front office managers. Now he works for the Houston Astros and media reports have Cardinals personnel under investigation for hacking the Texas team, possibly to settle scores with Luhnow.
Luhnow's strategies including the development of a computer network to store and analyze baseball operations information paid off, especially when it came to evaluating talent.
From 2005 through 2007 the Cardinals drafted 24 players who made it to the major leagues by 2011 -- more than any other team.
In his years in St. Louis, the Cardinals played in three World Series and won two.
But there was friction between Luhnow -- a former management consultant for McKinsey & Company who built a business using data analysis to improve apparel sales -- and more traditional executives.
Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty departed in 2007, reportedly in part because of his inability to get along with Luhnow.
But Luhnow's role was scaled back in 2010, and Luhnow himself departed St. Louis in December of 2011 for Houston -- at that time a division rival.
The Astros had endured the worst season in their history in 2011, finishing 56-106, and owner Jim Crane tasked Luhnow with turning things around.
It has been slow and not always pretty going, as Luhnow's focus on prospects rather than established, more expensive players sparked charges the team was being "designed to fail."
The Astros finished a combined 82 games under .500 in 2013 and 2014.
But they are currently in first place in the American League West division with a record of 38-28 -- the turnaround propelled by the use of a new database created in Houston dubbed "Ground Control."
AFP
