Time is a little bit arbitrary. A player, such as Charlie Blackmon, can go 6 for 6 on the first day, or hit .374 in their first month and become an All-Star. Let’s say we change the window of time that we are looking at and throw out Blackmon’s Opening Day or Blackmon’s April. Sure, he looks a little less like an All-Star and a little more like a human being, but overall, he still looks like a quality major league ballplayer. That’s still quite a bit of talent. Besides, being among the best 800 baseball players in the world instead of being the best baseball player in the world is nothing to apologize for. But it is an example of how beginning and ending points, especially in terms of time, can change one’s point of view. No, Blackmon’s probably not a .374 hitter, and he’d probably be the first to tell you he wouldn’t go 6 for 6 every day for the rest of his career, but his overall talent lies somewhere between that high peak and that of an every day Joe, and that’s… ok.

Milestones can be a little bit arbitrary too. Does anything fundamentally change when a newborn is no longer two months and 29 days old, but 3 months old? I’m no doctor, but I’d guess…. Nah, not much of a difference. But Time with a capital T, and the kinds of milestones and anniversaries that come about as we mark the passage of Time, can provide an opportunity to reflect.

With that, I reflected. Rockies Zingers is a little over a year old. Around this time last year (or March of 2014 for those relationally challenged folks), we… or rather, I… was preparing to go to Arizona for the SABR Analytics. With little more than a few posts under my belt, a mission to provide “some analysis and some silliness” and self-tilting myself “Editor and Head Writer” because everything sounds more legitimate with capital letters, my goals were to, um, enjoy the baseball chat and cover Bill Geivett who was on the “Decision Makers In The Front Office” panel.

That’s basically what happened… Kinda ironic to spend a pretty penny to spend half of the conference typing and the other half kinda hovering near important people quietly, but that was me. I had help meeting people through friend and ESPN editor Christina Kahrl, but beyond that, when I wasn’t being overwhelmed with typing, I was being overwhelmed with the sheer amount of people I knew from television or the internet who sat just an elbow’s length away from me. One of many seminal moments for me during that conference was running into Rob Neyer who I hadn’t seen in 15 years (yet he still remembered me). Shortly after the mini-reunion, I was outside hunched over a bench typing like a maniac and working on the “Decision Makers” piece when he walked by and said “Hello, Richard”. So of course I said “Hello Rob, I really, really, really want to talk to you now… but I’m writing.” I was happily pathetic, wanting to spend time with my writing idol while caught in the thrall of writing myself and knew which I had to devote my time to. In fact, I missed half of the conference because I was writing… though once I got off the bench, I was able to sneak a clubhouse access which gives us a little more reassurance that we’re doing something right in a way that a self-promoted title on a self-developed business card can’t. Nonetheless, this year, I booked my ticket to the 2015 SABR Analytics Convention figuring I’d spend a little more time attending the presentations in person instead of just in spirit as my 2014 fingers typed away elsewhere. Besides, it’d look a little weird if I went to a conference and didn’t attend panels that included Isotopes play-by-play announcer, Rockies General Manager Jeff Bridich and Assistant General Manager Zack Rosenthal.

I arrived late Wednesday night also known as 1 a.m. Thursday morning. Thankfully, I didn’t have the flight (or concessions issues) I had last year. My friend over at ESPN SweetSpot Blog Inside the ‘Zona, Ryan Morrison was still awake and we met up on a bench outside the hotel and chatted till 4am. Then I did my best with a double-wake up call to get to the presentations which started at 8am.

That was basically the theme of that week, by the way. Kinda like my experiences as a travel agent at Club Med where each day I woke up bright and early, engaged in a fun-filled day and night until I retired around 4am, that’s what the SABR Analytics conference was like… except substitute Club Med’s wine, volleyball and cheesebread with baseball, baseball and baseball. Not only were there good presentations and panels, but there were a ton of good baseball fans to engage in conversation with afterwards.

To kick things off on Thursday was the Diamond Dollars Case Competition presented by Cray Computers. As an extra kicker, this year, the University of Colorado-Leeds School of Business at Boulder sent a team out for the Undergraduate Division. They were tasked with quantifying the trade value of Cole Hamels and proposing potential realistic trades. The Boulder team did a very fine job in explaining why they thought the Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates were the two teams they felt needed Hamels the most. They even proposed an ingenious three way trade between the Phillies, Blue Jays and Red Sox that was well balanced in terms of value and contract status. After they got done, I abruptly hopped out of the conference room and gave them my business cards. You’ll see more details of their presentation later on this week.

The first day had a lot of personal highlights, as non-Rockies oriented as they might be. I got to reconnect with Rob Neyer and this year, I was actually able to chat with him. I almost felt like a kid showing an extremely nice father figure his report card. Ironically, he had noticed I hadn’t written awhile at Zingers since the editing and networking aspects had kept me so busy and we’d had so many fine pieces contributed by our writers. I almost hopped back on the bench right then.

I also got to meet Doug Glanville which, as an ex-Cubs fan, was quite a thrill. He was a member of a panel with John Kruk (ex-Padre) and Curt Schilling (ex-Diamondback and Red Sox). Yeah, at the time, I forgot they had all been on the same Phillies team. This was probably the funniest panel of the week and each threw in some zingers. I’m looking forward to Glanville’s Rockies Preview which should be coming soon…

"I like win probability graphs. They describe the ebb and flow of the game." @dougglanville #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 13, 2015

Like Doug, I love the Win Probability graphs provided by FanGraphs. Perhaps I will add that widget back onto the site…

There was also a presentation on a new metric called QOT which is supposed to measure the quality of a pitch based on its velocity, location and movement. It seems like a neat idea, especialy as a self-diagnostic tool to assess if a pitcher is injured, but until it factors in park effects since Coors Field is known to have a few, I’ll have to wait and see.

Later on, I got to meet Josh Suchon who is the radio play-by-play announcer for our new AAA affiliate, the Albuquerque Isotopes. Talk about welcoming with open arms, he was eager to know what I needed to help J.J. Buck and Matthew Quintana cover the Isotopes. Josh had a lot of things to say on the panel that, well, I really hadn’t thought of.

"It's hard to be patient when you do all this research and you don't get to use it [in a broadcast]" @Josh_Suchon #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 13, 2015

We like to think it’s easy to throw in a gem about WAR, but sometimes we do forget that our audience might not know what WAR is, much less what it’s good (and bad) for. You can prepare for a hundred different scenarios in a game to use a stat and yet it can all get thrown out the window because a quick double play cuts an explanation of BABIP right into a commercial break. Compound that challenge for a radio host who can’t actually show their readers a graphic and I didn’t quite appreciate how difficult it was until he described it. On the other hand, I’ll take Josh’s description of the sun on the field or the aesthetics of a beautiful play any day.

Have to agree with Josh Suchon. Vin Scully's voice is soothing. #SABRanalytics — Sergio Calderon (@calderonsergioa) March 13, 2015

I was surprised when I woke up the next morning and saw that my tweets got included in SABR’s Storify Day 1 Recap. Oh boy, I hope they didn’t think I was going to spam them when the Rockies General Manager panel started on Day 2…

Day 2, Friday, up and early after yet another late night. Larry Baer gave a great talk. After that panel, I saw Jeff Bridich, Zack Rosenthal and quite a few members of the Rockies front office in the conference’s vestibule (or, in layman’s terms, entryway thingy near the conference doors). Bridich, whom I have met a few times this offseason, was glad to see me there and it was great to see Zach there again. I had first met Zack last year at the SABR Analytics conference and it was neat to know he’d be participating on one of the panels this year on Baseball Operations.

I spent a few years in the Bay Area in grade school (back when Walt Weiss was the Rookie of the Year and the Bash Brothers were in the house), so I have a lot of respect for Tony LaRussa. I got an extra startlement when a guy sat down right in front of me…

All in good fun, I wasn’t really scared, but I won’t let a fact stand in the way of a decent joke.

Shortly after “The TLR” was done, Bridich and Stewart strolled to the stage with MLB.com’s Brian Kenny hosting. I don’t think Bridich was as intimidated as I was though.

"General Manager is a service job. Need to empower the people in their organization to do well." Bridich –#Rockies #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 13, 2015

Leading off was a question on what the job of a general manager is. There was some concern when Jeff Bridich took over that he would have little if any autonomy with Dick Monfort’s previous predilection to perhaps meddle. Being an owner has its advantages. That being said, it speaks well that Bridich seeks to enable others in the organization instead of automatically assuming that it’s his own way or the high way.

One of the early topics for discussion involved defensive shifts. Last year, (before Nolan Arenado got hurt), the Rockies had the best defensive infield in the game while also shifting the least amount of times. Bridich said at the panel that there was little need to shift with four Gold Glove infielders (and boy, was Justin Morneau close), though it should be mentioned that there are short subtle shifts on each play. Usually if these happen though, it’s something each player does as opposed to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ brand of shifting which involves more extreme shifts and is often called from the bench. Also something to note is that executing a shift like the Pirates use requires pitchers to hit their location, something Rockies pitchers are not necessarily known for. I’d think the Rockies could gain a little bit defensively from using a shift, but since their defense is already so good in terms of range, it’s hard to know without more research if the benefit would be so small that it’s not worth risking.

Dave Stewart on beating infield shifts: "I speak as a player. We're stubborn mules. We don't make adjustments." #SABRanalytics — robneyer (@robneyer) March 13, 2015

As much flak as Stewart has gotten in recent weeks for being against analytics, he seemed more open to them… to a point… in this discussion. Usually the challenge isn’t as much with the front office, but with the players.

Jeff Bridich says the shift works because players are unwilling to control barrel or take what pitcher gives them #SABRanalytics — Matt Eddy (@MattEddyBA) March 13, 2015

This part got me thinking a little bit. The steroid era is considered to be the late 90s to early aughts. A lot of those players grew up watching players in the late 80s and early 90s. Wade Boggs, Don Mattingly, Tony Gwynn and the like… bat control specialists. Today’s generation might’ve grown up watching pull hitters like Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa and even Barry Bonds, though he wasn’t as extreme of a pull hitter, got a lot of Sportscenter highlights from his McCovey cove splashes. I don’t know if it’s necessarily true what Bridich is saying, but it’s entirely possible that hitters’ mentalities have changed over the years.

"We do have an analytics department. They are sitting over there." Bridich #Rockies #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 13, 2015

The thing that surprised me about last year was that the Rockies actually had an analytics department. I mean, you kinda sorta assume someone somewhere in a baseball front office takes a look at the stats, but in the case of the Rockies, you don’t hear about them all that much. But last year, then-Assistant General manager Bill Geivett said he only knew what WAR was, but that the Rockies even calculate their own variant of WAR (RRWAR?) But let’s put that aside for a second and touch on something else. From what I saw last year and this year, a handful of teams generally send a representative or two to the conference. I remember about five Rockies people last year (including Zack Rosenthal), and this year, it was closer to seven (though not all of them worked in analytics).

"Can we safely evaluate stats in the Cuba league? We'll continue to grow our analytics department." – Bridich #rockies #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 13, 2015

They’d even just hired a new analyst. Even though we’re on the D-backs home turf, the Rockies seemed to be around more on Friday and Saturday.

"The next new wave of baseball data might be gained from wearable devices." – Bridich (biometrics and positioning) #rockies #sabranalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 13, 2015

Stewart’s response to the “next wave of technology” had to do with robotic umps. I thought that was a pretty original response from Bridich, which I don’t hear much about in baseball but have heard about it in soccer. This was a topic of discussion later on during the lunch as to whether MLB would allow it and if they’d be concerned it might be used to steal signals (as opposed to other “legal” methods of stealing signals). It doesn’t mean the Rockies will implement it but it is nice to see them thinking a little outside the box.

"Certain small adjustments can be made by players to succeed at altitude. It does not have to be massive." Bridich #rockies #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 13, 2015

Sometimes thinking outside the box doesn’t work out, such as the Rockies six man rotation or having Michael Cuddyer cover third base while Nolan Arenado was injured. The Rockies have actually, in the past, been pretty daring in some of the things they try. Still, it’s nice to see that they are leaving the door open for some more subtle changes.

@RockiesZingers @Bbl_Astrophyscs ? we wrote: "Colorado's use of analytics is likely to expand under new GM Jeff Bridich" — Ben Baumer (@BaumerBen) March 13, 2015

"We have been & will continue to press forward in analytics & look for specific ways to implement them."-Jeff Bridich pic.twitter.com/p83UritgBD — Rockies PR (@RockiesPR) March 13, 2015

There was a recent ranking at ESPN about how the Rockies were one of the teams that used analytics the least. From the article itself, they mention “The Rockies haven’t made a name for themselves in analytics yet, and their new approach is a work in progress, but the signs are promising.” As surprised as I was last year about the Rockies state of analytics, I was pleasantly pleased with what I heard this year.

Though that was the Rockies “Panel For The Day”, they also crept up quite a bit later on in the “Impact of Analytics on The Field” panel. Former manager Eric Wedge as well as ESPN’s Keith Law, Eduardo Perez and Buster Olney held a talk on how analytics have changed the way the game is played.

@PerezEd thinks shifting by count is important. Used it at Coors on #Rockies Tulowitzki with Altuve #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 13, 2015

Eduardo told a story about how, as a coach, he shifted pitch-by-pitch on Troy Tulowitzki who was a little confused and not a bit bemused.

"His hard hit ball data was terrible" @keithlaw referring to a GM's lack of interest in Fowler when he was with the #rockies #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 13, 2015

Fowler’s always been a bit funny to analyze. He’s a good player who was supposed to be better. He gets on base at a great clip but fielding metrics don’t like him at Coors or away from Coors. I hadn’t heard this bit about batted ball data until now but it gave me something to research.

I got to meet both Eduardo and Buster after their talk. Buster is one of the few national writers who regularly sources news from the Rockies, often tapping articles from Patrick Saunders and Nick Groke from the Denver Post and Thomas Harding from MLB.com. As far as Eduardo goes, did you know he played most of his minor and all of his major league career only able to see out of his non-dominant right eye due to a cataract injury he sustained in the minors?

btw, Eduardo Perez seems like one of those guys you'd run through a wall for. #SABRanalytics — robneyer (@robneyer) March 13, 2015

He also caught me smoking a cigarette outside. “Richard, vice… vice… vice…” But I won’t hold it against him since he gave me quite a few things to think about during his panel appearance… and because he was chuckling when he noted my transgression.

On some more personal notes, I got to reconnect with Matthew Bleiberg and sampled some new Topps and Bowman cards. They now have WAR on the back, in part thanks to him. Oh and he loved Jake Shapiro’s article on Rockies baseball cards. Thanks for the retweet!

I also got to meet ESPN Editor David Kull who gave me a lot of tips on journalism since I, believe it or not, didn’t go to school for this. Generous with his time and insight, I feel a bit better armed for what I can do better and a bit more prepared for when people not previously warned about my lack of experience ask me for advice…

For a more complete recap, please check out SABR’s coverage of Day 2. Um, and yeah, some of our tweets were in the Day 2 Recap, but I guess SABR didn’t seem to mind the spam.

Saturday, Day 3, was the final day of the conference. Early on, I got to attend Sean Forman’s tips and tricks for baseball-reference.

@RockiesZingers http://t.co/TIyvwTxZ7H Fixed the broken pages. We have these back to 2010 — Sean Forman (@sean_forman) March 13, 2015

Nor was my story the only one. Frequently during the conference, he was passing around advice, fixing issues, or showing people how to use the site. Very humble, very cool dude. If you ever wanted to see how we pull up some stats, some even more obscure than others, get a play-index membership from baseball-reference. You can even try it out for free until April 15th.

#rockies fans, now is a great time to get a @baseball_ref Play Index membership. We use it daily. http://t.co/VHsAfhEuw1 #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 14, 2015

Shortly after Sean Forman’s helpful seminar was the Baseball Operations Panel with Assistant General Manager Zack Rosenthal as one of the participants.

#SABRanalytics Baseball Ops panel includes three rising stars in MLB front offices. @vincegennaro pic.twitter.com/yNx3MmiLd9 — sabr (@sabr) March 14, 2015

Hint: Rosenthal’s the guy wearing Rockies’ purple.

"The players we have now grew up with computers, grew up with technology, they are used to research." – Rosenthal #SABRanalytics #Rockies — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 14, 2015

Rosenthal made sure to elaborate that more than just the front office, but the players themselves are more open to talk about the stats than they used to be. That being said, he felt one of his jobs is to filter the massive amounts of data down into something that can be useful. Or, to use one of my punchlines as a data analyst, “Gotta make it edible to a guy who doesn’t like chewing out the math.” Some people like seeing the whole picture.

"Michael Cuddyer was big into research, what to read, whether we should make him a qualifying offer, etc" Rosenthal #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 14, 2015

Others just prefer it for, um, personal reasons. To be fair, the full quote was That being said, I was real curious if any current Rockies players use analytics.

"We don't tailor all our decisions to Coors Field. Half of our division has pitcher's parks." – Rosenthal #SABRanalytics #Rockies — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 14, 2015

The Rockies are in a division of extremes and it can be hard to find players who are capable of success in both areas, or in Denver terms, “home” and “away”.

"Talent translates from place to place." #Rockies Rosenthal on Coors Field at #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 14, 2015

Russell Carleton in an essay in the Baseball Prospectus 2014 Annual and Jonah Keri from Grantland in last May’s Rockies Bloggers Panel suggest that the Rockies do poorly away from Coors not because of some altitude adjustment, but because they tend to lack talent on their teams. How the Rockies identify that talent (RRWAR?) might be open to debate, but I liked that with what Rosenthal said at this panel and Bridich said the previous day, that they think talent is more of a concern than altitude.

"Pitcher specialization and matchup information contributes to more strikeouts." – Rosenthal #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 14, 2015

Players do throw harder than they used to and it’s a pretty common refrain that’s one of the big reasons for the increase in strikeouts. Bullpen depth and specialization is also mentioned, but the more data available on matchup information is not talked about as often. The irony here is that the Rockies are encouraging groundball pitching and pitching to contact, in effect homogenizing their pitching staff to a degree. Also, considering the lack of strikeouts Rockies pitchers got in 2014, it’s reasonable to question the quality of matchup information either accumulated by the Rockies data guys, or how it is applied by Rockies manager Walt Weiss. Perhaps, minus a two-headed general manager system and more streamlined communication from the analytics guys to the field guys, we’ll see better results in 2015.

"We should have the best home field advantage in baseball, we intend to make it that the next few years." Rosenthal #rockies #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 14, 2015

Partway through last year, I mused with friends and at bloggers panels about what it would be like if the Rockies got rid of the humidor and basically bludgeoned their opponents pitchers. Turn every game into a 13-12 game and use nearby Colorado Springs for quick reinforcements. Of course, Albuquerque’s a pretty place, but it’s also a farther place so that’ll just have to remain a musing. Nonetheless, it’d be interesting to find out a few more specifics on what the Rockies think they can do to maximize their home field advantage.

Oh boy, at the end of Day 3…

Running low on business cards… In a good way. #budgeting #SABRanalytics — RockiesZingers (@RockiesZingers) March 14, 2015

I went with about 70 business cards and returned with 10… I think…

@RockiesZingers The most important data point at any conference, right? Thanks for coming and hope you enjoyed it — sabr (@sabr) March 15, 2015

Make sure to check out that Day 3 recap as well, with more tweets provided by yours/ours truly.

Reflecting back on last year, the 2014 SABR Analytics Conference, I was just a guy with a fledgling blog who liked baseball and writing. Kinda like my clubhouse experience, I had no real plan of attack, except to um, enjoy the baseball chat and write about Bill Geivett’s panel. A few hours after the first day, I had a college student walking up to me and timidly ask “Um, sir, how do you get into the baseball business?” And me, being new to the “baseball business”, stumbled out an answer… “Keep talking, keep trying to meet people, keep rolling the dice and eventually things can work out.” Except for the few people I met last year (shoutouts to Rob Mains, Matthew Bleiberg, Ryan Morrison and Jeff Wiser), I didn’t even really take my own advice at the opportunity the 2014 conference provided.

This Time around, Rockies Zingers had grown and now we’re a bit more than just a little blog with a ESPN logo and a business card. Over that year, I’ve learned a fair amount not just about “the baseball business” but about myself. Hopefully, our readers have too. If not, a chuckle here and there is gladly accepted. “Some analysis and some silliness” is our tagline and the fun thing about reflecting is laughing at the memories. We’re still a work in progress, and so are the Colorado Rockies. This time around, I did get up and walk around to rub those elbows… and helped a few others too.

So, just to set another arbitrary end point, I’m excited for not just Opening Day, but for the end of the season. I want to see how much of what I heard from the Rockies in this year’s conference makes it onto the field. It won’t be all rosy, nor all bland. They’ll mix their great days with their bad months, though hopefully more of the former and less of the latter. Last year, the Rockies were the best team in baseball at the end of May… and were quite a bit worse than post-April Charlie Blackmon by the end of June.

Will the season be over by July or by November? Will analytics conquer altitude or will talent (or potential lack thereof) trump all?

After all that Time has passed, who knows what we will learn and laugh at in the meantime?