Apr 14, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; A detailed view of the Milwaukee Brewers on deck circle in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals won the game 7-0. Mandatory Credit: Billy Hurst-USA TODAY Sports

In 2015, Two Sabermaticians were given control of the Sonoma Stompers, an independent baseball club, a year later the Milwaukee Brewers sign a pitcher from that team.

Both GM David Stearns and Skipper Craig Counsell have openly admitted to being analytically minded in their journey to rebuilding the Milwaukee Brewers.

There’s already evidence to support a focus to analytics in the Milwaukee Brewers plate discipline and how they’re handling defensive shifts.

This past week the Milwaukee Brewers further affirmed their investment in using analytics to bring a winning team to the Brew Crew when they signed pitcher Santos Saldivar.

Saldivar comes to the Milwaukee Brewers on a journey unlike anything else in Major League Baseball.

Last year prominent Sabermaticians Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller were both prominent Sabermaticians were given the reigns to run the Sonoma Stompers, an independent ball club out of California.

Using spreadsheet analysis (and some Sabermetrics) Lindbergh and Miller fielded a team of players, some of which they hadn’t seen him play before (including Saldivar). Saldivar went on to have a 2-1 record, a 2.05 ERA and struck out 58 batters in 48 innings of play.

Even more surprising is the fact that the Milwaukee Brewers signed Saldivar without seeing him play at all. Lindbergh confirmed this amazing story over Twitter.

I'm THRILLED to break this news: A @SonomaStompers pitcher we discovered on a spreadsheet, Santos Saldivar, was just signed by the @Brewers. — Ben Lindbergh (@BenLindbergh) May 19, 2016

We signed Santos based on college stats, and the @Brewers signed him based on stats, PITCHf/x, & video. THIS video:https://t.co/RfitFru9ts — Ben Lindbergh (@BenLindbergh) May 19, 2016

Santos is the first player to go directly from the @SonomaStompers to an affiliated team. He throws 5 pitches and is also a delightful dude. — Ben Lindbergh (@BenLindbergh) May 19, 2016

I’ve never heard of a player being signed without a team ever scouting him (not to say it’s never happened), and the Milwaukee Brewers did so using advanced data measurements (at least I would assume).

Saldivar being found via a spreadsheet analysis and playing for an independent team is less surprising than the fact that the Brewers picked him up without ever seeing him play.

MLB is moving away from the classic scouting eye approach and moving towards the new era of using data analysis to find players, and the Milwaukee Brewers are showing they are heading in the direction need to compete in a small market against the big market teams.