Baseball’s statistics junkies are flocking to the Twin Cities this week for their first annual convention here since 1988. Their 42-year-old organization, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), kicks off its meeting Thursday, June 28, in Minneapolis with opening remarks from Twins President Dave St. Peter.

The timing of SABR’s return here is rich with irony. The Twins are widely seen as having one of the most “gut instincts-old school” management teams in major league baseball. From 2002 to 2010, things worked well — the team made the playoffs in six of those years by winning the American League Central Division title. That helped the management and some baseball pundits shake off critics who have been saying for years that the franchise needs to juice up its battle plan with more in-depth analysis of data about players and strategies.

But success on the field is no longer a defense against such criticism. Last year, the Twins were the second-worst team among all 30 teams in the majors, finishing deep in last place in their division. They’ve remained stuck in the AL Central cellar this season.

Some of the team’s critics think its management could improve the odds for success if it did more to embrace “sabermetrics” — the term coined by baseball research icon Bill James in recognition of the data analysis done over the years by scores of SABR members.

Aaron Gleeman, the MLB writer for HardballTalk on NBCSports.com and a senior editor at the Rotoworld.com fantasy sports site, has been blogging about the Twins at AaronGleeman.com since 2002. “I’m sure most key decision-makers for the Twins have some level of sabermetric knowledge,” says Gleeman, “but compared to the other 29 teams, I’d be shocked if they weren’t in the bottom five.”

Gleeman doesn’t think the Twins’ relative lack of expertise in statistical analysis has been the primary cause of the team’s recent struggles, but he adds, “I’m a big believer in the idea that the more data and information available the better, so whether a team is successful doesn’t change my opinion of the importance and value of utilizing current trends and new technology.

“I’d like to have seen the Twins get more involved in sabermetrics and statistical analysis. They’ve dipped their toes in the water, while most other teams are swimming laps. By not taking into account all available information, the line being walked is much thinner. In just about any other business, key decision-makers openly dismissing new data and analysis methods would be scoffed at. But for whatever reasons, in baseball, it’s often seen as a badge of honor.”

The Twins declined to talk about their data analysis capabilities for this story. Spokesperson Dustin Morse said the team’s general manager, Terry Ryan, will discuss baseball statistics when he addresses the SABR gathering Friday morning.

Baseball observers cite many signs that a “non-sabermetric culture” has prevailed at the team for years. Just before the 2010 season began, Twins assistant general manager Rob Antony admitted in an interview with Parker Hageman, who blogs about the Twins at his Over the Baggy site, that “we’re probably one of the last, if not the last, team” to address statistical analysis “with a person dedicated solely to that.”

LOTS OF DATA

SABR’s convention-goers — some 500 of them, from more than 40 states, five Canadian provinces, Venezuela and Australia — will focus on far more than statistics at their meeting here. Their agenda includes 25 research presentations, many of them from baseball historians. Dan Levitt, a two-time past president of SABR’s Halsey Hall Chapter in Minnesota and the senior vice president of capital markets for Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies, has written three books on baseball history.

But Levitt also knows how to deal with the baseball data that always have been at the core of the society. Major league baseball has spawned an unparalleled treasure trove of data, in part because its history dates to the 19th century. No other professional sports league in the U.S. can claim such a lengthy heritage. Computers can slice and dice this data, and good analysts can make sense of it.

SABR has been in the vanguard of a decades-long movement to develop and follow statistics that chart players’ performances more accurately than by simply tracking the batting averages of hitters or the won-lost records of pitchers.

Three relatively new statistics, in particular, have gained credibility: “OBP,” or on-base percentage, which, unlike traditional batting averages, credits hitters for getting walks; “RISP,” or runners in scoring position, which is a hitter’s batting average with runners on second or third base; and “WHIP,” or walks and hits per inning pitched, which gauges pitchers by how many players they put on base.

But data analysts and the analytics industry have generated a growing galaxy of other baseball stats as well. Their dizzying array of acronyms for these measures can be intimidating, a turnoff for many baseball aficionados unsettled by or scoffing at the often-complicated formulas behind the new stats. Their ranks apparently include Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.

In 2003, a Pioneer Press story contrasted Gardenhire’s “gut instinct” style of managing with the more data-oriented approach of Tom Kelly, who as the Twins manager relied much more heavily on statistics in changing his lineups daily. Kelly, Gardenhire’s predecessor, led the Twins to two World Series championships.

“Numbers lie a lot,” Gardenhire told the Pioneer Press then. “I have a hard time believing all that stuff (about the increasing use of statistics). Our scouts do that, they show me all those numbers. I show them the door. You go by the numbers and a lot of guys wouldn’t be playing.”

Gardenhire employed similar language in April 2010, when Sports Illustrated did a piece on the rising use of baseball statistics by MLB teams. “… I like the human element, and I like the heart way better than I like their numbers,” he told the magazine. “And that’s what I’ll always stay with.”

Many counter that it’s not so much a matter of either intuition or statistics; rather, what’s best is a blend of both, plus other strategies and just maybe a little bit of luck.

TWINS SO OLD-SCHOOL

Among those who say the Twins are behind the curve in baseball’s statistical revolution is Rob Neyer, a baseball author and sabermetrics disciple. Writing for ESPN two years ago, Neyer concluded that “the Twins are way, way behind most of the other good teams” in their use of statistical analysis.

Last February, the Fangraphs online baseball site ranked all 30 MLB teams in one of three categories for use of data — highly analytical, somewhat analytical and “old-school.” The Twins were among 11 teams in the old-school category.

SABR president Vince Gennaro notes that some teams prefer to “fly under the radar” by keeping mum on their data analysis efforts. Gennaro declined to discuss the data analysis efforts of the Twins relative to other teams, explaining that he has been a consultant for several MLB teams.

But he strongly rejected the idea, frequently voiced these days, that sabermetrics strategies won’t help in today’s “post-Moneyball era.” This belief is rooted in the idea that since 2003, when the best-selling book “Moneyball” popularized the use of statistics-based strategies in baseball, so many teams have taken up these strategies that there is little left to be gained from them.

“We’re nowhere near done with trying to figure out how teams can get an edge by applying data,” Gennaro said. “There’s just so much going on today. Teams are trying to use as much information as they can to get an edge.”

Gennaro was among those who pushed SABR to put on its first-ever “analytics conference” in February in Phoenix. The meeting, which drew 275 attendees, looks like it will become an annual event. “We were thrilled,” Gennaro said.

Representatives of 18 MLB franchises attended, including Twins front-office executive Jack Goins. Last May, the Twins shifted Goins into “baseball research,” according to Morse. So perhaps that move is a signal that the non-sabermetric culture evident for so many years at the Twins franchise is quietly shifting to acknowledge the data revolution that so much of the rest of major league baseball has embraced.

Dave Beal was a longtime business editor and columnist for the Pioneer Press who retired in 2006. He is also a Twins fan and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research.

150 YEARS OF BASEBALL RESEARCH

1860s: Journalist Henry Chadwick invents the box score.

1900-1919: Studies examine baseball’s “deadball era” of dominance by pitchers, which ended when Babe Ruth emerged as the king of home run hitters.

1947: Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey hires Allan Roth as the first full-time statistician to work for a major league team.

1968: Earl Weaver, who championed the use of statistics, begins a 17-season career managing the Baltimore Orioles. Weaver won four American League pennants and one World Series and had only one losing season.

1971: Baseball history buffs, meeting in Cooperstown, N.Y., found the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

1977: Bill James publishes his first Baseball Abstract, an in-depth compendium of baseball statistics. Later, James coins the term “sabermetrics” to describe the use of data analysis in baseball.

1990s: Internet sites, such as Baseball Prospectus and Baseball-reference.com, draw new fans by bringing the statistics of the game to widening audience; industry of baseball data providers and analysts grows up to serve MLB teams.

2003: Best-selling book “Moneyball,” by Michael Lewis, chronicles how a sabermetrics approach helped the low-budget Oakland Athletics win 20 consecutive games and make the playoffs in 2002.

2004: James, who joined the Boston Red Sox’s front office in 2003, is credited for some of the moves that enabled the team to win its first World Series since 1918. Three years later, the Red Sox become world champions again.

2011: “Moneyball” — the film adaptation of the book starring Brad Pitt — becomes a box-office hit and later is nominated for six Academy Awards.

— Dave Beal