44 replies to this topic

[Frisbetarian]

I am pleased to announce the 2012 Sabermetrics, Scouting, and the Science of Baseball seminar, which will take place on August 4 and 5, at Boston University. This is the second year of the event, and once again all proceeds will benefit the Jimmy Fund.

This year's seminar will feature presentations and panel discussions with the manager of the Boston Red Sox, Bobby Valentine, team Bench Coach, Tim Bogar, Director of Professional Scouting, Jared Porter, BrooksBaseball.net creator, Dr. Daniel Brooks, baseball physicist, Dr. Alan Nathan, and many more including world renowned neurologists, physicists, sports medicine physicians, professional sabermetricians, professors, journalists, writers, and other baseball enthusiasts.


Tickets for the weekend seminar are $125, with a discounted pass of $65 available to full time students, with all proceeds from the event going to the Jimmy Fund. Help cure cancer while talking baseball with some of its top minds!

We are proud to announce that every one of the speakers at this event (who are not only incredible baseball resources, but are also amazingly altruistic) are donating their time to participate in this seminar. Boston University's Center for Neuroscience and Department of Physics graciously sponsored our event, and volunteers have helped with this website, the program, and snacks and drinks. This means that every penny earned during this baseball weekend will go directly to the Jimmy Fund. The organizers of this baseball weekend would like to express their gratitude to everyone who helped make this event possible.

[Jnai]

Regardless of whether or not you're going, spreading the word on twitter or your various blogs / websites about the event is a free and easy way to help us out! =)

And if you are going - looking forward to seeing you! I hope you're excited by the lineup we've put together for you this year. I know I am.

[Reverend]

Who?

[quint]

Nerds.

[Hendu's Gait]

Do we get thrown out if we boo Roberto Valentino? Also, since the Neuroscience people are co-sponsoring it, does it mean they will perform a lobotomy on him, and if so, are Junior Mints allowed in the operating room?

Edited by Hendu's Gait, 01 May 2012 - 12:42 AM.

[dbn]

No.

[Frisbetarian]

No.

No you don't want to meet Bobby Valentine, or no Junior Mints in the operating room? Inquiring minds.

[DaveRoberts'Shoes]

If you change this thread title to "Want to meet DaveRoberts'Shoes?" it would probably get a warmer response.

Junior Mints are always welcome in my OR, fwiw

[Van Everyman]

Will they be serving these?

[Dogman2]

If you change this thread title to "Want to meet DaveRoberts'Shoes?" it would probably get a warmer response.

Junior Mints are always welcome in my OR, fwiw

While there, will you check on my hand? I hear that is a specialty of yours.

TIA.

[genivive]

I am out of state so I can't go, but I would like to sponsor a student to attend the conference. If you are interested and have a student ID, send me a message.

[stevman17]

No to meeting Valentine. Yes to the Junior Mints.

[genivive]

Just a bump

[Jnai]

Bump. Full participant list is incredible, check it out. =)

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

If Valentine gets fired before August 4, is he still gonna do this for you Fris? Might want to double-check on that.

[Reverend]

I would murder Hambone to find out what's actually going in the clubhouse which he would be able to tell us if he were terminated.

Well, maybe not Hambone. Maybe Quint.

[Jnai]

Well, I mean guys, we've got like 20 speakers coming, all of them are awesome, you'll learn a lot about baseball, and this thread title should be changed to reflect that. =)

[Reverend]

Well, I mean guys, we've got like 20 speakers coming, all of them are awesome, you'll learn a lot about baseball, and this thread title should be changed to reflect that. =)

I figure anyone interested will click on the link--and I've already bought my ticket. I'm really interested to hear from the director of scouting, for example, with respect to how they look at players. Also, I need my hand looked at.

Discussing the murder of quit is always relevant to any discussion.

[absintheofmalaise]

We've added Tom Tippett from the Sox FO as a speaker and there will also be a live demonstration of the Trackman Baseball System. And there could be one or two more speakers added to the panels.

[OttoC]

Are the videos from last year on-line?

[absintheofmalaise]

Are the videos from last year on-line?

There were some technical issues with those. I'll see if I can post the ones I have to youtube or another medum.

[DaveRoberts'Shoes]

We've added Tom Tippett from the Sox FO as a speaker and there will also be a live demonstration of the Trackman Baseball System. And there could be one or two more speakers added to the panels.

And I will be doing live surgery on Stevman17, sans anesthesia.

[Dogman2]

And I will be doing live surgery on Stevman17, sans anesthesia.

What's wrong with his hand?

Man, I wish I could go to this.

[OttoC]

There were some technical issues with those. I'll see if I can post the ones I have to youtube or another medum.

Thanks. I thought it might be interesting to look at some before going to this year's event.

On a mostly unrelated note, a 14-year-old from NH just advanced to the semifinal round of the National Spelling Bee and one of the words she spelled correctly to get there was sabermetrics.

[Frisbetarian]

We will also have a portable Trackman at the seminar for a demo, possibly with a high profile pitcher.

If Valentine gets fired before August 4, is he still gonna do this for you Fris? Might want to double-check on that.

Hah, Valentine will be the manager of the 1st place team in the AL East on August 4th and you will be back in the Sandbox! If we could just get him to stop with the sacrifice bunts.

Seriously, this is going to be an incredible event, and I hope you to see many of you there. Less than 100 tickets remain for sale and we are starting a PR push over the next few weeks, so get yours soon.

[Frisbetarian]

Sabermetrics, Scouting, and the Science of Baseball is less than7 weeks away!

We need some volunteers to help at the event doing things like checking in attendees, ushering, helping clean up, etc. We also need programs printed, someone to help find companies willing to donate snacks and drinks for our attendees, and possibly a tech person on hand to help with potential issues that may arise.

If you cannot attend and still want to help, we can always use more publicity. There are ~ 80 tickets remaining to be sold, and I'd love to see an early sellout. Posts on Facebook, Tweets, messages to friends you think may be interested, asking contacts in the media (esp WEEI and TSH who we cannot contact) for shout outs - all would help the cause.

Contact me through a SoSH message or at Frisbetarian@gmail.com if you have any questions or want to get involved in helping this great cause.

Thanks.

[genivive]

Try this again. I am out of state so I can't go, but I would like to sponsor a college student to attend the conference. If you are interested and have a student ID so you can get in, send me a message.

[absintheofmalaise]

In addition to genivive's generous donation, we have had two student tickets donated for full time Boston area students. If you are a full time student, or know any who would like to attend but can't afford it. Please email us at saberseminar@gmail.com

[absintheofmalaise]

The donated student tickets have been given away. Thanks to genivive and the other anonymous donor.

[absintheofmalaise]

We just had more student tickets donated for the seminar. Please email saberseminar@gmail.com if you are interested.

[absintheofmalaise]

All of the donated tickets have been distributed to students. If anyone else would like to donate so that full time students are able to attend, please send me a PM or contact us at saberseminar@gmail.com

We'd like to thank the donors for their generosity.

[Frisbetarian]

A big thank you goes out to Joe Castiglione and Dave O'Brien for their plug of this event during last night's Red Sox radio broadcast.

We still need a few more volunteers, including a tech person and possibly someone (with some experience) to help us find sponsors for the conference. Email me at frisbetarian@gmail.com if you want to help.

Remember, even if you cannot attend, you can help by getting the word out about this incredible baseball weekend which is being attended by representatives from at least four major league teams. Sales have been solid, but we just found out the hall we are using holds ~60 more people than we were led to believe. This means more money for the Jimmy Fund, but it also means we have to ramp up our efforts at PR and could use your help. Anything you can do, Tweets (we are @saberseminar), Facebook posts, calling or emailing friends who are big baseball fans, all would greatly aid the cause.

Thanks.

[Jnai]

I bumped this thread. We're not even asking for donations, just help spreading the word! =)

Edited by Jnai, 25 June 2012 - 08:22 PM.

[Jnai]

Ba bump. Easy way to fight cancer today: promote saberseminar.com! =)

[Jnai]

I know it's hard to compete with Jose because my contributions to baseball have been more graphical than literary, but:
Help spread the words about this event! We don't even want your money, just your social media influence! =)

[jose melendez]

If I were withing 6,000 miles of this, I would absolutely go.

This looks awesome, and I put it on my facebook. You should too, if you're not a dick.

[OttoC]

I mentioned it at the Statistical Analysis Committee meeting at the SABR national convention.

[absintheofmalaise]

Thanks Otto.

We'd also like to announce a great contest on the site.

We are pleased to announce that TruMedia is sponsoring an analytics contest which is only open to seminar attendees. Participants will be provided with free access to the TruMedia Baseball Analytics Platform, an analytics toolkit used by Major League front offices. All entrants into the contest should prepare a one page report on new, original research that features the TruMedia Baseball Analytics Platform. This report will be published on baseballanalytics.org and be judged by an expert panel featuring statisticians from ESPN’s Stats and Information Group.
Two entrants will be selected as winners and informed two weeks prior to the seminar. The two winners will each give a short (10 minute) presentation describing their research to the audience. For more information, please visit the Contest section of the saberseminar.com website.
If you have not checked recently, I would suggest you take a look at the list of presenters for this year's seminar. We have been adding some incredible people recently, and possibly will have a few more "names" joining our ranks over the next few weeks. There will also be a TrackMan demonstration during the weekend, weather permitting, with a pitcher and catcher set up outside the Physics Building.
Ticket sales have been strong, but this event is not yet sold out! I would appreciate any help you could give us in getting the word out about our terrific baseball conference. Twitter, word of mouth, Facebook...anything you can do to publicize the seminar will help the effort.

[Frisbetarian]

I don't want to take anything away from Jose's amazing fundraiser (do you think a learn to surf auction would get any interest, Jose?), but I want to let the board know about a few additions to our already amazing group of speakers. Herald baseball writer Michael Silverman is joining the changing use of stats in media panel, WEEI Red Sox radio announcer Jon Rish will be MC'ing some of the weekend event, and ex Angel and Red Sox GM Mike Port will be presenting.

This is truly the Woodstock of Baseball conferences, which makes the fact this event is being held on the site where the Psychedelic Supermarket used to stand quite interesting. The Supermarket was a 1960's concert venue in the basement of a parking garage, a real shit hole, but it hosted acts like Cream, Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Zappa, Country Joe and the Fish, Chuck Berry, The Yardbirds, The Grateful Dead, and on and on...many of the bands/acts that were at Woodstock also played here in 1967 and 1968. Kinda cool.

[Jnai]

With Mike Port, this conference now has either a current or former:

GM
Manager
Coach
Ballplayer
MLB Official
Front Office Executive in Baseball Operations
Front Office Executive in Scouting
Scout
Team Doctor

[absintheofmalaise]

Just to let people know, anyone who enters the TruMedia contest will have access to the software that generates these heat maps for pitchers and hitters. Mark Simon is also one of the speakers this year
.

[SpinnersRock]

Tweeted and shared on FB ... Hope it helps!

[absintheofmalaise]

Thanks Spinners.

[absintheofmalaise]

Two more student tickets have been donated for the seminar. These are for full time students and will be given away on a first come basis. Send emails to saberseminar@gmail.com.

[absintheofmalaise]

There's an auction in the AIDs thread for 2 tickets to the seminar. Help out two great causes.