Max Marchi: heads to Cleveland to analyze stats for the Indians
From a very young age Max Marchi introduced to what you may call his destiny. He may not have know at the time, but looking back it’s easy to see what kind of an impact the game of baseball has had on his life. “My father was one of the founders of a baseball club located in Sasso Marconi, in fact when I was born back in ’78 he was the coach of the team,” explained Max. Having played as a youngster for the very club that his father help establish most defiantly helped to mold and lead this young man to where he is today. This month Max will be realizing a dream of his after having excepted a job opportunity which has lead him State Side to Cleveland where he will be analyzing stats for none other then the Cleveland Indians.
Max Marchi graduated form the University of Bologna with a degree in Statistics. The direction that Max originally took right out of school was analyzing numbers for the heath system here in Italy, but of course on the side he was always drawn to his passion, baseball. The game of baseball is without a doubt a sport that is well know for numbers, and more so now then ever the numbers are actually being used to win championship.
Max began to use his knowledge of statistics in baseball after he had discover an article at his university’s library back in 2002, which spoke about Sabermetrics. He was very intrigued by the way the author used numbers to formulate new theories about what it takes to put a winning product on the field. Theories, which at the time were frowned upon and brushed to the side by many. However those few that stuck with the use of the sabermetrics were soon rewarded with the results in the wins loss column, and there is no better example of this then the Billy Bean’s Oakland A’s.
“Where do I fall in? Well years back I began to use the pitch f/x technology (tracks the trajectory of pitches) to formulate numbers and theories of my own. My work was then picked up by Mike Fast of Baseball Prospectus which eventually lead me down the path of where I am today, having had just excepted a job with the Indians,” explained Marchi. Max hopes to be able to continue to grow and learn new things about the game through statistics. He is also taking it as a great challenge to be working for an organization that hasn’t won the World Series since 1948. “Just the fact that I can possibly help contribute to bringing back a World Title to Cleveland is an extremely satisfying and stimulating thing in itself. I’d be able to say that I helped contribute to the history of one of the most historic and well known teams in the world!”
