2016 Greg Spira Baseball Research Award Winner Named

The winner of the 2016 Greg Spira Baseball Research Award, named in honor of Frequent Business Traveler’s late co-founder and managing editor, was announced Monday.

Jeff Long, a graduate of Loyola College in Maryland, and now a writer for Baseball Prospectus, won first prize for his essay, “Every Player in Its Right Place.”

The judges held that the essay exemplified the type of work that the Greg Spira Award was created to honor.

The Greg Spira Baseball Research Award is presented annually on April 27, Greg Spira’s birthday, in recognition of the best published article, paper, or book containing original baseball research by a person 30 years old or younger.

In 1991, two years before the invention of the first Web browser, Mr. Spira founded the Internet Baseball Awards. He was considered a pioneer in Usenet online baseball discussion groups including rec.sport.baseball, and helped found Baseball Prospectus, a Web site that focuses on the sabermetric analysis of baseball.

The winning essay offers detailed comparisons of players using information provided through an arrangement with Ayasdi, an analytics company that examines data using machine intelligence. With this, the essay provided a look at “the old ballgame,” and those who play it competitively at the highest level.

Pollis will receive $1,000 in addition to the award.

Second prize and $200 went to Jon Feven and “Analytics: The New Currency of Major League Baseball,” the capstone project in his Sports Management graduate degree program at Cardinal Stritch Univeristy in Fox Point, Wisconsin. Ben Diamond received third prize and $100 for “What is the Success Rate of Shoulder Surgery?” On the Baseball Essential website.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)