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Houston Astros And Houston Rockets In Top Three Of The Great Analytics Rankings

By Yoni Pollak

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Analytics…Some people love ’em, some people hate ’em, some people Charles Barkley ’em.

The city of Houston?!? Well, I hope they love ’em.

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Houston teams are well represented in The Great Analytics Rankings, a ranking by ESPN of the top franchises from the four major sports (basketball, baseball, football, and hockey) in their use of analytics.

If you look at the overall top 10, Houston has ties to many of the franchises. The #1 overall team that uses analytics the most is the Philadelphia 76’ers. Their GM? Sam Hinkie, the former Rockets front office member and second to Morey during his tenure in Houston. It’s no surprise the 76’ers are #1 as Hinkie and the franchise have totally rebuilt just from 2 years ago when he took over as the GM, and his analytical approach has been ridiculed by many.

The #2 team on the list are the Astros. Here’s the ESPN writeup on the Stros:

"No team has fewer wins than the Astros over the past 10 seasons, but the team’s commitment to analytics is second to none. After the 2011 season, GM Jeff Luhnow brought former NASA analyst Sig Mejdal with him from the Cardinals, and they have put together a unique collection of data scientists, with colorful titles to boot: director of decision sciences, medical risk manager and analyst, and mathematical modeler.Not only did the Astros commit a full-time position to medical analysis but also they brought in PITCHf/x expert Mike Fast (a former engineer) to focus on that data source.In 2014, their baseball information system – named Ground Control — received a flattering profile in Sports Illustrated. Shortly thereafter, Luhnow was calling other GMs to apologize after hackers breached Ground Control and leaked months of secret trade discussions, which was picked up by Deadspin.After 2014 top pick Brady Aiken’s physical revealed abnormalities, they lowered their offer and failed to sign him, earning criticism for negotiating ruthlessly and being, well, calculating. But a player who saw a benefit from their analysis is pitcher Colin McHugh. After being waived by the Rockies in the 2013 postseason, McHugh adapted what pitches he threw based on the Astros’ data-driven insights. Mere months later, McHugh became a starter for the Astros, and he posted a 2.73 ERA last season.All signs point to the Astros being the mystery team that purchased a Cray supercomputer last spring, allowing for fast computation of large amounts of data, and they are learning how to translate their analytical prowess into realized gains on the field. Their use of defensive shifts evolved through back-and-forth between the field and front office staff, culminating in the Astros deploying the shift more often than any other team in baseball last season. Without a doubt, the Astros are all-in."

The Astros likely would have been #1 if the rankings were done last year but still take the top spot in Major League Baseball. Similar to the 76’ers, the Astros brought in GM Jeff Luhnow to run operations a few years ago and he has revamped the farm system and Major League team since then. If you fell into a snooze in 2011 only to wake up just now, you’re not going to recognize a single Astro unless you happened to be a member of Scott Feldman, Pat Neshek, or Luke Gregerson’s families.

#3 in the rankings are the Rockets. Again, here’s ESPN’s write-up on the Rockets.

"No single event has played a more important role in the NBA’s analytics evolution than when Rockets owner Leslie Alexander brought in Daryl Morey to run basketball operations.It was a bold move. Morey had been a little-known VP with the Boston Celtics, where he did analytics work on the business and basketball sides, when Houston hired him in April 2006. (He wouldn’t co-found the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference until the following year.) No team had previously turned over its operations to someone such as Morey. Only one other team has since hired a general manager who made his reputation in analytics. In 2013, the Philadelphia 76ers hired Sam Hinkie, Morey’s right-hand man, away from the Rockets.Morey’s now regarded as the NBA’s leading proponent of analytics, but the GM gives credit to Alexander, calling him “the pioneer in bringing analytics to the NBA as the first team to fully commit to using it as a primary tool in all decision-making.”Morey and the Rockets employed a staff of data experts well before most other teams had made a single hire. Despite seeing some of their top people move on, “the Rockets continue to increase investment in analytics people and systems to maintain a differentiation in this area,” Morey told ESPN.com, “especially as XY SportVU data comes online and we try to stay ahead of the competition.”Earlier in February, TNT analyst Charles Barkley called Morey “one of those idiots who believe in analytics” and questioned whether advanced stats had truly played a part in the acquisition of James Harden. In fact, the trade for Harden was the signature analytics-driven move of Morey’s tenure, as Houston spent years accumulating assets via “arbitrage” moves and then grabbed Harden from Oklahoma City when the Thunder hesitated to offer their sixth man a max contract. Based on Harden’s per-minute stats, Morey recognized his potential to become a superstar in a larger role.While the influence of analytics on the personnel side has long been obvious, it’s only in the past three seasons that the Rockets have played the game on the court so differently from everyone else. More than any other team, with the blessing of coach Kevin McHale, they’ve emphasized high-value shots at the rim and beyond the 3-point line. According to NBA.com/Stats, 74 percent of their shots this season have either been 3s or at the rim, far higher than that of any other team."

Unlike the 76’ers and the Astros, the Rockets never tore down their squad to rebuild it. GM Daryl Morey stayed competitive every year under the rebuild, constantly trading assets for more assets until he made his big move in trading for James Harden. Once he had Harden under his belt he was able to convince Dwight Howard to sign here and the rest is history. Will it lead to an NBA championship? I’m sure Charles Barkley can’t wait to find out.

So the Astros were the #1 ranked baseball team in terms of analytics usage and the Rockets were the #2 basketball team. The Texans? Well, no football team is “all-in” on the analytical approach according to ESPN, but their are 9 “believers” and 7 teams with “one foot in”. The Texans are neither of those according to ESPN, rather in a group called the “skeptics”.

Here’s what ESPN had to say about the Texans:

"The Texans have taken steps toward analytic fluency and have indicated interest in stats, but their commitment is minimal.General manager Rick Smith is known to have investigated companies that offer GPS health tracking, and he has said the Texans use advanced stats in the draft process. Personnel executive Brian Gaine arrived in 2014 from a Miami Dolphins franchise that is relatively advanced by comparison. But the Texans don’t use an outside company to compile any data, and their internal structure is underdeveloped.Coach Bill O’Brien, a Brown graduate, has made clear that numbers and data play only a small role at best in his decision-making. “[Y]ou’ve got to be careful there, but we definitely in all three phases use, I guess the word would be ‘analytics,’ to figure out what the tendencies are, what our calls may be in those situations. But at the end of the day, it’s football and you just have to put your player in the best position to go make plays.”"

The Texans though, at least according to Bill O’Brien, maybe should be a bit higher than just “skeptics”. O’Brien, when talking to the media earlier this year, seems a bit higher on analytics than ESPN suggests.

So maybe they should be in the “one foot in” category or maybe higher. Who knows?

Whatever the case may be, Houston is certainly ahead of the game analytically in two sports and can be a big part of the future of the analytical movement if it leads to more playoff wins and eventual championships.

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