Giants add to analytics team, hire coordinator of pitching analysis

Before Giants CEO Larry Baer hired Farhan Zaidi as the franchise’s president of baseball operations, Baer announced he desired a “next-gen” front office executive to lay the blueprint for the organization’s future.

Though Zaidi hasn’t transformed the roster overnight, he has begun implementing a “next-gen” approach within the Giants’ baseball operations department. That process continued Tuesday as Matt Daniels announced on Twitter he will join the Giants as their new coordinator of pitching analysis.

Daniels was formerly the director of pitching programs at Driveline Baseball, a data-driven development program based in Seattle, Washington. Former Giants ace Tim Lincecum has trained at Driveline and so have several other prominent major league players, including Cleveland Indians starter Trevor Bauer and free agent reliever Adam Ottavino.

Driveline has had several employees plucked by major league franchises in recent years as the race to gain an analytics edge continues. Though the Giants have been widely perceived as one of baseball’s least analytically-driven organizations, Zaidi is tasked with changing that.

After adding new scouting directors on both the amateur and professional sides of baseball operations this winter, Zaidi has expressed interest in using more data to inform decisions at all levels of the organization.

While it’s unclear how closely Daniels will work with pitching coach Curt Young and bullpen coach Matt Herges, both coaches explained last year that major league players have become more interested in having their approaches informed by analytics in recent years.