Accurately Predicting The Future

By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH, CMIO, Infor

Joe Maddon, the Cubs manager, is chomping on the end of his water bottle. It is the bottom of the ninth inning and Fenway Park is a screaming madhouse. It is game seven of the 2015 World Series and the Cubbies have a one run lead over the Boston Red Sox. With two men out, the bases are loaded with Brock Holt on third, Mookie Betts on second, and Dustin Pedroia on first. The Cubbies are just one out away from their first championship since 1906.

Big Papi, David Ortiz, steps up to the plate. A base hit wins the game while an out ends a century of misery for the fans on the north side of Chicago. The infield defensive shift is on but how does Maddon know where to position his players?

Every major sports team utilizes predictive analytics to win games. Wikipedia defines predictive analytics as, “A variety of statistical techniques from modeling, machine learning, and data mining that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about the future, or otherwise unknown events. In business, predictive models exploit patterns found in historical and transactional data to identify risks and opportunities.”

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