CHICAGO — I live in fear of two things: flying and networking. But so powerful was the allure of baseball science and making new friends that I boarded the Flyaway bus to LAX to begin my path to the 2024 Saberseminar in Chicago, the preeminent conference at the intersection of dingers and calculators. At one point, it had felt like a good idea. Earlier this year, after I published an article for FanGraphs on a new way to measure pitcher command, I came across a 2023 Saberseminar presentation by Scott Powers, a former Astros assistant general manager and current professor at Rice University, where he outlined his own novel approach to a similar question. I emailed Powers to ask some questions about his presentation; he suggested that I might enjoy attending the conference in August.

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