Brady Fuller Knows Numbers Never Lie

Brady Fuller overlooking the field at NBT Bank Stadium

Keyboards are clanking as the first pitch is thrown at NBT Bank Stadium and the sound isn’t coming from the press box. It’s coming from a room that did not exist in baseball stadiums until just four years ago. 

This room is relevant today because of a black rectangle that’s mounted on the facing of the mezzanine level seats looking out onto the field. The rectangle is something that the casual fan would most likely overlook, but its what’s revolutionizing the game of baseball. 

The man typing at the keyboard is 24-year-old Brady Fuller and that black rectangle is why he has a job. Brady works as an advanced scouting intern for the Washington Nationals and the data he collects from the black rectangle, better known as the “TrackMan” is crucial to his success. 

Brady logs the information given to him by the TrackMan for every pitch of the game, which includes: pitch velocity, exit velocity, spin rate, distance and pitch location. This new age of analytics has berthed new ways of projecting talent, but for Brady, it’s just another day in the office. 

He’s just had a hell of a week traveling by bus with the team. Last Monday, they set out on an 8 hour, 28-minute venture to Norfolk, Virginia. By Thursday, they were on a 3 hour, 17-minute journey south to Durham and by Sunday night, they finally shipped back up north—driving 9 hours and 37 minutes to Syracuse. 1,323 miles in 7 days. 

“I fall asleep for the most part on the bus rides,” Fuller said. “We weren’t really expected to do anything until 1 today, so it was nice to sleep in.” 

Originally from Los Angeles, Brady is quite a long way from home and really, what he had planned for his career. In 2016 he graduated with a 3.9 GPA from Occidental College in L.A. with a degree in economics and math while playing D3 baseball. After spending all of last year working as a business intelligence analyst, Brady figured his skills with numbers were better suited elsewhere. 

“I couldn’t stand my job and I’ve always loved baseball,” he said. “I applied for the job with the Nationals and got the gig after a phone interview.” 

In business operations a big part of the job is to “improve efficiency,” but in essence, the same goes for baseball operations as well. Being able to recognize certain numbers and trends in data is giving general managers, coaches, and players a new perspective on how they see the game. 

“I live in a house with the coaches so they’re always checking in with me about certain things in the game report,” he said. “Players will also come up to me and I’ll never critique them, but I’ll tell them where their numbers are at and go through that kind of stuff with them.” 

Once the season is over, Brady plans on heading back home to Los Angeles for the offseason but feels confident in how he’s performed in his first year on the job. 

“My hope is to eventually get a job in D.C. working in the front office,” Brady said. “I feel like I’ve done a good job so far so I just need to continue to work hard.”