It has been more than a half-decade since the Diamondbacks were regarded as a team that was serious about its analytics, and even then they might not have been as data-driven as many believed.
But under new General Manager Mike Hazen the club seems to be shifting back in that direction, to the point that it might do more than just catch up with the rest of the industry.
That, at least, is the hope not only of ownership, which made analytics a priority in its search for a new GM, but, by extension, the new regime, which already has taken steps to beef up the department, hiring quantitative analyst Mike Fitzgerald away from the Pittsburgh Pirates to be the new director of research and development and naming former All-Star Dan Haren as a pitching strategist.