GOODYEAR, Ariz. — In the great old-school scouting versus new-school analytics, Buddy Bell would seem to fall solidly on the old-school side.
He’s the middle generation of a three-generation baseball family. He played. He managed. And he worked in the front office before Sabermetrics became part of the baseball lexicon.
But Bell embraces the numbers, rather than scoffs at them — even if some of the guys he played and worked with don’t see that way.
“I have friends who think it’s cool not to have a computer,” he said. “They think it’s cool not to have a smartphone.