Lee Mendelowitz Recap

On Thursday, Nov. 9, the University of Maryland Sports Business Society welcomed Lee Mendelowitz to campus. He works as a data analyst for the Washington Nationals. Mendelowitz spoke about his rise in analytics, what he does for the Nationals and factors that have helped him in his career.

Mendelowitz received his Ph.D in 2015 from the University of Maryland: College Park. He started working with the Nationals in 2014 while he was still a graduate student. After the 2014-2015 season, he joined the Nationals full time.

In his role as a data analyst, Mendelowitz takes data and keeps them updated over the course of the season. He then analyzes data and uses them to answer questions that the team may have. During the offseason, Mendelowitz said that his team works on more long-term projects.

As it pertains to talent acquisition, Mendelowitz said that analytics and the “eye test” both play a role in decision making. However, he noted that “data doesn’t always capture everything.” Mendelowitz said that advanced stats at the high school and collegiate level aren’t as rich as they are for major league baseball. He also said that defensive metrics are far from perfect because of the smaller sample sizes and frequent routine plays.

Mendelowitz said that programming and constantly doing analysis has had a major effect on his career. Acquiring a lot of technical skills and working on communicating his previous work was also very instrumental.

“It’s really helpful to have something you can share,” Mendelowitz said.

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