Stathead Sox: Baseball analytics and their uses

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Steve Langone had gotten used to it. Five years will do that.

Three or four times a week, the former Boston College baseball standout would get on a plane, trying to catch that next team, that next city. His job was to be where the Red Sox weren't so when they did get there, there was some expectation of what was to come. He was their advance scout.

"I would sometimes be home one or two days a month," Langone said. "You look at how many cities you're in, how many ballparks you're in, night game, day game. You look back and think that was a lot. But during the season you kind of get on automatic pilot with it. You know your schedule, you have to get your work done. You have to get up early to get on a flight, fly to that next city, do a conference call that afternoon, start work on the next team. The craziness of it once you organize it and you know what you're doing, it doesn't seem that bad when you're in it. But looking back you think, 'Man, that was kind of crazy.'"

Langone didn't seem to really mind. He was still in his 30's, collecting boatloads of frequent flier miles while playing an integral role in the Red Sox' success. But times change, as do job descriptions. That's what he was reminded of shortly after the introduction of new manager Alex Cora.

As part of his job interview, Cora had made it clear that there was a way he preferred to operate when it came to preparing for opposing teams. It was the Houston Astros' way. It was also a way that seemed to scratch where the Red Sox' itched when it came to their own desire to evolve from what had been.

So, with Cora's ideology in place, Dombrowski pulled Langone aside. The Red Sox were going to try something a little different.

Long considered at the forefront of analytics and scouting, the Red Sox had fallen behind. And part of that was how they executed their method of preparing for opponents. Under Terry Francona and Bobby Valentine, the team rotated the likes of current pitching coach Dana LeVangie and another scout, with one of the two on the road while the other looped back to deliver the information in-person to the Red Sox. Then John Farrell chose to use a one-man system -- as he had when relying on current Rays manager Kevin Cash as his advance guy in Toronto -- with Langone serving as the advance man.

The Red Sox had always done it this way.