Chris Fonnesbeck

Chris Fonnesbeck, senior quantitative analyst for the New York Yankees and associate professor at Vanderbilt, dives deep into the world of Bayesian methods. He illustrates when to effectively employ these techniques and the challenges of teaching them. Fonnesbeck highlights their application in sports analytics, particularly in baseball, alongside marine biology findings. He discusses the importance of skills like programming and understanding priors, while also addressing issues like missing data, showcasing Bayesian's growing relevance across disciplines.

Chris Fonnesbeck, a trailblazer in sports analytics and a core developer of PyMC, shares insights from his unique journey that blends marine biology and statistical consulting with sports modeling. He discusses the evolution of sports analytics, particularly in baseball, and highlights the impact of Bayesian methods. Fonnesbeck dives into advanced modeling techniques using Gaussian processes and emphasizes community contributions to the future of PyMC. With humor, he relates the complexities of polling data to sports analytics, showing the fun side of data interpretation.