There isn't much decor in Thad Levine's office at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, Fla.
His L-shaped desk is mostly empty save for his computer and a 3-foot bookshelf that's bare except for a handful of books.
One is called "Managing the Millennials." Levine said he has yet to read it, but he will soon.
Levine, the Twins general manager, got the book after the Twins had a speaker give a presentation on how to better connect with that generation.
"The sense I got was maybe they're a little bit less patient and you have to be a little more creative in your verbal communication," Levine said. "It's a lot more visual learning, quick-hitting communication _ the proverbial Twitter impact and Instagram impact on that generation."
In the post-Moneyball era of baseball, there are few advanced statistics that are going to give teams a competitive edge. Everyone has access to fielder-independent pitching, batting average of balls in play and other deeper statistics. Everyone has their own versions of WAR (wins above replacement), or projections systems like ZIPS and PECOTA.
The data war in baseball, to hear Levine and Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey tell it, revolves around two fronts that really aren't that exclusive to baseball _ predicting which players are more susceptible to injuries and getting players to use advanced information that teams harvest to improve their play.
What good are projections and WAR values if players aren't on the field to live up to those numbers?
And what good is advanced statistical data if you can't communicate it to the people who could use it the most?
"We're all trying to find competitive advantages," Falvey said. "We're all looking for an edge, whether that's in analytics, or the medical space, or what we're doing with roster construction, culture or otherwise. We're all looking for that advantage."
