A diamond in the dugout: How one Bruin took his love of baseball to the big leagues

JJ Svenson's love of baseball - America's pastime - runs especially deep. The graduating UCLA senior can't remember a time when baseball wasn't a part of his life - his dad, Erik, coached his Little League team; his mom, Alisa, shuttled him to practice, always had his uniform ready and provided unwavering support before, during and after games. He attended many Oakland A's games with his dad, has treasured memories of playing ball in high school, and, more recently, clocked countless hours in the clubhouse or on the field at Jackie Robinson Stadium, working behind the scenes as a student manager for UCLA baseball.

"Working for UCLA and [baseball head] coach [John] Savage specifically taught me how a high-level college program is run, and it gave me insight into how baseball is played at advanced levels," Svenson said. "Coach Savage runs a very professional program and has produced a lot of MLB-caliber talent, which has given me insight into what is needed at the next level after college."

Svenson was just a kid when he saw and was inspired by the 2011 film "Moneyball," starring Brad Pitt as A's general manager Billy Beane, who helped transform the 2002 Oakland team - and baseball - using data analytics. "As a kid, this started as more surface-level game statistics," Svenson said of how his interest in data science around baseball developed. "But as I got older, I continued to learn more about how to evaluate performance in baseball through a variety of methods."

His learning continued at UCLA, where he found a mentor in Vivian Lew, a senior lecturer of statistics and assistant director of the UCLA Statistical Consulting Center. "She is very approachable and has been one of my best resources for learning about aspects of statistics, both inside and outside of the scope of her classes," Svenson said.

He also credits Nicolas Christou, a senior continuing lecturer in statistics, as "essential" to his success at UCLA, and the difficulty of his advanced classes for helping forge friendships with the students he studied with in Night Powell until the early hours of the morning. "Some of my favorite UCLA memories include studying with Charlie Hoose, Kendall Keely and Blair Warren for professor Christou's exams," Svenson said.

While his coursework was complex and challenging, Svenson had the opportunity to put it into practice with the baseball team, bouncing ideas off of assistant coach Griffin Barnes and his fellow student manager Trent Reimers.

"Being a manager has allowed me to further explore baseball analytics with many more resources than I had before I came to UCLA," Svenson said. "I have been able to use our program's data, along with the coding knowledge I have learned in my classes, to build a multitude of reports, predictive models and interactive applications for the benefit of our program and coaching staff."

Before his senior year, Svenson earned a recommendation from Savage and a role as an analytics intern with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, a collegiate summer team of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League.

"This experience greatly advanced my baseball analytics knowledge and gave me a great sense of what analytics looks like at the MLB level," Svenson said. "I got the privilege of working for Coach Jeff Pickler, current bench coach for the Colorado Rockies. Coach Pickler is one of the greatest baseball minds I have met, and he pushed me to grow as a baseball analyst."

As senior year dawned, Svenson's experiences with UCLA baseball and his Cape Cod Baseball League internship merged in "Stats 141XP: Practice of Statistical Consulting," with continuing lecturer Dave Zes. The capstone class allowed Svenson to apply his talents in the real world: He helped Italy's national baseball team compete on the global stage at the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

The course gives students the opportunity to solve data analysis problems for real clients - and Zes happened to know Matt Marks, former assistant director of baseball operations for the Dodgers and the Marlins.

"Matt was helping team Italy with their analytics and was looking for someone to create a matchup model," Svenson said. "Along with my group, Charlie Hoose, Max Wimmer and Krystal Ki, I trained an XGBoost matchup model [a modeling system] and created an interactive R Shiny App [which helps create data visualization] so that Team Italy could see pitcher vs. batter matchup grades for all of their opponents. After the World Baseball Classic was over, we were able to validate our model with the actual outcomes of the tournament and saw very good results."

This month, Svenson will graduate from UCLA with a degree in statistics and data science (and a minor in geography and environmental studies), following a dedicated four-year run with Bruin baseball, where he's left a lasting impact, according to baseball coach Savage.

"JJ has been an invaluable contributor to our program over the last four seasons," Savage said. "His command of data and his analytical insight have played a major role in our player development and overall team success. He'll be a tremendous asset to any organization."

Rather fittingly, Svenson, who wove his love for baseball into his entire time at UCLA, is heading to the MLB. He leaves Westwood for Detroit, sliding into an analytics associate role with the Tigers.

"The last four years, [I] have had some of the best experiences of my life, and I will forever cherish them," Svenson said. "Being able to integrate my passion for baseball with my education has been an incredible experience, and I am thankful for the opportunity and everyone that supported me along the way.

"UCLA has provided me with a great education, incredible experiences and has allowed me to meet amazing people," he added. "I will be a Bruin for life, and I will never forget these four years and how they shaped who I am today."