The Downside of Baseball’s Data Revolution—Long Games, Less … – Wall Street Journal

The owners of America’s baseball teams, gathered at a Houston hotel last year, were discussing once again how their games had become so plodding. This time, however, the explanation was different.

Two Major League Baseball officials and a statistician told the group that the sport was being brought to a standstill by the very phenomenon that has revolutionized it in recent years—the embrace of data analytics to drive strategy.

Baseball…