Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Assistant Professor of Sport Analytics and Statistics at Rice University, affiliated with the Department of Sport Management. He holds a PhD in Statistics from Stanford University (2017) and has held roles as Director of Quantitative Analysis for the Los Angeles Dodgers (2017–2021) and Assistant General Manager for the Houston Astros (2022). His research focuses on measuring individual contributions in team sports, optimizing player talent evaluation, and game-theoretic analysis of league incentives. Powers has consulted for multiple professional teams including the Oakland Athletics and AZ Alkmaar.

Research interests include sport analytics, statistical machine learning, Bayesian models, and applications in baseball, soccer, and volleyball. He has published in journals like Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports and Statistical Modelling, with recent work on volleyball player contributions and MLB pitch trajectory analysis. Awards include the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the Jack Kavanagh Memorial Youth Baseball Research Award.

Teaching includes courses like Introduction to Sport Analytics and Soccer Analytics. Grants include a MLB Research Gift ($50k) for studying pitching injury biomechanics and a Rice Internal Grant ($10k) for hosting the Rice Soccer Analytics Conference. Powers advises the Sport Analytics Undergraduate Research Lab and coordinates the American Soccer Insights Summit.