Series Introduction: Players and coaches often take the spotlight when it comes to baseball media and fans. But there are so many other people that contribute to a baseball team that may not get as much recognition as they deserve.
This series is designed to highlight a few of the supporting members within the Lansing Lugnuts organization, showcasing who they are and bringing to light what they do for the team.
Believe it or not, Ethan Francis isn’t a fan of math. As someone choosing to work within the world of baseball data and analytics, that might come as a surprise.
“I'm going against my natural abilities, I guess,” Francis said. “But at the same time, it's forced me to open new perspectives of thinking and really try and learn where I'd struggled with in the past.”
As the video assistant for the Lansing Lunguts tasked with collecting data and video, Francis is not only fulfilling his dream to work within professional baseball, but also his passion for helping players develop through the use of data and analytics.
Baseball has been a part of Francis’ life since he was six years old. After playing the sport through high school, Francis received a chance to play at the college level, but decided to take another route in his quest to make the sport into a career.
“I declined because I knew that I would have a better chance of making a career out of baseball by going to a university and studying something like sports business or sports management, which is what I ended up doing,” Francis said.
Francis attended Saint Louis University, but it wasn’t until his sophomore year that he discovered his love for data and analytics. Francis credited his roommate, who he said was very into data and analytics, for helping spark his interest in the topic.
“It was just understanding the capabilities of data and analytics within the baseball world that really made me fall in love with it,” Francis said.
“I love the idea of that there are trends out there that we have no idea that they exist right now, and it's like understanding data and analytics as a tool to help make guys better I think is just super cool.”
Francis said that he feels the game of baseball is trending towards a larger focus in the use of data and analytics.
“For me, data is simply a tool, and so the application is really what I wanna be involved with,” Francis said.
“I just like the idea of trying to be ahead of the curve. So at the end of the day, you want to be successful, and I think data's a great way to get yourself going in that direction.”
After graduating with a degree in sports business with a minor in business analytics in May of 2025, Francis took the internship with the Athletics as a video assistant and received the opportunity to move back to his home state of Michigan to work with the Lugnuts.
“There are six of us in my position, one for each affiliate. … When I heard that I could've been in Stockton, California, Midland, Texas, Vegas, Arizona, DSL (Dominican Summer League) or an hour and a half from where I grew up, I pushed for Lansing a little bit,” Francis said.
Capturing the Details
The desire to develop players to be better is the driving force behind Francis’ career aspirations.
“I want to work in player development,” he said. “I have a passion for it, and I just love helping guys get better.”
Francis’ mindset has been no different within his position as video assistant for the Lugnuts.
“When I took this job, my mindset was like, ‘I'm so happy to be here. How can I help these guys be as good as they can be?’” Francis said. “And so that's kind of the mentality that I've carried through this is, ‘How can I help? What can I do to make these guys better? Tell me, and I'll get it done.’”
Francis described his job as the Lugnuts’ video assistant as taking care of “all of the data intake and internal video for the Athletics at the High-A level.” The data and video he collects is not only used by the team in Lansing, but also the higher-ups in the organization.
The majority of Francis’s work is focused on the pitchers. Before games, Francis will set up equipment to capture data and video of pitchers during their pre-game sessions. Francis also works with data and video from during the games, not only of the pitchers, but also the hitters and defense.
Francis explained that the data that he collects focused on the pitching staff, which includes velocity, spin rate, spin direction, movement and approach angles, gives the Lugnuts a starting point of where a pitcher is at and allows them to set a goal for where they would like the pitcher to end up.
Francis also developed his own tool for the team that quantifies the command their pitchers have, an area in public baseball research that he said as far as he knows is new.
In essence, Francis explained that he takes video of a pitcher’s in-game performance and puts it into the program he developed. Francis then manually tags where each pitch is supposed to cross the strike zone, determined by where the catcher sets his glove up, and then tags where the ball actually ends up, allowing him to measure the accuracy of the pitch.
The reports that Francis is able to generate using the data from this tool benefits the pitchers in all three phases of the game.
“It's a tool for helping pitchers game plan for a game, execute certain pitches in the game and then work on certain stuff outside of the game,” Francis said.
Francis said the best part of this job is the fact that he gets to chase his dream. “Working in professional baseball is something I've wanted since I was a little kid,” Francis said. “And the fact that I get to wake up every day and, while some of my friends drive 20 minutes to work and sit in a cubicle from 9:00 to 5:00, my commute is walk through the left field gates into the clubhouse and say hi to players, coaches, all that stuff. So it's something I don't take for granted.”
And the experience has been a learning opportunity too.
“I thought I knew a lot going into this position, but I'd never had the experience of working with a professional baseball team,” Francis said. “And so I really didn't understand the dynamics that happen behind closed doors, and happen in the clubhouse, and happen just throughout the organization. … Obviously I've learned so much about the game itself, just being around people who are so much smarter than me, just every day trying to be a sponge or a fly on the wall and just soak up as much as I can.”
Francis said that being a part of these players’ journeys through minor league baseball takes on a deeper feeling because of the relationships he’s been able to build with them, getting to know them as human beings, not just baseball players.
“Being with these guys every single day and just seeing the work that they put in and getting to be a part of them trying to succeed is really, really cool,” Francis said.
With his current position being an internship, Francis isn’t guaranteed this job after the season ends. Whatever his next step may be, Francis said he hopes to someday make it to the top of player development.
“I would love to be in a position at the Major League level where I can make players better. … I want to be the one that's able to look at the data, figure out where we need to be, and then help implement the plan to get there,” he said.
When his time with the Lugnuts is over, Francis hopes to be remembered in several different ways.
“I want them to remember that I was always a positive person in the clubhouse… just from a human being standpoint, like I'm the guy that's concerned with how guys' families are doing and how they're doing and all stuff like that,” Francis said. ”But I think from a work perspective, I just want to be remembered as a hard worker, somebody who’s just loves, loves, loves the game.”