Panelists

Shiraz Rehman

Director of Baseball Operations, Arizona Diamondbacks

Shiraz Rehman enters his first season as Director, Baseball Operations, and his fourth season overall as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks front office. He joined the club in December 2005 as a Baseball Operations Assistant and served for two years as the Manager, Baseball Operations after his promotion in January 2007. Rehman assists General Manager Josh Byrnes and Assistant General Manager Peter Woodfork in all phases of managing the baseball operations department.

Rehman’s primary responsibilities are with the Major League team, assisting in the maintenance of the club’s 40-man roster, providing financial and statistical analysis to support trade and player evaluation, and overseeing all transactions and major league rules interpretation and compliance. He plays a key role in the arbitration process, contract structuring and negotiations, and oversees baseball analysis efforts for the team. Rehman also spearheads the D-backs’ development of Baseball Operations technology and video solutions, and coordinates the department’s internship program. In addition, he manages much of the financial planning and budgeting processes for all of baseball operations. Before joining the D-backs, Rehman interned for the Boston Red Sox during the 2005 season in Baseball Operations.

Rehman is a 1999 graduate of McGill University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting and was a starting infielder on the baseball team for four years, captaining the squad in his junior and senior seasons. He spent time as both a commodities trader and financial consultant for more than five years at Enron and Deloitte & Touche before obtaining his M.B.A from Columbia Business School in 2006. He and his wife, Beth, reside in Phoenix.

Tim Purpura

Executive Vice President and COO, Minor League Baseball

Purpura monitors all business activities of Minor League Baseball and its subsidiary companies and is the primary liaison with Major League Baseball. Prior to joining the staff in Dec., 2007, he was General Manager of the Houston Astros for 3 years and led the team to the 2005 National League Championship.

Tim has an extensive background in Minor League Baseball, working in player development for several of his 14 years in the Astro organization, in addition to time with the California Angels and San Diego Padres. He also represented the Appalachian League (2004-7) on Minor League Baseball’s Board of Trustees.

Purpura has a Juris Doctor degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego and a Bachelor of Science degree from Chicago Loyola University.

Christina Kahrl

Co-Founder & Managing Editor, Baseball Prospectus

Christina Kahrl is one of the co-founders of Baseball Prospectus. She is currently the managing editor of the think tank's website, BaseballProspectus.com, as well as its annual publication. She is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Kahrl has co-edited several of the Baseball Prospectus annual books of forecasts and analysis and has been involved in the writing of every edition since the first in 1996.

Kahrl writes a bi-weekly column entitled "Transaction Analysis" listing and analyzing the transactions (player trades, contract signings, promotions and demotions) by all Major League Baseball teams for the site. She has also written for SportsIllustrated.com, ESPN.com, the New York Sun, Salon.com, Slate, Playboy, and the Washington Blade, and is an associate editor of The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia. She is also the former Acquisitions Editor of Brassey's Sports, a mid-list publisher that focused on sports history and analysis.

David Pinto

Owner and Author, Baseball Musings

David Pinto started reading the Bill James Baseball Abstract in his senior year at Harvard.  After two years of immunology research, Pinto started studying computer programming and wound up working for Dragon Systems, Inc.  Through a member of the Dragon team, David met Dick Cramer, started scoring games for Project Scoresheet and later STATS, Inc. 

In 1990, STATS, Inc. hired Pinto to support ESPN’s baseball research.  He worked on Baseball Tonight and wrote notes for remote telecasts for ten seasons.  He also developed STATS Proline, an early online statistics service and wrote the first real-time box score generator.  He contributed to STATS publications, including the yearly Baseball Scoreboard.

David hosted Baseball Tonight Online in 2001, then started his blog, Baseball Musings in 2002.  He developed the Probabilistic Model of Range, one of many defensive systems that uses batted ball information to better measure defense.  He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife Marilyn, daughter Melinda and Phoebe the Schnoodle.

Moderator

John Dewan

Owner, Baseball Info Solutions

In 1987, John Dewan left a highly successful career as an insurance actuary to pursue his life-long dream, the development of the most timely and comprehensive computer database in sports. He fulfilled part one of that dream by becoming the Executive Director of Project Scoresheet, the Bill James-led effort that pioneered a new wave of baseball statistics that are now common baseball terminology. Part two of the dream was Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems, Inc. (STATS, Inc.) During John's tenure as President and CEO, STATS grew rapidly and was recognized in Inc. Magazine's Inc. 500, a list of America's 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, ranking #144. In recognition of his leadership role in making real-time sports information available to consumers, John was named to the Crain's Chicago Business list of key technology players in Chicago and was a three-time finalist for the KPMG Illinois High Tech Awards. The success of the company culminated in its sale to an affiliate of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Fox Broadcasting, News Digital Media in December 1999.

In March 2002, John reunited with former STATS executive Steve Moyer to launch part three of his life-long dream, Baseball Info Solutions. Their combined experiences create respected and unparalleled sports information used throughout the industry. Also in 2002, John became co-owner of ACTA Publications, a Chicago-based publisher and began a new line of sports books under the ACTA Sports imprint. He also wrote The Fielding Bible, a groundbreaking new book on baseball defense. The Fielding Bible -- Volume II will be available in the spring of 2009.

Since 1992, John has been the sports expert for "Stat of the Week," heard on WSCR 670 AM "The Score," an all-sports radio station in Chicago. The show can also be heard on the web at www.670thescore.com every Tuesday shortly after Noon Central time. His 'Stat of the Week" column can be found at www.statoftheweek.com. A free email delivery option is available at that website.