ESPN ranks Phillies dead last among professional sports teams for their use of analytics

The Sixers are on the cutting edge in terms of applied use of analytics, thanks largely to their forward-thinking GM Sam Hinkie. But not all of the city's squads are following suit.

The use and application of analytics to the business of sport is a growing, and debated topic, and one that will certainly impact the future of professional sports. ESPN The Magazine took a look at analytics' place in sports in its "Great Analytics Ranking" issue, which attempts to assess how every team in the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB utilizes advanced metrics.

Out of the 122 ranked teams, the Phillies finished dead last: 122nd.

The maganize's evaluation is explained as follows:

"The magazine unleashed [experts] on all 122 teams in a quest to rank each on the strength of its analytics staff, its buy-in from execs and coaches, its investment in biometric data, and how much its approach is predicated on analytics."

This bottom-of-the-barrel ranking comes on the heels of Baseball Prospectus predicting that the Phillies would finish with the league's worst record in 2015.

The New York Knicks and Washington Redskins ranked just ahead of the Phillies in use of analytics, at 121st and 120th, respectively.