Who uses data, algorithms, spreadsheets etc. and why?

With DiamondDope you can get the "pool" for your ballpark - feed it into Excel - and do things like find the best OBP vs R or L pitching for that ballpark. Or the most HR's = Naturally it will be all the stars - but you can sometimes find a cheaper player pops up - certainly if you sort by position - so you can find a player that fits your budget particularly if you are playing a low cap! Can be fun seeking out those gems!

most of the high % winning managers I believe use DDope almost exclusively especially the Pythagorean part. I don't bother but their consistent Winning % validates the tool.

I download the DD data for the park I intend to use, paste it into Excel and run a macro to add columns for NERP vs L and NERP vs R. I import this into Access and run a query for each position to add columns for defensive NERP. I use this Access database to help with player selections for my draft card. After the draft, I download the DD data for all the parks in the league into Excel. I use these Excel spreadsheets to look at daily matchups during the season. It took me 12-15 hours one weekend to set this all up, and now it takes about 45 minutes to do this prep work for each league.

I described the above to my stepdaughter who said "And that's fun for you?" I love baseball, I love numbers, and yes it is.

I do something similar with the DD dump. I download the data pool from DD but using the zero parks setting. I developed an excel spreadsheet that includes all the ballpark singles and homer chances so that I can just input the ballpark ratings on one page and it automatically updates all the NERP values. By doing this, I can tinker with the NERP formula to increase the weighting of on base vs slugging for example, depending on the park. By using filters and the expected at bats vs righties and lefties, I can (hopefully) find the best values for positions.

I then have a second excel spreadsheet that allows me to combine the contributions of hitter and pitcher when I want to make a lineup, and I have one more spreadsheet that allows me to look at the other team's lineups against my pitchers, including the defensive contributions, when determining the pitching rotation, as well as what settings to use for my pitchers. I find that many times, the best (and, in my opinion, most fun) way to approach pitching is to identify the other team's weakness and exploit that with a >5 man rotation with a mix of lefties, righties and reverse pitchers.

I also like the math aspect of it, so I enjoy tweaking the formulas to see how to get the most out of players. It makes me feel like I am doing something other than just watching HAL screw me over.