EAST PROVIDENCE, RI (WPRI) – As Major League Baseball continues to embrace analytics and employ Ivy League educated executives that break down the game inside and out, one Rhode Island native is benefiting from his own expertise. Smithfield native Jimmy Buffi is a senior analyst for the Los Angeles Dodgers–analyzing the movement of the baseball and the body from Dodgers pitchers.

Buffi studied mechanical engineering at Notre Dame before earning his doctorate at Northwestern. It was a dream of his to study the science of pitching and to work in sports full time.

Buffi was discovered by the Dodgers after they read some of his published work on the art of pitching.

In October, his world’s collided as Buffi flew his parents out to Los Angeles for the World Series where the lifelong Red Sox fans all had to wear the Dodger blue.