Coding the Curveball for a Spot in the Big Leagues
Written by Maxwell Ritchie, GVSU ‘25 M.S. Communications
Jensen Holm, a senior at Grand Valley State University in the computer science program, recently finished his job search. Like most college students, Holm spent a great deal of time during his senior year applying for jobs, preparing for interviews, and working effortlessly to start his career. Due to all his hard work, Jensen has found himself in a unique position: Before even walking the stage at graduation, he acquired his dream job. Holm recently accepted a position as a junior machine learning engineer with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Holm’s journey to Saint Louis started outside of Cincinnati. He grew up near the city before moving to Michigan when his dad took a new job. While growing up, he was a Cincinnati Reds fan, a divisional opponent and rival of the Cardinals. This is where his love for baseball began.
“I grew up really close to Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and my dad would take me to the games all the time. As a kid, most of my birthday parties with my friends were spent going to a Cincinnati Reds game. I have a lot of positive memories associated with baseball,” he said.
Before realizing he wanted to make a career out of his passion for baseball, Holm came to Grand Valley State University as a track and field athlete.
Jensen Holm stands on the GVSU baseball field proudly wearing his new team’s colors after landing a dream role as a junior machine learning engineer with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Jensen Holm stands on the GVSU baseball field proudly wearing his new team’s colors after landing a dream role as a junior machine learning engineer with the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to study, but, at the time, I knew I wanted to be a college track coach and the cross country team here really appealed to me. So I ended up coming here and I started with the sports management program,” Holm said.
It did not take Jensen long to realize that this area was not what truly interested him. While he loves sports and competed at the collegiate level in track and field, he decided he wanted to seek a career in baseball. Holm enjoyed baseball analytics and decided he wanted to help make the big decisions a baseball team would make.
“I wanted to be involved in the decision-making process of sports,” he said. “I knew that each Major League Baseball team had teams working with analytics, people who were making big decisions with trades and things like that. And so I started going down a rabbit hole and finding out how to get that kind of job.”
This epiphany brought Jensen to switch his major to computer science. In this area, he could get into the nitty-gritty of baseball statistics that help front offices make trades and help teams understand how the game is evolving.
Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals
Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals
“I felt that computer science was more applicable. What I was doing in statistics was building research models and learning the math and algorithms, which is great. I still take that with me into my job right now, but I wanted to learn more about how you would deploy a model and, ultimately, I just thought I would love it,” he said.
Holm was learning Python in his free time to help him in his internships as a statistics major, so the switch to computer science was smooth. Learning skills outside of class time is something Holm values, as it made him stand out when he applied for jobs. He learned this from another GVSU student, Lucas Smielewski, who Jensen met one day on campus. Lucas was also interested in baseball analytics and had landed a job with the Milwaukee Brewers. Lucas was always working on projects outside of class and Jensen noticed he needed to continue building up his portfolio with baseball projects.
Holm created a machine learning model that worked to quantify pitch tunneling, an in-depth pitching concept that players use to make different pitches appear similar to others. During the interview process with the Cardinals, he said the team asked him questions about the project and pointed out how they use a similar way of thinking when approaching baseball statistics.
Holm said his time in the College of Computing helped prepare him to chase his dream job. One of the biggest areas that helped him was the college’s focus on career development and preparation, especially CIS 290, professional responsibilities and practices.
“The class was really helpful,” he said. “I was able to test some stories I had that I hadn’t gotten to use in an interview yet and see how they work. Getting to practice that with a real employer was huge because they gave me instant feedback.”
Holm’s journey from Grand Valley to St. Louis highlights the hard work he had to put in to get to where he wants to be. While he changed majors multiple times and even the sport he wanted to work in, Jensen is ready to begin what will be a long and exhilarating career in a field he is passionate about.