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Carlos Peña: AI and Technology from a Player's Perspective
Carlos Peña
All-Star MLB First Baseman, AI and Sports Optimization Leader
- 14-Year MLB Veteran and All-Star who hit 286 career home runs, won the AL Home Run Title, and earned accolades including the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards
- Leverages AI for optimization industry-wide, combining firsthand MLB experience with advanced analytics to revolutionize performance and strategy
- 4-time Emmy Award-winning sports analyst and producer, whose charismatic presence and motivational speaking inspire audiences to embrace a winning mindset
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PLÁKATA!—a phrase that has come to define Carlos Peña’s relentless drive for excellence both on and off the field. Meaning the explosive sound of a perfectly hit ball, PLÁKATA! represents Peña’s philosophy of continuous improvement. Over his 14-year Major League Baseball career, Peña earned All-Star status, hit 286 home runs, including Rays franchise single season record 46 in 2007, led the AL in 2009 with 39, and won the Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, and AL Comeback Player of the Year awards. From his early days in the Dominican Republic to his induction into Northeastern University’s Hall of Fame, Peña’s journey has always embodied resilience and determination— achieving what once seemed impossible.
After retiring in 2014, Peña’s passion for the game led him to seek answers to a question that kickstarted his new AI-driven pursuit: why did he struggle with elevated fastballs? Turning to AI, Peña used tools to analyze his swing mechanics and uncover hidden inefficiencies. This experience sparked his fascination with the intersection of sports and technology. Now a student of AI and sports analytics at NYU, Peña is a leader in using data to optimize athletic performance and strategy, blending firsthand knowledge of the game with cutting-edge innovation.
As a four-time Emmy Award-winning analyst for MLB Network, Marquee Sports Network, and Bally Sports, Peña has mastered the art of communication. His easy, engaging style makes him a natural on stage, where he inspires audiences with stories of perseverance, the transformative power of technology, and the importance of a growth mindset. Peña’s unique ability to connect with others—whether through technical insights or motivational anecdotes—makes his talks both educational and uplifting. Peña shares his journey and vision with audiences, inspiring them to embrace change and strive for their own PLÁKATA! moments.
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Hitting Plakatas with Vlad Jr.
Optimizing Peak Performance: Science of Working Smarter. MLB All-Star Carlos Peña reveals how individuals, teams, and organizations can combine neuroscience, AI, and modern analytics to unlock peak performance. Drawing on his own remarkable journey and real-world case studies, Carlos explains the critical difference between being busy and being optimized—where misplaced effort can stall progress and efficiency drives results. Through practical strategies, Carlos shares how to:
- Focus on What Matters: Identify and prioritize the 20% of effort that delivers 80% of results.
- Master Flow and Timing: Align actions with precision and rhythm to maximize performance.
- Apply Technology Effectively: Leverage Al and data as tools to attain actionable understanding to achieve success.
Whether in sports or business, Carlos' insights will inspire you to stop spinning your wheels, align strategy with purpose, and achieve extraordinary results with smarter, more efficient effort.
The Future of Strategy: Merging Real-Time Analytics, AI, and Human Strategy. Using examples from his own 14-year MLB career and how current major sports teams leverage technology to improve, Carlos Peña explores how teams can transform strategy through AI-powered analytics and real-time insights while finding gaps in historical data. He draws on his unique background in computer science, Al, and experiential knowledge as an elite athlete to reveal how the most successful teams and leaders combine data-driven strategies with human intuition to drive winning results.
The Magic and the Method: How Dreams Become Reality. What does it take to turn a dream into reality? For Carlos Peña, it’s about believing in the impossible while taking the necessary steps to make it happen. Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Carlos didn’t just dream of being a Major League Baseball star—he saw it, he felt it, and he worked relentlessly to make it real. In this compelling and personal talk, Carlos breaks down the two forces that create extraordinary success: the “magic”—that intangible spark of vision, belief, and possibility—and the “method”—the focused, disciplined action that brings those dreams to life. Carlos' story is proof that dreams are not just fantasy, but rather a glimpse of what's possible when magic and method work together.
Infinite Potential: A Boy’s Journey Toward the Impossible. 4-time-Emmy-award winner and MLB veteran Carlos Peña shares his remarkable journey from his modest beginnings in the Dominican Republic to MLB All-Star and overall success. Starting with his love for baseball and books as a young boy and then his family's daring migration to the United States at age 14, Carlos reveals how faith, resilience, tenacity, discipline, courage, and a playful imagination became the pillars of his success. Through personal stories and research-backed strategies, he demonstrates how these virtues helped him overcome challenges and achieve his vision. Learn how his approach to goal-setting, continuous growth, and life-long optimization apply to any field or endeavor. Carlos' passionate delivery of his "impossible" American Dream story, combined with practical life strategies and mindset techniques, provides a powerful blueprint for unlocking human potential.
