I didn't think Mitchell actually watches games live - all up on his black box thing innit
Lyall should know this
I'm pretty sure, he does. At the very least after the numbers spit out potential targets to check them out up close.
To take an example from a more numbers based sport, the best handicapper on the NBA (at least publicly known) did an interview some years ago, where he explained that a common misperception had been for the longest while that he was basing picks solely on a numbers-based database and system, when in actual fact he was using actual observation to set up the database as ideally as possible, and then again went back to actual observation to interpret the numbers the system tossed out.
I think, something similar is in play with Mitchell. I love numbers, but they have to be interpreted in close connection with actual observation to make any sense (in sports at least).