Archive for Effectively Wild: Multisport Sabermetrics Exchange

In the final (for now) installment of a special, seven-episode series on the past, present, and future of advanced analysis in non-baseball sports, Ben Lindbergh talks to sabermetric pioneer Sherri Nichols about her trailblazing work in baseball analysis and then data scientist and sports entrepreneur Tiffany Kelly (41:02) about her experience in the sports analytics field, touching on their contributions to rec.sport.baseball, Retrosheet, and ESPN and the need for greater diversity and representation in the industry (plus a postscript from Ben on Scott Boras and insights and takeaways from the entire Multisport Sabermetrics Exchange series).

Audio intro: Tegan and Sara, "Come On"
Audio interstitial: The Sensations, "Let Me In"
Audio outro: Nas, "Represent"

Link to Ben’s article on Sherri
Link to story on Sherri on the CMU site
Link to story on Sherri in the CMU magazine
Link to Sherri writing about Defensive Average in 1990
Link to rec.sport.baseball archive
Link to story on the Andrew File System
Link to Tiffany on her career in sports analytics
Link to Tiffany on the Sports Analytics Club Program
Link to the SACP’s site
Link to article about Rachel Balkovec
Link to Jalen Rose’s comments about analytics
Link to Jalen Rose’s follow-up comments
Link to ESPN report about the MLB Racial and Gender Report Card
Link to past MLB report cards
Link to MLB Diversity Fellowship Program
Link to Boras prediction
Link to order The MVP Machine

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In the sixth installment of a special, seven-episode series on the past, present, and future of advanced analysis in non-baseball sports, Ben Lindbergh talks to Motorsports Analytics founder and The Athletic writer David Smith about NASCAR and then former Garmin-Sharp and Team Sky analyst Robby Ketchell about cycling (47:48), touching on the origins of sabermetrics-style analysis in each sport, the major challenges, big breakthroughs, and overturned misconceptions, the early adopters, the cutting-edge stats and tech, the level of acceptance within the game, the effects on the spectator experience, the parallels with baseball, and more, plus a postscript on Bucky Dent, Rich Hill, the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, and ESPN Bat Track.

Audio intro: Grateful Dead, "The Race is On"
Audio interstitial: Yo La Tengo, "The Race is on Again"
Audio outro: George Harrison, "Faster"

Link to David Smith’s archive at The Athletic
Link to Motorsports Analytics site
Link to Positive Regression Podcast
Link to David’s 2019 analytical takeaways
Link to David on Erik Jones
Link to David on driver stat darlings
Link to David on crew chief stat darlings
Link to David on metrics that do or don’t matter
Link to article on Andrew Maness and NASCAR
Link to article about Robby and Team Sky
Link to article on Team Sky’s use of data
Link to article on big data in racing
Link to article about technology in racing
Link to article about Chris Froome’s power data
Link to article about technology in racing
Link to article about using power data to detect doping
Link to article about Team Sky and doping
Link to another article about Team Sky and doping
Link to article about Robby and Kipchoge
Link to Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method Wiki
Link to ESPN broadcast featuring Bat Track
Link to story about Bat Track
Link to order The MVP Machine

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In the fifth installment of a special, seven-episode series on the past, present, and future of advanced analysis in non-baseball sports, Ben Lindbergh talks to ESports One Head of Esports Data Science Tim Sevenhuysen about esports and then Volleymetrics founder Giuseppe Vinci about volleyball (43:25), touching on the origins of sabermetrics-style analysis in each sport, the major challenges, big breakthroughs, and overturned misconceptions, the early adopters, the cutting-edge stats and tech, the level of acceptance within the game, the effects on the spectator experience, the parallels with baseball, and more.

Audio intro: Wild Fire, "Video Warrior"
Audio interstitial: Of Montreal, "Spike the Senses"
Audio outro: Guided By Voices, "The Rally Boys"

Link to Ben on the Wild West of esports stats
Link to Ben on the Overwatch meta
Link to Ben on the Player Impact Rating in Overwatch
Link to Compete on big data in esports
Link to Vice article on Tim
Link to VentureBeat article on Tim
Link to Blitz Esports article on Tim
Link to Tim on founding Shadow
Link to Oracle’s Elixir
Link to Part 1 of Tim’s LCS 2020 power rankings
Link to Part 2 of Tim’s LCS 2020 power rankings
Link to Ben on the origins of StarCraft
Link to Volleymetrics page at Hudl
Link to SportTechie on volleyball analytics
Link to FiveThirtyEight on volleyball metrics
Link to article about BYU volleyball
Link to order The MVP Machine

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In the fourth installment of a special, seven-episode series on the past, present, and future of advanced analysis in non-baseball sports, Ben Lindbergh talks to StatsBomb managing editor Mike L. Goodman about soccer and then professor and soccer/rugby analyst Dr. Bill Gerrard about rugby (27:20), touching on the origins of sabermetrics-style analysis in each sport, the major challenges, big breakthroughs, and overturned misconceptions, the early adopters, the cutting-edge stats and tech, the level of acceptance within the game, the effects on the spectator experience, the parallels with baseball, and more.

Audio intro: Slade, "Give Us a Goal"
Audio interstitial: Jim White, "Counting Numbers in the Air"
Audio outro: The Temptations, "Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World is Today)"

Link to StatsBomb
Link to The Double Pivot Podcast
Link to The Double Pivot’s Patreon page
Link to Mike on the adolescence of soccer stats
Link to Mike on soccer’s left-handed-pitcher problem
Link to Neil Paine on soccer analytics
Link to The Numbers Game
Link to Mike on Expected Goals (Part 1)
Link to Mike on Expected Goals (Part 2)
Link to Deadspin on soccer analytics
Link to article on Alex Cora and Liverpool
Link to Bill Gerrard’s Winning With Analytics site
Link to article on Bill’s work with Saracens
Link to article on Bill’s work with Billy Beane
Link to Bill on how analytics are changing rugby
Link to order The MVP Machine

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In the third installment of a special, seven-episode series on the past, present, and future of advanced analysis in non-baseball sports, Ben Lindbergh talks to Tennis Abstract founder Jeff Sackmann about tennis and then Every Shot Counts author Mark Broadie about golf (39:17), touching on the origins of sabermetrics-style analysis in each sport, the major challenges, big breakthroughs, and overturned misconceptions, the early adopters, the cutting-edge stats and tech, the level of acceptance within the game, the effects on the spectator experience, the parallels with baseball, and more.

Audio intro: Simon Love, "Tennis Fan"
Audio interstitial: Caravan, "Golf Girl"
Audio outro: Cream, "Anyone for Tennis"

Link to Tennis Abstract
Link to Tennis Abstract blog
Link to The Tennis Abstract Podcast
Link to Hidden Game of Tennis
Link to Jeff Sackmann’s Hardball Times archive
Link to 2019 ESPN article on analytics in tennis
Link to FiveThirtyEight on aging in tennis
Link to Part 1 of SportTechie tennis analytics series
Link to Part 2 of SportTechie tennis analytics series
Link to Part 3 of SportTechie tennis analytics series
Link to Every Shot Counts
Link to Mark on Tiger’s consecutive rounds streak
Link to video about Mark at The Athletic
Link to 2018 Golf.com feature on Mark
Link to story on analytics use in the Presidents Cup
Link to Golfweek on golf analytics
Link to SportTechie on Shotlink Plus
Link to article about Strokes Gained and pressure
Link to article about technology and golf scores
Link to SI on the golf driving distance debate
Link to order The MVP Machine

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In the second installment of a special, seven-episode series on the past, present, and future of advanced analysis in non-baseball sports, Ben Lindbergh talks to Evolving-Hockey.com’s Josh and Luke Younggren about hockey and then writer, commentator, and team analyst Jarrod Kimber about cricket (57:13), touching on the origins of sabermetrics-style analysis in each sport, the major challenges, big breakthroughs, and overturned misconceptions, the early adopters, the cutting-edge stats and tech, the level of acceptance within the game, the effects on the spectator experience, the parallels with baseball, and more.

Audio intro: Neil Young, "When Worlds Collide"
Audio interstitial: Guided By Voices, "Your Cricket is Rather Unique"
Audio outro: Jethro Tull, "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day"

Link to Evolving-Hockey
Link to Evolving-Hockey’s Patreon page
Link to the Younggrens’ NHL WAR model
Link to Stat Shot
Link to Grantland article on hockey’s “Summer of Analytics”
Link to FiveThirtyEight on the costs of hockey’s analytics boom
Link to FiveThirtyEight on pulling the goalie
Link to article on the NHL’s faulty shot-location data
Link to article on a fix for the NHL’s faulty shot-location data
Link to Jarrod on cricket fielding metrics
Link to Jarrod on applying data to cricket
Link to Jarrod on T20 team scoring
Link to Jarrod on right-left pairs in cricket
Link to “Smash Factor” explainer
Link to article about “Smash Factor” use on Boxing Day
Link to Baseball Prospectus on “Hot Spot” in the 2011 World Series
Link to video of “Hot Spot” on a 2011 World Series broadcast
Link to order The MVP Machine

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In the first installment of a special, seven-episode series on the past, present, and future of advanced analysis in non-baseball sports, Ben Lindbergh talks to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell about football (the American kind) and then ESPN’s Kevin Pelton about basketball (48:43), touching on the origins of sabermetrics-style analysis in each sport, the major challenges, big breakthroughs, and overturned misconceptions, the early adopters, the cutting-edge stats and tech, the level of acceptance within the game, the effects on the spectator experience, the parallels with baseball, and more.

Audio intro: Superchunk, "Winter Games"
Audio interstitial: Ben Kweller, "Different But the Same"
Audio outro: Pernice Brothers, "How Can I Compare"

Link to The Hidden Game of Football
Link to FiveThirtyEight on the NFL not passing enough
Link to FiveThirtyEight on NFL teams running too much on first down
Link to Bill Barnwell on teams evaluating quarterbacks
Link to Kevin Clark on fourth-down conversion attempts
Link to Danny Heifetz on the origins of the NFL analytics movement
Link to Clark on the NFL’s analytics revolution
Link to Clark on bringing science to the NFL draft
Link to Football Outsiders site
Link to Kevin Pelton’s bio/archive
Link to PER Wikipedia page
Link to Pablo Torre and Tom Haberstroh on NBA biometrics
Link to Zach Kram on the NBA’s 3-point boom
Link to Haberstroh on load management
Link to Paolo Uggetti on Kawhi Leonard’s load management
Link to FiveThirtyEight RAPTOR projections
Link to order The MVP Machine

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