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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Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller, and Meg Rowley banter about Kohl Stewart signing with the Orioles, another convoluted Scott Boras quote, and a few of the things Sam learned in 2019 (including Candlestick Park’s “Cardiac Hill,” the sound of Hideki Matsui’s swing, and the disturbing story of “Toothpick” Sam Jones), then discuss what the most defining/enduring baseball memory of 2019 will be.

Audio intro: The Proper Ornaments, "Memories"
Audio outro: Uncle Tupelo, "That Year"

Link to Sam on what he learned in 2019
Link to Death at the Ballpark book
Link to SABR bio for Sam Jones
Link to Sam on the defining baseball memory of 2019
Link to Sam on the defining baseball memories of previous years
Link to Zach Kram on the baseball as an unreliable narrator
Link to Craig Edwards on MLB’s 2019 competitive balance problem
Link to video of Hal Smith homer
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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Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller, and Meg Rowley discuss the signings of Hyun-Jin Ryu and Dallas Keuchel, the Blue Jays’ historic 2019 rotation, the depleted pitching market, MLB’s rising revenue and the continued strength of spending on free agents, Jake Odorizzi and the qualifying offer, Nick Senzel’s switch to Scott Boras, and Rich Hill’s arrest(!), then conduct the seventh annual Effectively Wild Minor League Free Agent Draft, selecting 10 minor league free agents each and competing to see whose roster will accumulate the most combined MLB playing time in 2020.

Audio intro: Chance The Rapper, "Get a Bag"
Audio outro: Paul Weller, "Bag Man"

Link to list of minor league free agents
Link to Weems duck photo
Link to EW competitions and drafts tracker
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about whether this year’s good free agents have actually gone to an unusual selection of teams and whether they believe in Wade Miley’s supposed pitch-tipping, and then, in the third and final installment of a three-part series, discuss stories that they overlooked about 10 more teams in 2019, touching on the Mariners’ many players (especially Kyle Lewis), the .300-hitting Hanser Alberto, Danny Santana’s resurgence, the joy of Ji-Man Choi, career years for Eduardo Rodriguez and Christian Vázquez, Ian Kennedy as a relief ace and Danny Duffy’s experience with anxiety and depression, Spencer Turnbull’s record and the conversion of Nick Ramirez, Mitch Garver and Luis Arraez, Eloy Jiménez’s vengeance, the Yankees’ home series and CC Sabathia as Yoda, and other players, fun facts, and statistical oddities that deserve longer looks.

Audio intro: Earlimart, "Nothing is True"
Audio outro: The Smiths, "Hand in Glove"

Link to Ben Clemens on free agents
Link to Rosenthal on Miley’s pitch-tipping
Link to Lookout Landing on Lewis
Link to Ben Clemens on the joy of Choi
Link to Duffy story
Link to story on Garver’s makeover
Link to Arraez origin story
Link to story on Arraez plate appearance
Link to story on Sabathi-Yoda
Link to story on Pedro-da
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about Scott Boras’s mystifying goose metaphor and then, in the second installment of a three-part series, discuss stories that they overlooked about 10 more teams in 2019, touching on a Fernando Tatis Jr. fun fact and BABIP extremes, Ian Kinsler cursing, JD Hammer, Scott Kingery, and a Phillie Phanatic dispute, Mitch Keller and another kind of extreme BABIP, the Reds’ first-inning scoring, their double double-header, and Derek Dietrich, Tim Melville, Matt Harvey, Cy Sneed and Cy stats, Mark Canha, Matt Shoemaker, Jordan Luplow and James Karinchak, and other players, fun facts, and statistical oddities that deserve a longer look.

Audio intro: Parliament, "The Goose"
Audio outro: John Lennon, "I Found Out"

Link to Andy’s Boras article
Link to Kinsler cursing video
Link to Kinsler cursing comments
Link to Phanatic story
Link to pitcher BABIP leaderboard
Link to doubleheaders story
Link to Melville story
Link to order The MVP Machine

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