Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about 2019’s non-playoff teams actually being the big buyers this winter, the six-player Rays-Cardinals trade involving Matthew Liberatore and José Martínez, working with friends, and the Mariners not making trades, then answer emails about what constitutes a blockbuster trade, the worst go-for-it trades, and whether it’s better for the fans of a losing World Series team to know that the victorious team illegally stole signs.

Audio intro: Sister Sledge, "Blockbuster Boy"
Audio outro: Tame Impala, "The Less I Know the Better"

Link to latest Ben Clemens research on signings
Link to Craig Edwards on winning and free-agent spending
Link to Ben Clemens breakdown of the Cardinals-Rays trade
Link to Sam’s famous Rays trade tweet
Link to list of disastrous deadline deals
Link to video of Smith’s homer
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about the latest revelations about Red Sox sign-stealing, MLB’s impending punishment of the Astros, and long-term sign-stealing solutions, then answer listener emails about banning executives, the offseason coverage of the Cubs and White Sox and what it means to win the winter, why bench players aren’t displayed in box scores, the merits of MLB’s approach to instituting an automated strike zone, and what makes errors and misplays memorable, plus a Stat Blast about the positional patterns of multi-position players.

Audio intro: Uncle Tupelo, "Steal the Crumbs"
Audio outro: Otis Redding, "Everybody Makes a Mistake"

Link to The Athletic’s report on Red Sox sign-stealing
Link to Verducci on Boston’s sign-stealing
Link to Venezuelan Winter League brawl video
Link to Tropeano strikeout story
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and a slightly light-headed Sam Miller banter about baseball and vomit and 2019 World Series Game 7 losing pitcher Will Harris signing with the Nationals, then attempt to predict what baseball will look like in the 2020s, touching on the most celebrated retirements, how high the strikeout rate will rise, how many games will be played, which tactics will come to the fore, what the most notable trends of the decade may be, whether baseball will get better or worse, and more.

Audio intro: The Verve, "A New Decade"
Audio outro: Koufax, "Going to Happen"

Link to Ben on sick pitchers
Link to Sam’s end of the decade awards
Link to story on Harris’ Game 6 home run allowed
Link to story on Harris’ Game 7 home run allowed
Link to the history of rising strikeout rates
Link to Ben on the mid-plate-appearance pitching change
Link to Ben on trends that could define baseball’s future
Link to ESPN broadcast featuring Bat Track
Link to ESPN Bat Track data
Link to order The MVP Machine

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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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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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