John Sears, a special advisor to the Los Angeles Dodgers, joins the show for a wide ranging conversation. John has a graduate degree from Stanford and has also worked for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Highlights include: His first experience with applied math (7:48). Working at the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis (12:32). The decision to go to grad school (19:00). The latest baseball data sets that John and the Dodgers are hiring quants to work on (26:09). The 2015 NBA draft with Philadelphia (33:48). Working with the Minnesota Timberwolves and match up problems (45:18). How to break into sports analytics (52:09).
The story about the 2015 NBA draft is an incredible lesson in data driven predictions, and I highly recommend starting at 33:48 and listening to the next seven minutes.
The Football Analytics Show is presented by The Power Rank, a site devoted to predictive analytics for football betting. To get the free sports betting newsletter, click here:
https://thepowerrank.com/
Support the podcast:
https://www.patreon.com/footballanalytics
Interceptions play a critical role in football. However, randomness plays a big role, which makes these critical plays difficult to predict. This episode describes my research into how to predict interceptions. The narrative starts in football but then ventures into some ideas about skill vs luck from Michael Maubossian's book The Success Equation. Interceptions are also compared with three pointers in basketball.
Kevin Cole, football analytics expert and founder of Unexpected Points, joins the show for a wide ranging conversation. Highlights include: Are NFL teams getting smarter at drafting players? (3:00). Why it's harder to build a team (11:32). Houston and trading up for the 3rd pick (13:56). Arizona, trading down and trading back up (18:50). Why Philadelphia traded up one pick (22:00). Philadelphia and consensus big boards vs actual draft position (26:25). The problem with Jalen Carter, and it's not the legal issues (32:16). The teams with the best grades by Kevin's objective methods (34:55). How Kevin rates this QB class (38:17). A Will Levis comp (40:45). The teams with the worst draft grades (43:43). Detroit, their surprising draft grade and the NFC North market (48:55). How much does the draft matter in predicting the 2023 season? (57:25).
The Football Analytics Show is presented by The Power Rank, a site devoted to predictive analytics for football betting. To get the free sports betting newsletter, click here:
https://thepowerrank.com/
Support the podcast:
https://www.patreon.com/footballanalytics