Weekly Sports Analytics News Roundup – April 3rd, 2018
March Madness: FiveThirtyEight writes The Only Opponent Villanova Has Left Is History. Fancy Stats says For a hidden key to Final Four success, keep an eye on the shot clock. FiveThirtyEight found Kansas To Be The Only Final Four Team Playing Modern Basketball. Alok Pattani posts an interactive to detemine the “madness” of the NCAA Tournament.
Football: Football Perspective’s Are More Teams Using Highly Drafted Passers? Part I. Football Outsiders’ SackSEER 2018 (ESPN version). Football Perspective looks to answer How Much Would You Pay For A Receiving Yard? Football Outsiders’ QBASE 2018 and Beating the NFL at Drafting QBs. Pro Football Focus on whether PFF data predict QB success at the next level.
Baseball: FanGraphs says It Already Looks Like the Fly Balls Are Here. Tom Tango asks When is an infielder an outfielder? FanGraphs on The Four-Man Outfield and Position-Less Baseball. Dave Fleming’s Which Team Will Surprise in 2018. The Harvard Sports Analysis Collective piece: Time To Get A Catcher: An Analysis Of Wins Above Average By Position In Major League Baseball. The Hardball Times review: “The Shift” Grounds Analytics in the Human, and Vice Versa.
Basketball: Nylon Calculus’ Nylon Calculus Week 24 in Review: LeBron’s defense, 76ers, and Raptors playoff rotation. FiveThirtyEight wonders Does It Matter That The Sixers’ Best Players Have No Playoff Experience?
College Basketball: Nylon Calculus: College basketball historical plus-minus data.
Soccer: American Soccer Analysis on The Elusive Advanced Defensive Metric. The Harvard Sports Analysis Collective looks to answer Do Midtable Premier League Teams Perform Worse At The End Of The Season? American Soccer Analysis examines How Every Goalkeeper Fared in 2017.
Hockey: Hockey Graphs’ Launch of the Tape to Tape Project.
Your moment of R: BaseballWithR’s code is In Search of the Optimal Launch Angle.
Conferences: April 7th is the Carnegie Mellon Baseball Analytics Workshop. SportsPro Live is April 11-12 in London. The Sports Analytics Conference is April 12-13 in State College, PA.