📝 The Week That Was (Oct. 28-Nov. 1, 2024)

A roundup of what I wrote, read, watched, etc. over the past week.

Nov 02, 2024

In this space on Saturdays, I do a weekly round-up of sorts: Sifting through what I wrote that you might have missed during the week, what I’ve been reading and watching myself, and some other fun things that have been going on. Let me know what you think about the format in the comments (or email me!1), and if there are running sections you’d like to see on a regular basis.

What I did this week

Stealing a bit from Will Leitch’s newsletter format, here are the things I wrote or podcasted about during the previous week, sorted in descending order by quality, popularity and/or current relevance.

⚾ The Modern L.A. Dodgers Are Officially No Longer Playoff Underachievers - Long known for their postseason disappointments, the Dodgers found statistical redemption with this week’s championship — after more than a decade of running below their expected titles (based on regular-season performance), the 2024 World Series actually put them at a surplus since their playoff appearance streak began in 2013.
🏀 Which NBA team is next in line to win its first title? - A fun exercise I did at ESPN: For all 10 NBA teams who haven’t yet won a championship, I created a model to predict which was most likely to be the next first-time winner, based on factors like their current odds, roster age and the quality/age of their best player.
⚾ Baseball Bytes: All Hail The Dodgers - My final Baseball Bytes column of the 2024 season focused on L.A.’s championship run, the Yankees’ improbable collapse and the excellence of Freddie Freeman en route to winning MVP honors.
🏁 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Odds: Reddick Clutch; Larson On The Brink - I re-ran my NASCAR playoff forecast model heading into the elimination race for the Round of 8 — and as usual, broke down the most interesting tidbits to come out of the results.
🏁 Why a midseason miscue looms large for Denny Hamlin’s current championship hopes - At NASCAR.com, I looked at how much closer to his first-ever championship Denny Hamlin would be if the No. 11 team wasn’t assessed a huge penalty in the middle of the season for incorrectly handling a race-winning engine before it was inspected.
🧊 Hockey Bytes: Another Winnipeg Mirage? - One column ends, another begins… My FIRST Hockey Bytes column of 2024-25 looked at whether the Winnipeg Jets are repeating their history of hot season starts (and cold finishes), plus a look at the non-playoff teams from last season most likely to get in now.
⚾ Baseball Bytes: The Yankees’ Path Back - Back when the Yankees were merely down 0-2 in the World Series, I broke down the factors that needed to change in order for them to mount a comeback. (What’s funny is that they actually did change some of those things, but it wasn’t enough to matter in the face of the inexcusable blunders they committed throughout the series, and especially in Game 5.)