The Week That Was (May 6-10, 2024)

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

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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.

• 🏒 This Looks Like the NHL’s Most Stacked “Elite Eight” Ever - Based on the average Elo rating of the remaining teams in the NHL playoffs, this is the best conference semifinal field since 1980. And with the exception of the Rangers rolling over the Hurricanes, it’s already begun to give us some interesting back-and-forth series in the second round.

• ⚾ Bobby Witt Jr. Is Playing like the New George Brett - The Kansas City Royals haven’t had a truly elite player — at least not one who stuck around for a long time — since George Brett in the 1970s and ‘80s. But that’s changing with the emergence of young shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who has played at an MVP level early this year.

• 🏀 2024 WNBA Elo Power Rankings - Ahead of the WNBA’s 2024 season debut, I released my ratings and season forecast interactive.

• 🏁 What We’ve Learned in the First Third of the 2024 NASCAR Season - A third of the way into the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, I ran through the top storylines, best performers and biggest surprises of the season so far.

• ⚾ The Dodgers Don’t Need to Be This Dominant Yet - To nobody’s surprise, the L.A. Dodgers have used their revamped, Shohei Ohtani-led lineup to crush opponents early this season. But ironically, the team dominating MLB the most in May knows how little it all means if they come up short again in October.

• 🏒 Are the Vancouver Canucks Underrated? - Going into Round 2, I dug into why the Canucks’ Stanley Cup chances were surprisingly low, and whether they were being overlooked by the odds and models. (This was before Vancouver stunned the Oilers with that Game 1 comeback.)

• 🏀 Ranking the 20 most valuable players of NBA playoffs' first round ($) - Using a combination of Estimated RAPTOR, BPM, Win Shares and PER, I ranked the Top 20 players of Round 1. Some entries are what you would expect; others are more surprising!

Some interesting things I read/watched this week

• 🏒 When it comes to NHL coaching turnover you need to follow the money by

  Sean Shapiro

• 🏀 Kevin Durant has bad vibes by

  Nate Silver

• 🏀 Ranking the W 2024: The best of the best, from 5 to 1 by

  Richard Cohen

• 🏀 Caitlin Clark might make Team USA — but don’t count out her competition by

  Ben Wylie

• ⚾ Shohei Ohtani Could Become First Player Ever to Win MVP as a Designated Hitter by

  Molly Knight

• 🏀 Exits: Impulse control by

  Henry Abbott

• ⚾ What Will a Hall of Fame Pitcher Look Like in 20 Years? by

  Joe Posnanski

• 🏒 What went wrong for the Maple Leafs? by NHL Network

• 🏀 Is TNT About to Lose the NBA? by

  Michael Hendricks

• ⚾ The science of umpiring by

  Zach Schonbrun

• 🏈 Jared Goff may smash the QB market (Yes, really) by

  Tyler Dunne

• 💰 When You Destroy the Tools of Creativity by

  kyla scanlon

• 🎵 Which Music Stands the Test of Time, and Which Does Not? A Statistical Analysis by

  Daniel Parris

• ⚾ Why Triples Are The Best ... And Why They're Dying Out by

  Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter

• 🏒 BRENDAN SHANAHAN / His once-promising presidency of the league's Tiffany franchise is now on the brink. Recalling a moment ten years ago that foreshadows today's exit presser. by

  Gare Joyce

• ⚾ Expos-Braves: May 6, 1994 by

  Joe Posnanski

• ⚾ ¡Viva Baseball! by

  Sean Beney

• 🏈 The Georgia Tech Team That Could Actually Beat UGA (& Win the ACC) by

  VolumePigs

• 🏈 Ravens All-Time Top 5 QBs: Hometown Heroes & Workout Wonders by

  Mike Tanier

• 🎮 Retro spotlight: Dead Rising by

  Marc Normandin

Chart of the week

Ahead of Saturday’s MLB debut for Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, I wanted to look at where he ranks among the most hyped pitching prospects from throughout history. Here’s a plot of Fielding Independent Pitching against relative age (versus the minor-league competition) for every No. 1 pick starter in MLB draft history, with a minimum of 10 appearances in the minors, before they made their MLB debut:

With a ridiculously low FIP of 1.13 in the minors, Skenes has been even more dominant than Stephen Strasburg was (1.74) before he got to the major leagues. Now, Strasburg did it while facing older competition — but either way, it’s clear that Skenes and Strasburg stand alone atop of the list of top-pick pitching prospects in this regard. If Skenes’ debut is anything like Strasburg’s, watch out! Which brings us to…

Old YouTube game(s) of the week

Pittsburgh Pirates vs Washington Nationals, June 8, 2010

Music to play us out

“Twisted Reality” - Gitaroo Man OST

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Filed under: Weekly Round-up

1. I’m at neil[dot]paine[at]gmail[dot]com.