The Week That Was (April 29-May 3, 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.

• ⚾ Mike Trout and the Fragile Pursuit of GOATdom - Early in his career, Mike Trout was (no joke) tracking to possibly be the best position player in baseball history. But after his latest injury, that will probably never happen, giving us a lesson in how quickly GOAT potential can evaporate.

• ⚾ Elly De La Cruz Gave Us a Glimpse Last Season. Now We’re Getting the Full Picture. - Amidst all the excitement and Statcast records from his debut season, the Cincinnati Reds phenom didn’t actually offer much more than average production overall. But this year? De La Cruz is off to an MVP-caliber start.

• 🏒 This Colorado Avalanche Offense Is Historically Scary - After the Avs outscored the Winnipeg Jets 28-15 in Round 1, I looked at where their high-scoring performance against the league’s top defense ranks — and what it might mean.

• ⚾ The Cleveland Guardians Are So Back - In a battle of baseball’s best records last weekend, the Guardians and Atlanta Braves threw it back to 1995 with an exciting series. Is Cleveland ready to stay atop the AL standings?

• ⚾ The Phillies have (finally) started strong. How does that change their season projection? - In 2022 and 2023, Philadelphia went to a World Series and nearly made another one despite starting those two seasons at least 7 games below .500 both years. This year’s Phillies, by contrast, are off to a fast start — which, as I wrote at the Philly Inquirer, means they finally don’t have to spend months digging out of an early hole.

• ⚾ What Do We Make of the 2024 Red Sox? (What Do We EVER Make of the Red Sox?) - For more than a decade (and counting), the Red Sox have been on a completely bizarre up-and-down trajectory, and somehow they are continuing to confound in 2024:

  

Some interesting things I read/watched this week

• ⚾🎧 House of Strauss: Ross Barkan Defends Baseball's Future by

  Ethan Strauss

• 🏀 Feats by

  Katie Heindl

• 🏀 The Hardest Thing to Do in the NBA and 🏈 Return of the Heisman by

  Michael Hendricks

• 🏀 The Changing of the Guard in the NBA by

  Ryan O'Toole

• ⚾ Marcus Stroman is not trying to throw strikes by

  Noah Woodward

• ⚾ Nine of the Ten Starting Pitchers with the Hardest Average Fastball in 2023 are currently on the Injured List With Arm Problems by

  Molly Knight

• 🏀 Caitlin Clark's Not-So-Surprising Childhood by

  David Epstein

• ⛳️ Golf is now hard work for Tiger Woods. Was it always going to end this way? by

  Ben Wylie

• 🏀 There's no such thing as a free point (Pt II) by

  Jared Dubin

• 📻 When Do We Stop Finding New Music? A Statistical Analysis by

  Daniel Parris

• ⚾ Comparing 2024 Projections vs. April Results (Hitters) by

  Jon A

• 🏒 Yes, own goals officially exist in the NHL by

  Sean Shapiro

• 🏈 Its Clustering Time! 2024 NFL Draft QB Edition by

  CFBNumbers

• 🌪️ Two Days in Moore, Oklahoma by EmpLemon

• 🗳️ REFORM! Part 1 by Secret Base

• 🃏 Card Show, Episode 2: Jon Bois Finds a Hologram by Secret Base (Note: Yes, this is extremely old. But this series still cracks me up.)

Chart of the week

Old YouTube game(s) of the week

1986 World Series Game 1 - Red Sox @ Mets

Music to play us out

“11:11 (From Black Yacht Rock Vol.1)” by Pharrell Williams

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Filed under: Weekly Round-up

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