The Week That Was (July 13-17, 2026)
A roundup of what I wrote, read, watched, etc. over the past week.
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.
📝 What I did this week
Here are the things I wrote or podcasted about during the previous week, sorted in descending order by quality, popularity and/or current relevance.
📌⚽ 2026 World Cup Odds Tracker 📈 - For one last time, check out this tracker that aggregates the Polymarket World Cup futures for each team, normalizing them to adjust for market fluctuations and ensure the probabilities correctly total 100 percent for the champion.
⚽ Spain Won’t Fall Behind. Argentina Can’t Be Put Away. Something Has to Give. - Sunday’s World Cup Final is a clash of totally different paths to the brink of a title — Spain hasn’t trailed a second in the knockouts, controlling possession and stifling opponents into submission, while Argentina’s chaotic route has seen them require either a late comeback or extra time in all their wins. Something’s gotta give in the Final!
⚾ History says one of these 7 teams should win the World Series - For The Athletic this week, I tinkered with a concept I started last year — taking MLB teams with at least some reasonable chance at winning the World Series, and putting them through a series of statistical tests based on the ingredients that have tended to separate Fall Classic squads from the rest of the pack in years past.
⚾ We Don’t Know What We Want From All-Star Games - After Tuesday’s (admittedly less-than-exciting) MLB All-Star Game, I reflected on how a relatively normal game by 2026 standards could incite similar hatred to the completely abnormal 2024 NBA All-Star Game. What exactly do we want these games to be??
⛳ What a Major-Less Season Would Cost Scottie Scheffler - With Scheffler staring down a 2026 campaign without a major victory, I used the golf aging curve to look at what a goose-egg in that column does to his career expectation.
⚾ Baseball’s All-Stars Live in the Present - Following up on my research from a few years ago, I took a deeper look at what tended to earn a player a spot in the MLB All-Star Game — the first half of this year, last year, or 2 years ago? — and how that’s changed in surprising ways over the decades.
🏁 How Blaney forced his way into the Hamlin-Reddick title fight - For NASCAR, I dug into the fascinating arc of Blaney’s 2026 campaign, from early mistakes by the No. 12 team to a recent run of form that has dominated everyone else’s in the sport.
🏁🎙️ Podracing: Blaney After Dark - In this week’s Podracing, Tyler Lauletta and I recapped Ryan Blaney’s rain-delayed Atlanta win — and how we consumed it in the wee hours of Monday AM — then discussed my piece on how his recent hot streak has forced him into the Tyler Reddick-Denny Hamlin conversation. Finally, we looked ahead to North Wilkesboro’s official return with our betting and one-and-done picks:
⚾ The HR Derby’s Lefties Are Poised to Break The Bank - Ahead of Monday’s Home Run Derby, I looked at how Philadelphia boasted the most lefty-friendly power park in baseball — which almost helped Kyle Schwarber… until it didn’t.
🚨 Special announcement: Tyler was unfortunately among the recent Sports Illustrated layoffs, so he is a free agent if you want somebody to do a great job blogging and writing newsletters for you!!
📊 Chart(s) of the week:
Here were my favorite items of the week from Scoreboard, my daily newsletter for Sherwood News…
⚽ On Spain and Argentina’s very different paths to the World Cup Final…
⚾ On Jordan Walker’s remarkable HR Derby comeback…
⚾ On sports activity during the “deadest week on the calendar”…
🎾 On Jannik Sinner keeping Alexander Zverev from winning a second straight Slam and truly securing his place in the exclusive club that has dominated tennis for 2+ decades.…
Subscribe to Scoreboard by clicking here!
👀 Some interesting things I read/watched this week
A collection of articles (with a heavy focus on my fellow Substackers), videos and other media that I enjoyed and/or found thought-provoking over the past week. I don’t always 100% agree with or endorse what’s linked here… but that’s also sort of the point.
👶 Why athletes are increasingly the kids of former athletes? by Nikola Vuković, CFA
🏈 His Year: Chris Johnson 2009 / Remembering the fastest season the NFL has ever seen. by Robbie Marriage
🏈 QB Rankings and the Brock Purdy Secret Hidden in Plain Sight and Are the NFL Stat Geeks Actually Arrogant? by Ethan Strauss
🏈 VANCE ASTROVIK by VP
🏈 The ‘Best CFB Games of the Century’ Draft, on Hard Mode by Split Zone Duo
⚾ How much have the Nationals' bullpen woes cost them? by Neil Greenberg
⚾ The Braves Have One Postseason Starter. They Need to Find the Rest. by Lindsay Crosby
🏒 7 NHL Teams With the Best Long-Term Cores by Justin Giampietro
🏒 An Addendum to Analyzing Penalties in the Stanley Cup Playoffs by Edward Egros
🏒 As NHL Salaries Skyrocket, Players Becoming More Remote From Fans, Media by Adrian Dater
🏁 Less (Horsepower) is More For NASCAR's Superspeedway Package by Aaron Bearden
🏀 Rookie Roundup: Forwards fighting through adversity by Rebecca Prenevost
🏀 every loss is a reason: chicago drafted a teenager who runs on grievance, then built a roster that will produce it for him all season. by bang!
🏀 What Advanced Analytics Are Actually Saying About Jaylen Brown by Max Moacanin
👀 Where is Formula 1's Viewership? Did Heated Rivalry Boost the NHL’s Viewership? by Entertainment Strategy Guy
🎓 What sports should your athletic department add next? Some advice by Matt Brown
▶️ America’s Forgotten Presidential Assassination. by EmpLemon
▶️ Old YouTube Game(s) of the Week
Argentina v France | 2022 FIFA World Cup Final
🎵 Music to Play Us Out
FIFTY FIFTY - “Still In Time”
Filed under: Weekly Round-up
Thanks for sharing my writing, Neil!
Thanks Neil!