📝 The Week That Was (October 14-18, 2024)

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

Oct 20, 2024

In this space on ~~Saturdays~~ Sunday (this week), 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.

🏀 2024-25 NBA Forecast - This was a bit of a soft launch, but I rebooted the same NBA forecast system I used last season, which combines separate rolling power ratings for the regular season and playoffs with implied probabilities from the Vegas odds to create predictions for the season.
🏁 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Odds: Larson and the Lot - Updating my NASCAR playoff forecast (which simulates the rest of the season 10,000 times), I dug into the odds for the Round of 8 and looked at which drivers are under the most pressure — and when.
🏈 Football Bytes: The Cowboys Get Mauled by Lions - This week’s NFL column looked at whether Dallas’ loss to Detroit was the worst loss in franchise history, and examined which historical rookie QBs improved in-season at the same rate as Caleb Williams.
⚾ Baseball Bytes: Bronx Bombshell - With the Yankees closing in on the World Series at the time, I compared their playoff performance to previous pinstriped Fall Classic entries since the ‘90s. Then I pulled out an interesting AL-versus-NL stat that will be pertinent next week.
🏀 Pod of Fame: Deron Williams - I joined my friend
Jim Miloch
to chat about the Springfield bona fides of the former Jazz and Nets (and Mavs and Cavs) point guard, who was once on the same level as Chris Paul in the eyes of NBA fans.
⚾ Baseball Bytes: What I’ve Got My Eye On in the League Championship Series - My LCS preview broke down the matchups in each league, in addition to looking at the championship archetypes of the remaining teams. And I personally really thought this MLB “Final Four” logo was cool.