📝 The Week That Was (September 23-27, 2024)

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

Sep 28, 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.

⚾ Which World Series Archetype Fits Your Favorite Playoff Team? - I’m a sucker for using statistical methods like K-means clustering, so I used the MLB playoffs as an excuse to break out that algorithm in R and group World Series winners by type — then apply the typologies to this year’s contenders.
🏁 It’s (Still) Kyle Larson’s Cup Series Championship to Lose - Check out who has the best odds in my NASCAR Cup Series forecast model — now with a better race simulation methodology!
🏈 QB U: When Alabama and Georgia Became Quarterback Factories - In honor of tonight’s UGA-Bama battle, this week’s QB U column was all about the progression of each school into a passing powerhouse. Then, I pay a little tribute to the high-flying QBs of the Gulf coastal plain.
⚾ Baseball Bytes: Shohei Ohtani’s GOAT Game For 50-50 - Did Ohtani seal the first-ever 50 HR/50 SB season last week with literally the greatest single-game performance in MLB history? By one measure, yes.
⚾ Batting by the Numbers: The Evolution of Baseball’s Perfect Lineup - My first story at The Pudding! The wonderful Michelle Pera-McGhee and I looked at how MLB lineup order decisions have changed in the current era of analytics, compared with the 1980s and ‘90s.
🏈 Football Bytes: The Must-Win Games for Faltering Playoff Hopefuls - Because my NFL Elo model spits out a bunch of simulated 2024 seasons, I dug into which upcoming games have the highest leverage on teams’ chances of making the playoffs. Then I also did a fun exercise that reimagines the concept of QB W-L records.
🏀 The Sixers Have Everything Except the Ring — And Pressure to Deliver It Has Never Been Higher - Upon the news of Joel Embiid’s 3-year, $193 million contract extension, I wrote a Philly Inquirer piece about how the Sixers have all the trappings of an elite organization — but without the one thing that's missing, they're at risk of being left behind.
🏁 What do the numbers tell us about Shane Van Gisbergen’s Xfinity Series debut? - For NASCAR.com, I looked at four big statistical takeaways from the rookie full-time season of Van Gisbergen, a speedy Kiwi who has already established himself as maybe the most feared road-course racer in the sport.