Expected Value

Justin Ray is the Head of Content for 15th Club, and he was previously a Senior Researcher at The Golf Channel and ESPN. Among the topics covered…

- How 15th Club works with golfers and media
- How golf data has evolved over the past 20 years
- What Strokes Gained is and how it can be used
- How players use data on and off the course
- Bryson DeChambeau’s unique approach to the game
- What’s next in golf analytics and how they trickle down to recreational golfers
- How to get started in golf analytics
- How he researches a tournament
- What makes The Masters unique from an analysis standpiont
- His top players to watch at The Masters
- How Barbaro got Justin a job at ESPN

Show links
- Follow @JustinRayGolf on Twitter
- 15th Club
- Justin’s golf writing on 15th Club
- Shotlink
- Strokes Gained explained
- The Increasing Presence of Data Analytics in Golf
- How Bryson DeChambeau is Breaking Golf
- PGA Tour stats page
- Datagolf.com
- Salt Lick BBQ - Driftwood, TX
- Franklin Barbecue - Austin, TX
- Picture of “Bill Self Killed Barbaro” sign
- Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter

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Alok Pattani is a Data Science Developer Advocate for Google Cloud, which partners with sports organizations including Major League Baseball and the NCAA. He is also a consultant for the Dallas Cowboys, and he was previously a founding member of ESPN’s sports analytics department. In this conversation, Alok will talk about…

- What Google Cloud is and what he does for them
- How Google works with MLB and the NCAA
- BigQuery and how he uses it
- How the volume of sports data has changed in recent years
- What he does for the Cowboys
- What NFL teams are doing in the analytics space and how NGS data has changed that
- Advice for students looking to get into sports analytics
- Why he chose sports and ESPN out of college
- Developing and communicating metrics at ESPN
- Researching LeBron James’ The Decision show at ESPN
- How he combines his love for data with his love for ice cream

Show links
- Follow Alok on Twitter: @AlokPattani
- MLB Film Room powered by Google Cloud
- Alok’s white paper on schedule-adjusted metrics in NCAA basketball (page 92)
- Using BigQuery to simulate March Madness
- Explaining ESPN’s Total QBR
- 2011 notes on the Mavericks and Dan Crawford
- Paul Carr’s Google presentation on effectively communicating data
- Wentworth Homemade Ice Cream
- Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter

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Keith Goldner is the Vice President of Data Science at FanDuel, where he oversees the company’s sports modeling and innovation. He’s also the Chief Analyst for numberFire, the sports projection company he helped start straight out of college about a decade ago. In this episode, Keith talks about…

- What he does for FanDuel and numberFire
- Working with NBA teams, both now and a decade ago
- The most important thing in communicating data
- How to break into the sports analytics field
- What he looks for when hiring employees
- Three main avenues for sports analytics jobs
- Majoring in math at Northwestern
- Value of internships
- His tough decision to choose a startup over a team job after college
- Differences between backward-looking and forward-looking modeling
- State of field hockey analytics
- Hanging out with Shaq

Show links
- Follow Keith on Twitter: @keithgoldner
- Keith’s web site
- FanDuel and numberFire
- Sloan Sports Analytics Conference panels
- Forbes 30 under 30
- Drive-By Football
- Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter

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Brian Burke has been at the forefront of football analytics over over a decade, since creating AdvancedNFLStats.com in the mid-2000s. He’s now a Senior Analytics Specialist at ESPN, where he and the analytics team recently unveiled new metrics for Run Block Win Rate and Run Stop Win Rate. In this episode, Brian will discuss…

- Previous metrics he’s developed at ESPN
- The process of building the models for Run Block Win Rate and Run Stop Win Rate
- Challenges he and the team faced in creating these metrics
- How he knows when to stop tinkering with new metrics and let them loose
- The excitement of releasing new metrics into the wild
- The headline story of the metric: Aaron Donald is average against the run
- What’s next on the analytics horizon
- What a typical NFL Sunday looks like
- His path from being a Navy fighter pilot to the sports analytics world
- A favorite Army-Navy moment
- How he broke a Navy war game. 

Show links
- Follow Brian on Twitter: @bburkeESPN
- Introduction to Run Block Win Rate and Run Stop Win Rate
- Aaron Donald is an average run defender
- Pass Block Win Rate and Pass Rush Win Rate
- ESPN’s Analytics home page
- Brian Burke bio
- Brian joins ESPN
- Advanced Football Analytics
- Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter

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Currently an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards, Dean Oliver is one of the godfathers of basketball analytics. In 2003, he wrote Basketball on Paper, one of the first and best books published in the field. Since then, he’s worked for four NBA teams plus ESPN and TruMedia. In this episode, he talks about…

• What he learned in his first season on the bench with the Wizards

• His role during a game

• Importance of using video with data

• How NBA analytics have changed over two decades

• How basketball analytics is like ice cream

• Where to start if you’re getting to know NBA data

• Importance of telling a story when using numbers

• Working in the media at ESPN

• How Basketball on Paper came to be and how Bill James was involved

• Thoughts on his Four Factors 17 years later

• When he first thought he had a chance to work in basketball

• Memories from his playing days at Cal Tech

Show links

• Follow @DeanO_Lytics on Twitter

• Basketball on Paper

• How the Wizards use Dean Oliver

• Wizards philosophical shift in hiring Dean Oliver

• How Dean Oliver changes the Wizards thinking

• Wizards hire Dean Oliver

• Presentation at 2016 OptaPro Forum

• Dean’s writing archives

• Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter

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Namita Nandakumar is a senior quantitative analyst for the expansion Seattle Kraken, which begin NHL play in the 2021-22 season. Namita came to Seattle from the Philadelphia Eagles, and she talks about…

- The excitement around the Seattle Kraken franchise
- Building a hockey team and an analytics team from scratch
- The state of hockey data in the NHL and beyond
- What she’s looking forward to about player tracking data
- Differences in working in football and hockey analytics
- Differences between doing public analytics and working for a team
- Her public work on drafting perfectly in the NHL and the effect of player size
- Her pitch for using the programming language R
- Advice for aspiring sports analysts
- Getting more women and underrepresented communities into sports analytics

Show Links
- Follow Namita on Twitter: @nnstats
- Profile on NHL.com
- Namita on Hockey Graphs and The Athletic
- Namita’s Twitter thread for people with sports analytics aspirations
- Hockey analytics starter kit
- What Does It Mean to Draft Perfectly: NESSIS poster and slide presentation
- Hockey Graphs mentorship program
- Measurables Office Hours program, Twitter, podcast
- Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter

Listen here or wherever you get podcasts: Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn

Tyler Heaps is U.S. Soccer’s director of sporting analytics, and in this episode he’ll talk about…

- Working with national teams from the senior level through the youth ranks
- How they’re handling work during the pandemic
- Thoughts on what Gregg Berhalter said in the previous episode
- Factoring league quality into analysis
- Dealing with small sample sizes
- Keys to working and communicating with a wide swath of coaches and players
- How he watches a game
- What’s interesting about player-tracking data
- His role in France with the World Cup-winning U.S. women
- Tips for breaking into the sports analytics field
- His favorite stadium in England

Show links
- Follow Tyler on Twitter and LinkedIn
- 2019 NESSIS panel
- Article on his 2019 Opta Pro Soccer presentation
- Augsburg alumni spotlight
- Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter

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Gregg Berhalter has been the head coach of the United States men’s national soccer team since December 2018, following a playing career that spanned 18 years and four countries (Netherlands, England, Germany, U.S.). He then managed Swedish club Hammarby and the Columbus Crew before taking the USMNT job. In this conversation, Berhalter discusses…

- How data crept into his prep process as a player and coach
- How he and his staff use analytics to monitor the player pool
- Using data in game prep and during games
- What happens when data and the eye test conflict
- Keys to communicating data to players
- How he watches a game with data in mind
- One of his favorite games from his playing career
- His godfather, Hall-of-Famer Carl Yastrzemski

Show links
- Gregg Berhalter’s U.S. Soccer bio
- How the USMNT uses fitness data
- Highlights of the 2008 German Cup quarterfinal between Bayern and 1860 Munich
- Berhalter’s godfather is Carl Yastrzemski
- TruMedia on Twitter: @TruMediaSports

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Corrie van Zyl is a Cricket South Africa consultant who previously served as CSA’s general manager and the head coach of the South Africa national team, and he played for South Africa in the early 1990s. He talks about…

- How cricket data has evolved and what tracking data is now available
- How teams use data in player selection, match prep, batting orders, in-game decisions
- Analytics tools like ProVision and Hawkeye
- Strategic differences between test cricket and T20 cricket
- How the game has changed in recent years
- Parallels between cricket and baseball analytics
- Future of cricket analytics

Show links
- Corrie van Zyl on ESPNcricinfo
- Two-minute cricket primer video
- Cricket South Africa
- ProVision analytics platform
- Lord’s Cricket Ground in London
- TruMedia on Twitter: @TruMediaSports

Listen here or wherever you get podcasts: Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn

Ben Mackriell is the Head of Team Performance Product Strategy at Stats Perform, which owns the data-tracking company Opta. In our conversation, Ben discusses…

- What teams are doing with data while leagues are shut down
- How he got into sports analytics
- His first club job with Everton
- Working at Everton, Fulham, Reading, Norwich City & Burnley
- The best advice he received as an analyst
- Keys to communicating data at clubs
- How he works with clubs in his Stats Perform role
- AI, computer vision, and the future of analytics
- The state of analytics in cricket and rugby
- Why he roots for Boston teams
- Joining Fulham right before Clint Dempsey’s famous chip against Juventus

Show links
- Follow Ben on Twitter (@BenMackriell) & LinkedIn
- Stats Perform & OptaPro
- ProVision, the analytical platform from Stats Perform & TruMedia
- How Opta collects data
- Ben’s reflections on the 2020 OptaPro Forum
- British Lions 2017 rugby documentary
- Clint Dempsey’s chip vs Juventus in the 2010 Europa League quarters
- The Test, an Australian cricket documentary series on Amazon Prime
- The MVP Machine, by Ben Lindbergh & Travis Sawchik
- Stats Perform on Twitter: @StatsPerform
- TruMedia on Twitter: @TruMediaSports

Listen here or wherever you get podcasts: Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn