Expected Value

Steve Fenn is a data visualization architect who specializes in Tableau. In our conversation, he’ll talk about…

- The importance and usefulness of data visualization
- What Tableau is, how it’s used to create data viz, and why it’s popular
- Principles of good data viz
- Common mistakes he sees
- Good visualizations he’s created and mistakes he’s made
- His Tableau Development Academy

Show links
- Steve’s Tableau Development Academy
- Follow Steve on Twitter: @StatHunting
- Steve on LinkedIn
- Steve’s Tableau page
- Jimi Hendrix visualization
- Star Wars visualization
- MLS payroll visualization
- Makeover Monday
- Steve on John Burn-Murdoch’s visualization talk at the Sounders Analytics Conference
- Follow TruMedia on Twitter: @TruMediaSports

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Cynthia Frelund is a data scientist for the NFL Network, where she brings analytical insight to all aspects of the network’s coverage, including this week’s NFL Draft. In this episode, Cynthia talks about…

- Her analytics-based mock draft and how it differs from traditional mocks and big boards
- What prospect jumps out to her from a data perspective
- How she uses predictive analytics during the NFL season
- Dealing with the inevitability of predictions being wrong
- Communicating data and working through resistance to analytics
- Listening to NFL personnel and translating their thoughts into data
- Tools that go into her modeling (including Computer Vision, NGS data and various programming languages)
- Her path through business school and ESPN to her current position
- Advice to women in the field
- Her favorite marathon of the 20+ that she’s run

Show Links
- Follow Cynthia on Twitter: @cfrelund
- Women in Football Draft Special on Twitch
- Mock Draft 2.0
- Analytics-based fits for top QBs
- Cynthia’s NFL.com articles
- Jets.com profile
- Women in Sports Tech profile
- Reddit AMA
- FoxSports.com conversation
- The42.ie interview
- Northwestern’s predictive analytics master’s program
- Follow TruMedia on Twitter: @TruMediaSports

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The third guest in Expected Value’s Champions series is Eric Thibault, associate head coach of the reigning WNBA champion Washington Mystics. He’s been with the Mystics since 2013, and he’s involved in most every aspect of coaching the team. In this conversation, he talks about…

- What he does as an associate head coach
- Using data in advance scouting, player development, draft prep and more
- How available data has changed in the past decade
- Communicating with players and reinforcing positively
- Getting married a week after the WNBA Finals

Show links
- Follow Eric on Twtter: @ET_hoops
- Thibault promoted to associate head coach
- Thibaults keep coaching in the family
- Mystics-Lynx analytics scrimmage in 2015
- Thibault joins Mystics staff

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The second guest in Expected Value’s Champions series is Jonathan Tosches, Manager of Advance Scouting for the reigning World Series champion Washington Nationals. In this episode, we talk about…

- What MLB advance scouts do
- Data he uses and what he produces
- Communicating and building relationships with players and coaches
- Working in the replay room during games
- How he saved the Nationals season
- His career path to the Nationals
- Stories from winning the World Series

Show links
- Tosches sees Strasburg tipping pitches in World Series
- Nationals celebrate at Capitals game

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To kick off Expected Value’s Champions series, our first guest is Ravi Ramineni, director of soccer analytics for the reigning MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders. Ravi talks about…

- His role, which covers on-field strategy, player recruitment & salary cap
- What he does on a matchday
- How his job has evolved in seven years with Seattle
- Descriptive, predictive & prescriptive analytics
- His career path from India to Microsoft to MLS
- Being married to a data analyst for another soccer club
- Winning trophies with Seattle

Show links
- Follow Ravi on Twitter: @analyseFooty
- How Seattle’s use of analytics drives on-field performance
- How technology impacts the Sounders
- Ravi road trips to Vancouver with Emanuel Cecchini
- Sounders find strength in numbers
- From India to Microsoft to MLS

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The Athletic’s Sheil Kapadia mixes journalism and data as well as anyone covering the NFL. At last month’s NFL combine, he talked about…

- His career path to ESPN and The Athletic
- How he started manually tracking data
- Using numbers in journalism
- Evolution of NFL data during his reporting career
- How teams are using analytics better
- Advice for aspiring sports journalists

Show Links
- Twitter: @SheilKapadia
- Sheil on The Athletic
- Top 100 NFL free agents
- How the Ravens gain an advantage with fourth-down aggressiveness
- Video of John Harbaugh talking analytics

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Dmitry Gordeev and Philipp Singer won the NFL’s second Big Data Bowl, which asked competitors the question: When an NFL ball carrier takes a handoff, how many yards should we expect the play to gain? Expected Value spoke with the winners at the NFL Combine, covering topics including…

- How two Europeans with minimal NFL knowledge won the Big Data Bowl
- Keys to developing their model
- What separated their entry from the pack
- What their work suggests about running back skill
- What else interests them in sports analytics

Show links
- Dmitry Gordeev on Twitter: @dott1718
- Philipp Singer on Twitter: @ph_singer
- 2020 NFL Big Data Bowl
- Sports Techie conversation with the winners
- The Athletic’s preview and recap of the competition

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Tom Worville is a newly-minted football (soccer) analytics writer for The Athletic, and he was previously a senior data analyst for the data and analytics company Opta. In this episode, he talks about…

- His Opta Pro Forum presentation on long and short goal kicks
- His career path from Analytics FC to Opta to The Athletic
- Why he’s joining The Athletic and what he’ll do there
- State of analytics in the U.K.
- Communicating through data and visualization
- Being called a geek by Sam Allardyce

Show links
- Follow Tom on Twitter: @Worville
- Tom’s writing on The Athletic
- His Opta Pro Forum presentation in four visuals

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This episode features conversations with four presenters from last week’s Opta Pro Forum, a soccer analytics conference held in London.

- Karun Singh, a software engineer who used tracking data to identify recurring match situations
- David Perdomo Meza, a data scientist at Twenty3 who looked at how different playing styles worked against each other
- Will Gurpinar-Morgan, a Stats Perform data scientist who identified player roles using unsupervised learning
- Vignesh Jayanth, who is working on a master’s in data science and analyzed how to break down a low-block defense

Show links
- Karun Singh: @karun1710
- David Perdomo Meza: @dperdomomeza1, Twenty3
- Will Gürpinar-Morgan: @WillTGM, Stats Perform
- Vignesh Jayanth: @VigneshJayanth1
- Opta Pro: @OptaPro, web site & blog

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Aaron Schatz is the founder and editor-in-chief of Football Outsiders, the first prominent football analytics web site. On this episode, we’ll talk about…

- Why the Chiefs are a 57% Super Bowl favorite, per DVOA
- How the Chiefs and 49ers match up on both sides of the ball
- Origins of Football Outsiders and DVOA
- Where football analytics is going
- How much easier getting into football analytics is now
- How he watches NFL games
- Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers

Show links
- Twitter: @FO_ASchatz, Football Outsiders
- Football Outsiders
- What is DVOA?
- DVOA ratings entering the Super Bowl
- Football Outsiders research findings
- Football Outsiders on ESPN
- Off the Charts football podcast
- Aaron Schatz on Seth Meyers

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