Effectively Wild Episode 1481: Multisport Sabermetrics Exchange (NASCAR and Cycling)
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2020
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the sixth installment of a special, seven-episode series on the past, present, and future of advanced analysis in non-baseball sports, Ben Lindbergh talks to Motorsports Analytics founder and The Athletic writer David Smith about NASCAR and then former Garmin-Sharp and Team Sky analyst Robby Ketchell about cycling (47:48), touching on the origins of sabermetrics-style analysis in each sport, the major challenges, big breakthroughs, and overturned misconceptions, the early adopters, the cutting-edge stats and tech, the level of acceptance within the game, the effects on the spectator experience, the parallels with baseball, and more, plus a postscript on Bucky Dent, Rich Hill, the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, and ESPN Bat Track.
Audio intro: Grateful Dead, "The Race is On"
Audio interstitial: Yo La Tengo, "The Race is on Again"
Audio outro: George Harrison, "Faster"
Link to David Smith’s archive at The Athletic
Link to Motorsports Analytics site
Link to Positive Regression Podcast
Link to David’s 2019 analytical takeaways
Link to David on Erik Jones
Link to David on driver stat darlings
Link to David on crew chief stat darlings
Link to David on metrics that do or don’t matter
Link to article on Andrew Maness and NASCAR
Link to article about Robby and Team Sky
Link to article on Team Sky’s use of data
Link to article on big data in racing
Link to article about technology in racing
Link to article about Chris Froome’s power data
Link to article about technology in racing
Link to article about using power data to detect doping
Link to article about Team Sky and doping
Link to another article about Team Sky and doping
Link to article about Robby and Kipchoge
Link to Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method Wiki
Link to ESPN broadcast featuring Bat Track
Link to story about Bat Track
Link to order The MVP Machine
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Now the race is on and here comes pride of the backstage. |
| 0:05.0 | Parties going to the inside, but tears are holding back. |
| 0:10.1 | Try not to fall. |
| 0:12.6 | My heart's out of the running, too earth's scratch for another safe. |
| 0:17.3 | The race is on and it looks like heartaches, and the winner loses on. |
| 0:23.5 | Hello and welcome to episode 1481 of Effectively Wild a baseball podcast from |
| 0:29.7 | Bandgrass presented by our Patreon supporters. |
| 0:32.5 | I am Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer, this is our first episode of 2020 Happy New Year to |
| 0:36.9 | everyone. |
| 0:37.9 | This is also the penultimate episode of the Multi-Sport Savermetrics Exchange series. |
| 0:42.0 | If you're just joining us now, this is the sixth episode in the series, in which we |
| 0:46.0 | are talking to experts who can provide a primer on the past present and future of advanced |
| 0:50.7 | analysis in their sport. |
| 0:52.2 | We have already covered 10 sports, American football, basketball, hockey, cricket, tennis, golf, |
| 0:57.6 | soccer, rugby, eSports, and volleyball. |
| 1:00.3 | And today we're tackling a couple of racing sports, NASCAR and cycling. |
| 1:04.5 | Different velocities involved, but some of the same principles and team tactics applied |
| 1:08.5 | at both will begin with NASCAR. |
| 1:10.5 | And to talk about that, I am joined by David Smith, who is a NASCAR writer and analyst |
| 1:15.2 | for the athletic. |
| 1:16.7 | He is also the founder and proprietor of Motorsports Analytics, and he is also the co-host of the |
| 1:23.7 | Positive Regression Podcast. |
... |
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