benes Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Chart: Relief Pitchers Earning The Most Postseason Decisions In 50 Years
This chart from yesterday by High Heat Stats MLB shows decisions are being earned by relievers in these playoffs at the highest rate since 1964. Since the playoff sample pool has grown over time (championship series started in 1969, division series started in 1995, and wild card started in 2012), th...
Chart: 145 Years Of College Football Championships By Conference
Here's a chart from 614 analytics that displays college football national championships grouped by conference over the last century and a half. Look at all those Ivy titles! ...
Chart: MLB Strike Zone Keeps Expanding
This chart from Jon Roegele of The Hardball Times shows the MLB strike zone for right-handed hitters has expanded 46 square inches since 2009. And this season had the largest single-year increase of the PITCHf/x era as the zone grew 16 square inches expanding from 459 square inches to 475....
Mike Nugent's Missed Field Goal Was The Costliest Play Of Week 6
On the last play of a tied overtime game Mike Nugent missed a chip-shot field goal, which would have won the game for the Bengals. The miss led to the first tie in the NFL this season and was the most detrimental play of the week. According to data from Brian Burke of Advanced Football Analytics...
Chart: Where Pro Athletes Are Born In America
Ben Blatt put together this chart for Slate that shows where current pro athletes were born in America. NHL players tend to come from the Northeast and NFL players are concentrated in the South; New York produces a higher proportion of NBA than NFL players, and California is a hotbed for baseball ta...
It's Almost Been 25 Years Since Browns Beat Steelers As Favorites
The Browns are favorites against the Steelers Sunday, which is only the second time Cleveland has been favorited in the 26 contests between the two teams since divisional realignment in 2002. If the Browns win, it'll be the first time in 42 games that the Browns were both the favorites and won the g...
Changing Conferences Doesn't Affect College Football Success
Whenever teams join a new conference, commentators debate whether their "styles of play" can succeed in their new conference. This has become a clichéd debate this past decade as a plethora of universities have ditched their old ties to pursue new conferences, in search of as much television revenue...
Eagles Songs To Grow Limp To, Ranked
Last week I laid out my favorite Prince songs to fuck to. As seen below, this caught some Deadspin staffers by surprise. Probably because I generally write data stories here....
MLB Managers Are Playing Less Small Ball Than Ever
It's well documented we're in an era of dominant pitching, with declines in home runs and batting averages coinciding with the highest strikeout rates in MLB history. But there are also other, less prominent stats gravitating toward record rates that have slipped by most fans. ...
Matt Forte's Fumble Was The Most Damaging Play Of Week 5
With under fives minutes to play in a tie game, Chicago possessed the ball with an opportunity to control the clock and take the lead. But Matt Forte fumbled in what was the most detrimental play of the week. According to data from Brian Burke of Advanced Football Analytics the fumble lowered th...
What's More Improbable: An 18-Inning Playoff Game Or A 13-Inch Penis?
The Giants-Nationals 18-inning game Saturday was the longest in MLB postseason history. But that still doesn't give a proper picture of how statistically unlikely this is. So let's talk dicks. ...
Chart: Which NCAA Football Teams Outplay Their Recruit Rankings?
When college football teams fail to meet expectations, fans tend to turn to an old stand-by: Our coach is an all right recruiter, but he just can't coach. This is the narrative behind, for example, Will Muschamp's downturn at Florida. On the other hand, coaches who significantly exceed expectati...
Prince Songs To Fuck To, Ranked
Prince released two new records this week. And since Art Official Age and PlectrumElectrum (as with all releases from the world's most seductive singer) are loaded with sexiness, it's an appropriate time to attempt to quantify his past sexiness. Let's do this....
Chart: Royals-A's Was Awesome; Giants-Pirates Was Shit
Everyone knows the AL wild-card game between Oakland and Kansas City was much more exciting than San Francisco's blowout win over Pittsburgh in the NL game. Fangraphs' Jeff Sullivan has provided all of us with a stark visual representation of that fact by charting the win-expectancy fluctuations fro...
Blowouts Have Gotten Worse In Non-Conference NCAA Football Games
If you thought early-season college football games have gotten more boring over the years, you might be onto something. Analysis from the Wall Street Journal shows blowouts have become more common for ranked college football teams in non-conference games....