regressing Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
You've Got To Be Superman To Swing Like Jose Abreu
When the Chicago White Sox signed Cuban defector Jose Abreu to a six-year, $68 million deal, the expectation was that he would be worth his money, and the hope was that he would be be the next slugging first baseman/DH in the line of team greats Frank Thomas and Paul Konerko. It turned out to be a p...
"Sports Analytics" Is Bullshit Now
The 9th annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference takes place this weekend, and you've likely noticed all the coinciding and ongoing coverage of the analytical side of sports. Some of these stories are illuminating explanations of what's going on at the vanguard of sports analysis; others bitch, ...
Chart Of James Harden's Defense Looks Just As Bad As You'd Expect
This year's Sloan papers are making their way around this week, and like last year Kirk Goldsberry has a preview of the Harvard entrant on Grantland. This year's is about observing and measuring defense using the NBA's player-movement-tracking system, SportVU. ...
How All The Point Guards Traded At The Deadline Compare To Each Other
Last week's trade deadline was one of the most eventful in years, and the flurry of movement was heightened because the headliners in most of these trades were young, talented point guards. Point guards power and define the modern NBA, and how these guards fit into their new roles will have a lot to...
Seth Davis Promotes His Mom's Hoax Cancer Cures
There have never been more options for those convinced that the medical establishment is hiding secrets from them. Look at the Google ads running down the sidebar of just about any website you visit, and you're almost certain to see ads about "natural" cures—gluten-free diets and alkaline water, s...
Are Outdoor Hockey Games Really Sloppier?
On Saturday the San Jose Sharks will host the Los Angeles Kings at Levi's Stadium in what will be the 15th outdoor regular season game in NHL history. With the number of outdoor games on a steady rise, there's an open and important question of whether or not the quality of play differs between indoo...
Are "Maximalist" Running Shoes The Next Big Con? No One Knows!
Today, The New York Times has a piece out on the maximalist running shoe, a trend now old enough to warrant an article written with characteristically Times-ian remove from rigorous examination of its subject. The thing about these shoes, though, is that even if the Times had wanted to conduct a mor...
Stop Trying To Convince Yourselves Seattle's Pass Call Wasn't Stupid
On Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks made a grievously bad playcall, and Malcolm Butler won the Super Bowl for the Patriots, and millions of football-watching Americans reeled in reflexive disbelief at the sheer boneheadedness on display....
Gronk Is The Best Tight End In Football, And The Patriots' Best Chance
Most historians credit former Michigan and Green Bay star Ron Kramer as the first "real" player at the position. "He was the prototype," Packers quarterback Bart Starr once told me. At a shade over 6-3 and 235-240 pounds, Kramer had nearly the mass of an offensive lineman and was quick enough to get...
How Will The Seahawks' Secondary Deal With Rob Gronkowski?
Richard Sherman might be the most vocal player in Seattle's hard-hitting, receiver-eating secondary known as the Legion of Boom, but he's far from the only key contributor. In fact, depending on his elbow's condition, Sherman might not even play a major part in the Hawks' gameplan. ...
This Year's Super Bowl Teams Really Are The Best In Their Conference
Hey, here's a change. The participants in this year's Super Bowl, through the NFL's single-elimination playoff format, were actually the best in their respective conferences this year. That never happens! Except, uhm, when it happened last year. But otherwise—that almost never happens!...
The Patriots' Super Bowl Success Relies On The Brady-Gronk Connection
Since Randy Moss got the Jazzy Jeff toss from the New England in the middle of the 2010 season, Patriots fans have spent offseason after offseason squawking about the team's need for a deep-threat receiver. Those people are idiots. The current Patriots do not need a deep threat, because Tom Brady su...
Snowblowers Are Coming For The Men
From the Washington Post's Wonkblog, an instructive statistic: ...
Why Those Statistics About The Patriots' Fumbles Are Mostly Junk
Statistics can say whatever you want it to, drolls the dull old axiom. But that tack has always placed the onus more on the numbers than on the ones manipulating them; more correctly, you might say, Statistics can say whatever you want it to when it's used irresponsibly or haphazardly. This is esp...
Ohio State's Loss To Va Tech Was The Worst Ever By A National Champ
It's nearly inconceivable that a national championship team, one that defeated the top two teams in the country with its third-string quarterback, lost earlier in the season to a school that had a losing conference record and barely qualified for a bowl game. But somehow Virginia Tech defeated Ohio ...
Why Ohio State Is A Sneaky-Bad Match-up For Oregon
Oregon looks like a clear favorite over Ohio State in the college football championship game. The markets opened with Oregon as a 7 point favorite, which implies a 70 percent win probability. The predicted margin of victory is even higher with my team rankings based on margin of victory at The Powe...
Introducing: The Shabazz Assist
Two years ago, Grantland's Kirk Goldsberry introduced the Kobe Assist, a new statistic that "proves that missing shots is sometimes just as valuable as making them." Goldsberry's analysis was interesting, but it left out a key component: the dunkpass. You see, Goldsberry examined what percentage o...
What Are The Odds That Duke, Not Kentucky, Is The Last Unbeaten?
A staple of early January college hoops coverage is speculating whether any of the remaining unbeaten teams can finish the regular season without losing. The correct answer is always "probably not", but over time a team like a Wichita State or Saint Joseph's will make you regret your "probably not" ...
Wait, The NCAA Can Pay Players' Parents Now?
The day before yesterday, if a school reached the Final Four or the College Football Playoff and anyone—the NCAA, the CFP, the school, a booster, President Obama, etc.—agreed to pay for a parent of one of the athletes to travel to the game, it was unethical conduct, an extra benefit, and punishabl...
Yes, The Reversed Call In Lions-Cowboys Really Was Rd. 1's Biggest Play
A proper inventory of what did and didn't go in Detroit's favor in Sunday's playoff game against the Cowboys would include, at minimum, the NFL ruling that "first-time offender" Ndamukong Suh was eligible to suit up; a hot start followed by scoring just six points over the final three quarters (fo...