Share
Wharton Moneyball
Wharton Moneyball: Tennis Rankings, Sports Injuries, & Golf Analytics
Ep. 139
•
Episode from 2/27/19
This episode of Wharton Moneyball covers everything from sports injuries to golf coverage and analytics. First our hosts explore the headlines talking tennis rankings and the Raptors vs Celtics game. Then they talk to an established doctor in the realm of sports medicine about training to prevent injury. Plus they get into golf, Tiger Woods, and player stats with a golf writer and editor at Sports Illustrated.
Guests:
Dr. Lyle Cain specializes in arthroscopy and treatment of sports-related injuries, as well as open and arthroscopic treatment of knee, shoulder and elbow injuries. He works at the famed Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Center and is also the Team Physician for the University of Alabama and other universities.
Follow him on Twitter: @drlylecain
Daniel Rapaport is a Golf Writer and Editor at Sports Illustrated. He oversaw the launch of SI.com's golf vertical and is in charge of SI.com's golf content, including shaping tournament coverage plans, editing stories and more.
Follow him on Twitter: @Daniel_Rapaport
More episodes
View all episodes
Measuring Skill, Luck, and Competitive Balance in Sports
01:03:34|Greg Bond, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Americas at Man Group, joins the Wharton Moneyball team to discuss research on skill, luck, competitive depth, and predictive analytics across professional sports leagues, while Cade Massey, Shane Jensen, and Adi Wyner break down the NHL Stanley Cup Final, NBA Finals, NCAA championships, and innovative coaching strategies reshaping modern competition.
How Baseball Analytics Is Reshaping Hall of Fame Conversations
01:00:46|Cade, Eric, Shane, and Adi discuss NHL playoff hockey, expected goals models, statistical limits in measuring player performance, and how sports like hockey, soccer, baseball, and football differ in the way win probability builds and shifts during competition. Jay Jaffe, senior writer for FanGraphs, the author of The Cooperstown Casebook, and the creator of the JAWS (Jaffe WAR Score) metric for Hall of Fame analysis. joins the Moneyball team to break down early MLB season surprises, debate modern Hall of Fame standards for pitchers, explain the JAWS.
Breaking Down NBA Playoff Matchups Through Advanced Analytics
01:03:20|Ben Alamar, Author of Sports Analytics: A Guide for Managers, Coaches, and Other Decision Makers?, joins the Wharton Moneyball crew to analyze Victor Wembanyama’s playoff performances, explain advanced defensive metrics, debate NBA draft evaluation methods, and reflect on championship-building strategies across today’s NBA. The team also explores the “hot hand” phenomenon, debates managerial impact in baseball, analyzes NHL playoff momentum, and examines why unpredictability makes golf and tennis so compelling for sports analytics fans.
How Advanced Analytics Are Changing Professional Hockey
01:02:06|Tyrel Stokes, Senior Manager of Hockey Analytics at Teamworks and a statistician specializing in causal inference, joins the team to break down the Stanley Cup Playoffs, explain how NHL teams use analytics and tracking data for player evaluation and strategy, and explore how emerging technologies like Hawkeye and AI could transform hockey analysis, while the hosts also examine tennis betting odds, MLB home run milestones, and the role of probability across sports.
Balancing Performance and Prediction in Modern Golf Rankings
01:08:08|Mark Broadie, Carson Family Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, joins Wharton Moneyball to discuss how strokes gained transformed golf analytics and ranking systems, while Cade Massey, Eric Bradlow, and Adi Weiner analyze MLB challenge strategies, team overperformance, and new methods for evaluating roster depth in hockey.
Behavioral Biases and Data Models Shape NFL Draft Strategy
01:08:28|Richard Thaler, Nobel Laureate and Professor at the University of Chicago, and Benjamin Robinson, Founder and CEO of Grinding the Mocks, join the Wharton Moneyball team to analyze how cognitive biases, flawed valuation frameworks, and emerging data models shape NFL draft strategies and impact team decision-making.
Understanding Hockey Performance Through Data, Simulation, and Visualization
57:09|Micah McCurdy—mathematician, creator of HockeyViz, and hockey analytics expert—joins Eric Bradlow, Adi Wyner, and Shane Jensen to discuss simulation and player-level modeling, alongside broader analysis of MLB trends, NBA title odds, and notable statistical performances across sports.
From Masters Victory to Motion Data: Golf’s Analytical Evolution
01:02:36|Jeehae Lee, founder and CEO of Sportsbox.ai, joins the Moneyball team to explore Rory McIlroy’s Masters victory while analyzing how advanced motion capture, data analytics, and AI are reshaping player development, performance evaluation, and talent identification in golf.
Blending Analytics and Leadership in Major League Baseball Operations
55:05|Sam Fuld, Vice President and General Manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, joins the Wharton Moneyball team to discuss his transition from MLB player to executive and how analytics, player development, and business strategy drive success. Cade, Eric and Shane also analyze recent the college basketball finals, NHL playoff races, and Masters Tournament storylines.