Share
Wharton Moneyball
Wharton Moneyball: NFL Draft Picks & The 2019 Kentucky Derby
Show from 5/1/19
In this episode of Wharton Moneyball hosts Adi Wyner and Shane Jensen carry the torch while Cade Massey and Eric Bradlow are away. They start the show with some Game of Thrones character death predictions and NHL playoffs. Then what’s the best way to bet on a horse race? Our hosts talk to returning guest and expert in the space of scouting young horses, Jeff Seder, about the Kentucky Derby. Plus with the NFL draft coming up which players will be top picks? Our hosts explore NFL player stats to figure out which ones teams should be looking at. Tune in!
Guests:
Jeff Seder - The Founder, Owner and President of EQB Inc. and is a longtime friend of the show. He has been in the world of horses for over 40 years and is a leading talent scout buyer for young unraced Thoroughbred racehorses.
Follow him on Twitter: @phugley
More about EQB here: https://www.eqb.com/
Neil Paine - A senior sportswriter for FiveThirtyEight. He previously wrote for ESPN Insider, The New York Times and Sports-Reference.com and consulted for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.
Follow him on Twitter: @Neil_Paine
Read Neil's Articles here: https://fivethirtyeight.com/contributors/neil-paine/
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.