Expected Value

Lauren Poe is part of ESPN’s sports analytics team, which is responsible for metrics like Total QBR, Power Indices for Basketball, Football, and Soccer, and Strength of Record for college football. She has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma, spent time as a math teacher, and got her ESPN in the Stats and Analysis department. In this conversation, Lauren talks about… Her career...

This week, we’re doing things a bit differently on Expected Value. Producer Sergio De La Espriella has taken over Expected Value and conducted an interview in Spanish, as a way of expanding accessibility to data and analytics information to the Spanish-speaking public. Our first Spanish-speaking guest is Julio Costa, data scientist for Fulham F.C. in the Premier League. Julio has an unorthodox bac...

Sarah Rudd is one of the early pioneers of modern soccer analytics, being heavily involved in the evolution of soccer analytics over the last 10-15 years. Rudd recently joined Blue Crow Sports Group after spending time with Arsenal in the Premier League. Sarah is half of the “First Family” of soccer analytics, being married to Ravi Ramineni, another top soccer analytics mind who previously worked...

Chris Cleary is fresh off winning a national championship in his 4th season with the Ole Miss program, the 2nd national championship in Ole Miss athletics history. The Rebels were 7-14 in conference play at one point and turned their season around en route to a national championship. Chris joined the Rebels in August of 2018 as the Coordinator of Operations before being promoted to his current rol...

Robin Lund just wrapped up his fourth season with the Iowa Hawkeyes and his third season as the pitching coach. Iowa pitchers finished the season top-five in the country in ERA, K%, and opponents batting average, among other stats. Before he joined the Iowa staff, Robin spent over 15 years as an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology as UNI. In this conversation, Robin talks about… H...

Seth Partnow was formerly the Director of Basketball Research for the Milwaukee Bucks, and he now writes for The Athletic and is the Director of Basketball for the data company StatsBomb. Last November he released a book titled: The Midrange Theory, Basketball’s Evolution in the Age of Analytics. In this conversation, Seth talks about… His book The Midrange Theory, Basketball’s Evolution in the Ag...

Fernando Palomo has worked at ESPN since 2000 as an anchor and soccer play-by-play commentator, both in English and Spanish. Fernando has covered multiple major soccer events including World Cups, Euros, and the UEFA Champions League. He has been one of the more receptive soccer people to using data and advanced stats on TV and frequently uses analytics in his broadcasts. In this conversation, Fer...

Robyn Ritchie, a PhD student at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, is part of the team that won the NFL’s Big Data Bowl this year. This was the fourth annual Big Data Bowl, put on by Mike Lopez and the league’s analytics staff, and the topic this year was special teams, with each team given a set of tracking data and asked to come up with analysis and strategies based on that data. Robyn and he...

Mike Tannenbaum started working in the NFL as an intern with the Saints back in 1994, and he worked his way up with the Browns, Saints and Jets, becoming the Jets general manager in 2006, then the Dolphins executive vice president of football operations in 2015. Mike is now the founder of The 33rd Team, a football think tank and media platform. In this conversation, Mike talks about… The AFC and N...

Chip Hale won a national title as a player with Arizona back in 1986, played seven years in the major leagues, then spent 15 years as a major-league coach and manger. He won a World Series as the Nationals bench coach in 2019, and then took over the Arizona baseball program last summer. In this conversation, Chip talks about… * The evolution of data availability over the course of his playing and...

Jill Reiner and Ella Summer won the college division of this year’s NFL Big Data Bowl, which asked participants to “evaluate defensive performance on passing plays.” In these conversations, Jill and Ella will talk about…. - What they’re studying in school - How they got interested in the Big Data Bowl and decided to join the competition - Their approaches and methodologies in evaluating pass defen...

Robbie Robinson is a Complex Manager and Catching Instructor for the New York Mets. In this conversation, Robbie talks about… - His baseball career path - What he does for the Mets in his current role - The evolution of available data over the past decade - Using data to both know yourself and know others - Keys to communicating data and the importance of relationships - What data helps in evaluat...

Alex Vigderman is a Lead Research Analyst at Sports Info Solutions, and he talks about… - What Sports Info Solutions does - What he does as Lead Research Analyst - Compiling the SIS Football Rookie Handbook and takeaways from its statistical analysis - Analyzing strengths and weaknesses of Florida QB Kyle Trask - The draft prospect that numbers suggest is undervalued - Sports Info Solutions’ Total...

John Tobias is a professor of sports statistics and analytics at UNC-Charlotte, and he also works as a TV statistician for a variety of sports. In this conversation, John talks about… - His unconventional path to working in both TV and the academic world - What a statistician does during a broadcast - How to choose what stats are given to talent - Challenges to live TV - How advanced stats factor...

Mike Petriello is a writer and analyst for MLB.com, host of the Ballpark Dimensions podcast, and analyst on ESPN’s Statcast broadcasts. In this conversation, Mike talks about… - The Rays pulling Blake Snell in the sixth inning of Game 6, and the fallout of that move - How he decides what to write about - His process for diving into the data - His articles on Cody Bellinger’s fielding prowess and t...

Justin Ray is the Head of Content for 15th Club, and he was previously a Senior Researcher at The Golf Channel and ESPN. Among the topics covered… - How 15th Club works with golfers and media - How golf data has evolved over the past 20 years - What Strokes Gained is and how it can be used - How players use data on and off the course - Bryson DeChambeau’s unique approach to the game - What’s next...

Alok Pattani is a Data Science Developer Advocate for Google Cloud, which partners with sports organizations including Major League Baseball and the NCAA. He is also a consultant for the Dallas Cowboys, and he was previously a founding member of ESPN’s sports analytics department. In this conversation, Alok will talk about… - What Google Cloud is and what he does for them - How Google works with M...

Keith Goldner is the Vice President of Data Science at FanDuel, where he oversees the company’s sports modeling and innovation. He’s also the Chief Analyst for numberFire, the sports projection company he helped start straight out of college about a decade ago. In this episode, Keith talks about… - What he does for FanDuel and numberFire - Working with NBA teams, both now and a decade ago - The mo...

Brian Burke has been at the forefront of football analytics over over a decade, since creating AdvancedNFLStats.com in the mid-2000s. He’s now a Senior Analytics Specialist at ESPN, where he and the analytics team recently unveiled new metrics for Run Block Win Rate and Run Stop Win Rate. In this episode, Brian will discuss… - Previous metrics he’s developed at ESPN - The process of building the m...

Currently an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards, Dean Oliver is one of the godfathers of basketball analytics. In 2003, he wrote Basketball on Paper, one of the first and best books published in the field. Since then, he’s worked for four NBA teams plus ESPN and TruMedia. In this episode, he talks about… * What he learned in his first season on the bench with the Wizards * His role during...

Namita Nandakumar is a senior quantitative analyst for the expansion Seattle Kraken, which begin NHL play in the 2021-22 season. Namita came to Seattle from the Philadelphia Eagles, and she’ll talk about… - The excitement around the Seattle Kraken franchise - Building a hockey team and an analytics team from scratch - The state of hockey data in the NHL and beyond - What she’s looking forward to a...

Tyler Heaps is U.S. Soccer’s director of sporting analytics, and in this episode he’ll talk about… - Working with national teams from the senior level through the youth ranks - How they’re handling work during the pandemic - Thoughts on what Gregg Berhalter said in the previous episode - Factoring league quality into analysis - Dealing with small sample sizes - Keys to working and communicating wi...

Gregg Berhalter has been the head coach of the United States men’s national soccer team since December 2018, following a playing career that spanned 18 years and four countries (Netherlands, England, Germany, U.S.). He thenmanaged Swedish club Hammarby and the Columbus Crew before taking the USMNT job. In this conversation, Berhalter discusses… - How data crept into his prep process as a player an...

Corrie van Zyl is a Cricket South Africa consultant who previously served as CSA’s general manager and the head coach of the South Africa national team, and he played for South Africa in the early 1990s. He talks about… - How cricket data has evolved and what tracking data is now available - How teams use data in player selection, match prep, batting orders, in-game decisions - Analytics tools lik...

Ben Mackriell is the Head of Team Performance Product Strategy at Stats Perform, which owns the data-tracking company Opta. In our conversation, Ben discusses… - What teams are doing with data while leagues are shut down - How he got into sports analytics - His first club job with Everton - Working at Everton, Fulham, Reading, Norwich City & Burnley - The best advice he received as an analyst - Ke...