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Having done some work with sports data in the past (with some pretty "viral" results) I know that roughly 75% - 90% of the ideas I started with ended up just no

by hoopism 12y ago

Having done some work with sports data in the past (with some pretty "viral" results) I know that roughly 75% - 90% of the ideas I started with ended up just not being compelling once I looked at the data. When the pressure is to get something out every week (or more frequent) then sometimes you will have to use one of those bad ideas. We tried to come up with something weekly and it took a TON of time (trial and error). We ended up abandoning our little blog after moderate success due to the time demands of getting quality content regularly. It's kinda funny. I have the exact opposite reaction to Grantland. They take a tremendous amount of time and effort on long form pieces but lack any statistical or data compelling pieces. I would rather Grantland do what FiveThirtyEight does (well written quick hit posts) and FivethirtyEight do what Grantland does (well researched long form infrequent posts). It's all backwards.

cwal37 12y ago
Wait, what? No statistical data-compelling pieces? You would have to completely ignore a bunch of articles by Zach Lowe/Kirk Goldsberry (basketball), Bill Barnwell(football), or Rany/Jonah Keri(baseball, I don't follow that as much.) Rany was one of the baseball prospectus guys, and Barnwell ran with football ousiders, both groups that developed a bunch of the advanced stats used in the sports now. It's not always the most advanced stuff, but they certainly bring compelling data to the table (Barnwell in particular), they just don't hit you over the head with it as it tends to be more embedded in the text rather than presented in a graph (except Goldsberry, he's a graphical dude by profession/professorship).
- hoopism 12y ago
  Yeah, you are right. They have done some substantial pieces and may not go as far as I would like, but certainly are beyond where most sports sites would venture. I mostly follow Basketball pretty well. Zach does a great job.

by hoopism 12y ago

cwal37 12y ago

Wait, what? No statistical data-compelling pieces? You would have to completely ignore a bunch of articles by Zach Lowe/Kirk Goldsberry (basketball), Bill Barnwell(football), or Rany/Jonah Keri(baseball, I don't follow that as much.) Rany was one of the baseball prospectus guys, and Barnwell ran with football ousiders, both groups that developed a bunch of the advanced stats used in the sports now. It's not always the most advanced stuff, but they certainly bring compelling data to the table (Barnwell in particular), they just don't hit you over the head with it as it tends to be more embedded in the text rather than presented in a graph (except Goldsberry, he's a graphical dude by profession/professorship).

hoopism 12y ago
Yeah, you are right. They have done some substantial pieces and may not go as far as I would like, but certainly are beyond where most sports sites would venture. I mostly follow Basketball pretty well. Zach does a great job.