Monthly Archives: October 2009

The Swing Game

Posted on October 31, 2009 by David Roher

By David Roher Update: An astute commenter below pointed out a key mathematical error that I made. The corrected values on the table are in italics. It seems that every game in a short series gets classified as either a … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

NFL Running Back Strategies

Posted on October 30, 2009 by jakefisher723

By Jake Fisher Last NFL season, I looked at how single-back rushing systems (one primary running back) compared to multi-back rushing attacks. It turned out that multi-back teams ran the ball slightly better. 

Posted in NFL Football | Tagged | 5 Comments

NFL Competitive Parity

Posted on October 29, 2009 by jakefisher723

By Jake Fisher http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704224004574489773943949070.html People love to talk about competitive parity in sports, most of the time to say that it doesn’t exist. The Wall Street Journal article, linked above, takes a stand that the salary cap/floor structure of the … Continue reading →

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Meeting Notes – October 28

Posted on October 29, 2009 by harvardsportsanalysis

By Jonathan Adler The leadoff question asked HSAC members to proclaim their favorite sports video game. Answers included: Backyard Baseball, Madden 08, Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey, Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball, FIFA Road to the World Cup (which, it was argued, … Continue reading →

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Discussing the Kovash-Levitt Minimax Paper

Posted on October 27, 2009 by dadler3

In addition to our own research, a major part of HSAC is the discussion of other projects in the sports world.  Steven Levitt (of Freakonomics fame) and Kenneth Kovash recently released a working paper on game theory in the NFL … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball, NFL Football, Papers | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Carl Morris’ look at the US Open

Posted on October 21, 2009 by dadler3

During the time we were transferring to this new blog, our faculty advisor, Carl Morris, analyzed Serena Williams’ outburst at last month’s US Open.  Carl Bialik of the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about Prof. Morris’ calculations.  Better late … Continue reading →

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A Clever Rule

Posted on October 13, 2009 by David Roher

By David Roher If you’re like me, you might have spent some time thinking about a peculiar rule in the seedings for the MLB Playoffs: if the #1 seed in a league (the best record among the 3 division winners) … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments