This is a review of the NCAA basketball research conducted by Francisco J. R. Ruiz and Fernando Perez-Cruz, applying Poisson factorization. Predicting probabilities regarding outcomes of sporting events is difficult as it is often not clear which variables actually affect the outcome and what information is known before the event begins. Predicting outcomes for team…
This is a review of the MLB payroll research conducted by Martin Kleinbard applying cross sectional analysis and longitudinal analysis. Over the years, there has been a complaint among stakeholders in the MLB that a payroll inequity creates an uneven playing field among the teams. Is there any validity to this argument? If money plays…
This is a review of the MLB research conducted by Joe Rosales and Scott Spratt applying the Strike Zone Plus/Minus. Every baseball game creates some controversy regarding the calls of strikes and balls. No one ever completely agrees with the umpire and umpires, being human, are not 100% accurate. It seems that some players in…
This is a review of the soccer research conducted by Patrick Lucey, Alina Bialkowski, Mathew Montfort, Peter Carr, and Iain Matthews applying conditional random fields and point-in-polygon calculations. Within any soccer game, the team with the most shots on goal is often not the winner. Why is this? Obviously, not every shot has the same…