Shows
Learning Bayesian StatisticsBITESIZE | How to Think Causally About Your Models?Get early access to Alex's next live-cohort courses!Today’s clip is from episode 140 of the podcast, with Ron Yurko.Alex and Ron discuss the challenges of model deployment, and the complexities of modeling player contributions in team sports like soccer and football.They emphasize the importance of understanding replacement levels, the Going Deep framework in football analytics, and the need for proper modeling of expected points. Additionally, they share insights on teaching Bayesian modeling to students and the difficulties they face in grasping the concepts of model writing and application....
2025-09-1024 minLearning Bayesian StatisticsBITESIZE | How to Think Causally About Your Models?Get early access to Alex's next live-cohort courses!Today’s clip is from episode 140 of the podcast, with Ron Yurko.Alex and Ron discuss the challenges of model deployment, and the complexities of modeling player contributions in team sports like soccer and football.They emphasize the importance of understanding replacement levels, the Going Deep framework in football analytics, and the need for proper modeling of expected points. Additionally, they share insights on teaching Bayesian modeling to students and the difficulties they face in grasping the concepts of model writing and application....
2025-09-1024 min
Learning Bayesian Statistics#140 NFL Analytics & Teaching Bayesian Stats, with Ron YurkoGet early access to Alex's next live-cohort courses!Proudly sponsored by PyMC Labs, the Bayesian Consultancy. Book a call, or get in touch!Intro to Bayes Course (first 2 lessons free)Advanced Regression Course (first 2 lessons free)Our theme music is « Good Bayesian », by Baba Brinkman (feat MC Lars and Mega Ran). Check out his awesome work!Visit our Patreon page to unlock exclusive Bayesian swag ;)Takeaways:Teaching students to write out their own models is crucial.Developing a sports analytics portfolio is essential for aspiring analysts.Modeling expectations in spor...
2025-09-031h 33Learning Bayesian Statistics#140 NFL Analytics & Teaching Bayesian Stats, with Ron YurkoGet early access to Alex's next live-cohort courses!Proudly sponsored by PyMC Labs, the Bayesian Consultancy. Book a call, or get in touch!Intro to Bayes Course (first 2 lessons free)Advanced Regression Course (first 2 lessons free)Our theme music is « Good Bayesian », by Baba Brinkman (feat MC Lars and Mega Ran). Check out his awesome work!Visit our Patreon page to unlock exclusive Bayesian swag ;)Takeaways:Teaching students to write out their own models is crucial.Developing a sports analytics portfolio is essential for aspiring analysts.Modeling expectations in spor...
2025-09-031h 33
Wharton MoneyballMoneyball Highlights: Golf Analytics & Modeling w/Ron YurkoWharton's Cade Massey, Eric Bradlow, Shane Jensen, and Adi Wyner speak with Ron Yurko, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Stats & Data Science at Carnegie Mellon University, and Director of the Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Center, about Scottie Scheffler's PGA win, golf analytics and modeling, and assessing long-term performance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2025-05-2117 minWharton Moneyball5/21/25: Ron Yurko | NBA & NHL Playoffs | Steelers | Homerun Race | Golf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2025-05-211h 10
4Kids Flashback: an Anime Podcast About the History of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece and MoreSound Judgement With Ron LondonIn this episode, Tara Sands and Steve Yurko interview Ron London. At 4Kids, Ron was the Audio Mixer, Sound Designer and Voice Director for tons of shows including Pokémon, Sonic X, Yugioh, GI-Joe, Kirby, Winx Club, and FZero.He also did Sound Design for 26 episodes of Chaotic and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Here are links to his recent project and the studio we discuss in the episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaK_6SY7ixVRhenprOg-3PowHSAU5dKIE Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theloveofjesusrecordingstudio/?hl=en
2025-02-191h 09
Sport Analytics PodcastSport Analytics Podcast - Episode #9 - Ron Yurko - Professor & Director of Sports Analytics Center - Carnegie Mellon UniversityIn our ninth episode of the Sport Analytics Podcast, our host Amrit Vignesh sits down with Dr. Ron Yurko, an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Statistics & Data Science at Carnegie Mellon University and the Director of the Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Center. Ron’s path spans an internship with the Pittsburgh Pirates, a data science role at Zelus Analytics (now Teamworks), and a PhD at Carnegie Mellon—where he now guides the next wave of analysts, develops open-source tools, and co-organizes the annual CMU Sports Analytics Conference.Ron highlights how his early experience manually tracking on-field data at P...
2025-02-1340 minWharton MoneyballMoneyball Highlights: State of Football Analytics w/Ron YurkoWharton's Cade Massey, Eric Bradlow, and Adi Wyner speak with Ron Yurko, Professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Carnegie Mellon University, about the current state, and future of football analytics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2024-02-2123 min
Open Source SportsA Statistical Model of Serve Return Impact Patterns in Professional Tennis with Stephanie KovalchikIn this episode we talk to Stephanie Kovalchik about her paper 'A Statistical Model of Serve Return Impact Patterns in Professional Tennis' (co-authored with Jim Albert). Stephanie is a Staff Data Scientist at Zelus Analytics, where she works on advanced performance valuation for multiple pro sports. Before joining Zelus, Stephanie led data science innovation for the Game Insight Group of Tennis Australia, building first-of-a-kind metrics and real-time applications with tracking data. Stephanie is the founder of the tennis analytics blog "On the T" and tweets @StatsOnTheT.
For additional references mentioned in the show:
ATP Tour Second S...
2022-08-231h 05
Open Source SportsTrue Shot Charts with Justin Ehrlich and Shane SandersWe discuss True Shot Charts with Syracuse University Professors Justin Ehrlich and Shane Sanders. For references mentioned in the show:
BigDataBall
StatMuse
Positive Residual - True Shooting Charts
2022-06-2358 min
Unexpected PointsRon Yurko on the NFL Tracking Data RevolutionCarnegie Mellon professor and creator of nflscrapR talks with Kevin about the trend in NFL analytics, what he's learned working with tracking data and where analysis goes wrong. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unexpectedpoints.com/subscribe
2022-06-021h 15Open Source SportsAn Examination of Sport Climbing with Quang NguyenWe discuss An Examination of Olympic Sport Climbing Competition Format and Scoring System with Quang Nguyen (@qntkhvn). This paper won the Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Conference Reproducible Research Competition in November 2021.
Quang Nguyen completed his Master of Science in Applied Statistics at Loyola University Chicago in 2021. He recently spent the Spring 2022 semester working as an instructor in the Dept of Mathematics and Statistics at Loyola. Quang previously completed his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Data Science at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. Quang's current interests include statistics in sports, data science, statistics and data science education, and r...
2022-05-1859 minOpen Source SportsGrinding the Mocks with Benjamin RobinsonWe discuss Grinding the Bayes: A Hierarchical Modeling Approach to Predicting the NFL Draft with Benjamin Robinson (@benj_robinson). This paper was a finalist in the Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Conference Reproducible Research Competition in October 2020. You can submit an abstract to enter the 2021 Reproducible Research Competition now!
Benjamin Robinson is a data scientist living in Washington, D.C. and the creator of Grinding the Mocks, where since 2018 he has used mock drafts, the wisdom of crowds, and data science to predict the NFL Draft. He is a 2012 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with degrees in E...
2021-08-241h 05Open Source SportsExpected Hypothetical Completion Probability with Sameer Deshpande and Katherine EvansWe discuss a previous Big Data Bowl finalist paper `Expected Hypothetical Completion Probability` (https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.12337) with authors Sameer Deshpande (@skdeshpande91) and Kathy Evans (@CausalKathy).
Sameer is a postdoctoral associate at MIT. Prior to that, he completed his Ph.D. at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is broadly interested in Bayesian methods and causal inference. He is a long-suffering but unapologetic fan of America's Team. He's also a fan of the Dallas Mavericks.
Kathy is the Director of Strategic Research for the Toronto Raptors. She completed her Ph.D. in B...
2021-01-111h 16Open Source SportsBang the can slowly with Ryan Elmore and Gregory J. MatthewsWe discuss Bang the Can Slowly: An Investigation into the 2017 Houston Astros with Ryan Elmore (@rtelmore) and Gregory J. Matthews (@StatsInTheWild). This paper was the winner of the Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Conference Reproducible Research Competition in October 2020.
Ryan Elmore is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business Information and Analytics in the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver (DU). He earned his Ph.D. in statistics at Penn State University and worked as a Senior Scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory prior to DU. He has over 20 peer reviewed publications in o...
2020-12-121h 16Open Source SportsHow often does the best team win with Michael LopezWe discuss 'How often does the best team win? A unified approach to understanding randomness in North American sport' with Michael Lopez. Michael Lopez (@StatsbyLopez) is the Director of Football Data and Analytics at the National Football League and a Lecturer of Statistics and Research Associate at Skidmore College. At the National Football League, his work centers on how to use data to enhance and better understand the game of football.
For additional references mentioned in the show:
NESSIS 2017 talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obb_wpn4IvE
CMSAC 2017 talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
2020-11-011h 03Open Source SportsPlayer Chemistry in Soccer with Lotte BransenWe discuss 'Player Chemistry: Striving for a Perfectly Balanced Soccer Team' with Lotte Bransen. This paper builds on the VAEP framework previously introduced Lotte and her colleagues, in order to quantify player chemistry. Our discussion covers details of the paper along with general challenges of estimating player chemistry in soccer and other sports, as well as the importance of interpretable machine learning.
Lotte Bransen (@LotteBransen) is a Lead Data Scientist at SciSports, where she leads the Data Analytics team that develops analytical tools to derive actionable insights from soccer data. An avid soccer player herself, Lotte primarily...
2020-09-1335 minOpen Source SportsModels for hockey player ratings with Andrew Thomas and Sam VenturaIn the third episode of the show we discuss 'Competing process hazard function models for player ratings in ice hockey' with two guests, Andrew Thomas and Sam Ventura. The discussion ranges from paper details to thoughts on modeling in hockey and sports in general.
Andrew Thomas (@acthomasca) is the Director of Data Science for SMT (SportsMEDIA Technology), and former lead hockey researcher for the Minnesota Wild. He received his PhD in Statistics at Harvard University.
Sam Ventura is the Director of Hockey Research for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and an affiliated faculty member at Carnegie Mellon's S...
2020-08-101h 14Open Source SportsRao-Blackwellizing FG% with Daniel Daly-GrafsteinIn the second episode we discuss two papers by our guest Daniel Daly-Grafstein and Luke Bornn: Rao-Blackwellizing field goal percentage (published in JQAS and available at: http://www.lukebornn.com/papers/dalygrafstein_jqas_2019.pdf) and Using In-Game Shot Trajectories to Better Understand Defensive Impact in the NBA (available at: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.00822.pdf).
Daniel is currently a soccer data analyst at Sportlogiq, an sports AI company that, in soccer, focuses on generating tracking data using computer vision. The papers discussed in this episode were part of Daniel’s Master's degree in statistics at Simon Fraser University. In...
2020-06-1543 minOpen Source SportsopenWAR with Gregory J. MatthewsIn the first official Open Source Sports podcast episode, we discuss openWAR (available on arXiv https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.7158 and JQAS ) with author Gregory J. Matthews (@StatsInTheWild), Associate Professor of Statistics at Loyola University Chicago.
Additional resources mentioned in the show:
openWAR code repository: https://github.com/beanumber/openWAR
Baseball Prospectus example articles (*deserved runs created, NOT defensive runs created as incorrectly stated in the show): https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/48293/entirely-beyond-wowy-a-breakdown-of-drc/ and https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/41748/prospectus-feature-the-expected-contribution/
Bill Petti’s baseballr package http://billpetti.github.io/baseballr/
2020-05-101h 39
Open Source SportsOpen Source Sports preview!Ron Yurko and Kostas Pelechrinis host the 'Open Source Sports' podcast to serve as a public reading group for discussing the latest research from sports analytics and statistics in sports. This teaser episode introduces the hosts and discusses the podcast format. Each episode will focus on a single paper featuring authors as guests, with discussions about the statistical methodology, relevance and future directions of the research.
Follow along on Twitter:
Open Source Podcast: @OpenSrcSports
Ron: @Stat_Ron
Kostas: @kpelechrinis
2020-05-0607 min
Expected ValueNESSIS, Part 1 - Ron Yurko & Dani ChuThis episode features two NFL-related presenters from last weekend’s NESSIS conference in Boston: Ron Yurko (@Stat_Ron) and Dani Chu (@chuurveg). Both guests talk about their presentations and research, which use NFL player-tracking data.Ron Yurko’s presentation focused on in-play valuation, which can lead to live models for expected points and win probability, instead of the traditional pre- and post-play models. Ron also touches on how sports analytics is gaining acceptance in the greater analytics community.Dani Chu and his team won the college division of the NFL’s Big Data Bowl earlier this y...
2019-10-0224 minWharton MoneyballWharton Moneyball: Changes to the Atlantic League & Predictive AnalyticsShow from 7/24/19In this episode of Wharton Moneyball, as the Major League Baseball Trade Deadline approaches teams will begin to become buyers or sellers. Tune in to hear what the data says about the worth of a few months of a rental player vs a handful of lesser known prospects. Then Hosts Cade Massey, Eric Bradlow, Adi Wyner and Shane Jensen dive into this weekend’s British Open and discuss what you should be watching as NFL training camps open. Plus find out what rule changes the Atlantic League is undergoing and hear about the tech the...
2019-07-251h 44
Everything Band PodcastJack StampConductor and Composer Jack Stamp shares his story, including his early musical education and the people and experiences that contributed to his remarkable career. Topics: "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity": Jack's education and eclectic musical background including the story about how and why he taught himself to play the piano from popular music lead sheets. How an experience playing the Persichetti Symphony for Band in high school taught Jack to listen beyond his own part as a percussionist and hear what everyone else in the band was doing. Jack's first teaching job, how that experience...
2018-08-271h 01
Fantasy Football ReportDiscussing Advanced NFL Metrics - Ron Yurko: Fantasy Football ReportHosted by Blair Andrews (@AmItheRealBlair) and Hasan Rahim (@hrr5010) with guest Ron Yurko (@Stat_Ron)
News Items
On the show, Blair, Hasan, and Ron cover some of the week’s notable NFL news, including how the Washington Redskins should replace Derrius Guice, when the Cleveland Browns should start Baker Mayfield, how Kirk Cousins performs when he's forced to improvise, and how the Los Angeles Chargers should deploy Melvin Gordon.
Sponsor
Fantasy Football Players Championship – The home of season-long high-stakes fantasy football. To register for a premium league starting at just $35, go to MyFFPC.com.
Show Notes
2018-08-1356 min