LATEST STORIES FROM VEGAS WATCH

This Week's Links (11/16-11/20)

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Zack Greinke "tries to keep [his] FIP as low as possible." Well, that worked.Belichick is insane!CHONE projections for the free agent hitters, and also some UZR projections.Nate Silver unveiled his Soccer Power Index over at ESPN.
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

2010 College Hoops Contest: Guessing the Seeds

The format of this one is going to be slightly different than our previous over/under contests, since I figured that in the end nobody really cares how many games a team wins in the regular season, or even in their conference.What does matter is what seed you end up getting in the...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

2009 NFL Survivor: Week 11

Last week:MIN: W, 27-10MIA: W, 25-23NO: W, 28-23DEN: L, 27-17BAL: W, 16-0OFP had 4.6% of entries knocked out last week, and Yahoo lost 14.9%; the Redskins were a lot more popular in Yahoo!. There are 41,157 entries left in the Yahoo! pool.Teams used (Week 9 DVOA rank): New England...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

This Week's Links (11/9-11/13)

Congratulations to Craig Calcaterra, who's going to be blogging full-time now.A cool new site that shows how much future value each team has in Survivor.Those who signed up for the ESPN Full Court package will be seeing a lot of Craig Brackins.Ken Pomeroy doesn't understand...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

2010 College Hoops Previews: The Odds

Now that we're finally done discussing and rating the 73 power conference teams plus 12 others, it's time to recap the results. Today I'm going to compare our assessments to the conference odds posted at various books in an attempt to find some opportunities; I'm rather...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

2009 NFL Survivor: Week 10

Last week:ATL: W, 31-17SEA: W, 32-20GB: L, 38-28NO: W, 30-20NE: W, 27-17OFP had 11.6% of entries knocked out last week, and Yahoo lost 16.8%; the vast majority of this in both pools was because of Green Bay. There are 51,150 entries left in the Yahoo! pool.Teams used (DAVE rank): New...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

2010 College Hoops Previews: The Big East

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Here's the final conference installment of the mammoth 2010 College Hoops Previews series. This time I'm joined by JP, ML, and RTC. For more details on what's going on with the ratings, go here and here; the new regression ratings for the Big East are here. All team ratings...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

2010 College Hoops Previews: The Other Guys

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Below is our attempt to catch the non-power conference teams that appear headed toward relevance in March. The standard numbers we look at can be found here; I only got Randy on board for this one, so all the discussion and ratings are from the two of us. Also note that the order below...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

2009 NFL Survivor: Week 9

Last week:SD: W, 24-16CHI: W, 30-6ARI: L, 34-21DAL: W, 38-17IND: W, 18-14DET: L, 17-10NO: W, 35-27OFP had 10.4% of entries knocked out last week; the Yahoo! entrants were a bit more bullish on Arizona, which caused 13.9% of them to go down. There are 60,648 entries left in the Yahoo...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

Evaluating April MLB Predictions (2005-2009)

First off, here are the final 2009 standings:Not much has changed since we last checked in. Most of these got a bit lower, as you'd expect with the slightly larger sample size; CAIRO ended up gaining a decent amount of separation from the pack.Of course, there's all sorts of...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/11...
 

2010 College Hoops Previews: The Pac-10

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Here's the fifth installment of the mammoth 2010 College Hoops Previews series. This time I'm joined by JP, ML, and RTC. For more details on what's going on with the ratings, go here and here; the new regression ratings for the Pac-10 are here. All team ratings from kenpom...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

This Week's Links (10/26-10/30)

I don't want to look at them before we finish our previews, but the preseason college hoops rankings were released.Heck, I'm nervous writing this links post.Basketball Prospectus projects the 2009-10 NBA season."Is Ryan Howard really that bad versus LHP?"
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

2009 NFL Survivor: Week 8

Apologies for the delay, (hopefully) won't happen again.Last week:IND: W, 42-6NE: 35-7OFP had 5.8% of entries knocked out last week, while that figure was slightly lower in the Yahoo! pool, at 3.9%. There are 71,270 entries left in the Yahoo! pool.Teams used (DAVE rank): New England...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

This Week's Links (10/19-10/23)

There will be a Basketball Prospectus 2010 Major-Conference Preview this year. Also, Gasaway talked to UMHoops.com.Safe!USS Mariner's DMZ put together a cool iPhone app.An interview with Cardinals AGM John Abbamondi.
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

2009 NFL Survivor: Week 7

Last week:PIT: W, 27-14PHI: L, 13-9GB: W, 26-0JAC: W, 23-20 (OT)NYJ: L, 16-13 (OT)NE: W, 59-0We finally had some people knocked out in the late games on Sunday; 44.4% of the Yahoo! pool was eliminated, nearly as high a percentage as the first four weeks combined (47.1%). There are...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

2010 College Hoops Previews: The SEC

Here's the fourth installment of the mammoth 2010 College Hoops Previews series. This time I'm joined by JP, ML, and RTC; no commentary from JP but he did manage to submit ratings. For more details on what's going on with the ratings, go here and here; the new regression...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

This Week's Links (10/12-10/16)

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Fire Shapiro?Louisville's Terrence Jennings and Jerry Smith show excellent judgment.CC Sabathia is a big Bert Blyleven fan.You're sitting on a gold mine, Trebek.
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

Updated 2009 NFL Wins Over/Unders

Bodog has posted revised win totals for a few notable teams. Here they are, compared to the numbers Bodog had for each team back in May, and the rates at which each team would have to win the rest of the season to hit their new total:Even during their hot start, the Bengals' DVOA...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

2009 NFL Survivor: Week 6

Last week:PIT: W, 28-20NYG: W, 44-7PHI: W, 33-14DAL: W, 26-20MIN: W, 38-10BAL: L, 17-14Third straight, and fourth of five, slow week for eliminations, with 5.3% of the Yahoo! pool going down.Teams used (DAVE rank): Philadelphia (3rd), New Orleans (4th), Dallas (11th), Washington (20th...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

Likelihood of MLB Playoff Sweeps (1999-2009)

This is pretty random, but I was curious so I decided to look into it. It seemed like the Yankees' ALDS sweep was one of the more predictable sweeps in recent memory, while the Dodgers taking down the Cardinals in three came as a bit of a surprise. Covers has lines going back all...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

Series Win Probability Graphs: STL vs. LAD

Trying something new here, so any feedback would be appreciated. I did two things to come up with the graph below. First, I adjusted the FanGraphs win probabilities for each game based on the line, so instead of starting G1 at 50-50, the Dodgers started at 44.4% (+122/-130).I then...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

This Week's Links (10/5-10/9)

Pro Basketball Prospectus 2009-10 is out.Interesting Advanced NFL Stats post on how distance to go on fourth down effects whether a team punts or kicks a FG, which it should be pretty much irrelevant. I like the theory by the third commenter, which Phil Birnbaum explains a bit further...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

2009 NFL Survivor: Week 5

Last week:NYG: W, 27-16SF: W, 35-0CHI: W, 48-24IND: W, 34-17CIN: W, 23-20HOU: W, 29-6Another terrible week for eliminations, with just 1.8% of the Yahoo! field being eliminated.Teams used (DAVE rank): New Orleans (2nd), Dallas (14th), Houston (18th), Washington (19th)Here are this...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

DS Previews

I'm going to keep this fairly quick, since I've had zero time all week; hopefully I'll be able to get something up on the Red Sox series tonight.Rockies @ PhilliesCurrent Pinnacle series line: PHI -152/COL +142Game 1 line: Jimenez +124 @ Lee -132Identical regular season...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 

MLB Totals Contest Final Standings

Here's the final top 10:Congratulations to "cmac" who went 9-1, only missing (by half a win) on the Astros total. His nine successful picks were: ATL O, LAD O, NYM U, TBR U, PIT U, OAK U, CHC U, CIN U, STL O.Sadly, Tocchet's quest for 0-10 failed, as he ended up hitting...
>> vegaswatch.net/2009/10...
 
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