We’re all aware of Mike Trout’s story at this point. From falling to the end of the first round in the 2009 draft, to his home run-saving catches, and the multiple 10-WAR seasons to start his career, the 28-year-old certainly has had a storied career up to this point, and there isn’t any reason to…
Month: May 2020
Ranking The Top 116 Safeties From a Mathematical Perspective
We have officially made it! For the last month, the numbers have given us an idea of who the top players are at every position, and today, we’ll finish up the series by looking at the top safeties in the NFL. Since we’re combining rangy free safeties with versatile chess-pieces, there are a lot of…
Ranking The Top 152 Cornerbacks From a Mathematical Perspective
We’ve officially ranked the top players at each position in a defensive front seven, so now, it’s time to turn our attention to the most valuable part of a defense- the cornerbacks. With the way that passing offenses have evolved, teams have no choice but to be extremely deep at this position, regardless of what…
Study: What Are The Best Metrics For Evaluating Hitters?
Recently, we’ve concluded what the most reliable metrics are for evaluating defense and pitching. However, today’s study is a critical one with regards to what moves the needle in the modern MLB. Here, at mvpsportstalk.com, we’ve already found that hitting is about five times more predictive of winning than defense, and is still more important…
Ranking The Top 121 Linebackers From a Mathematical Perspective
Recently, we’ve gone over who rates out as the best interior defenders and edge rushers in the NFL. Now, we’ll complete our deep dive in the front seven, this time looking at the top linebackers in the NFL. As football continues to evolve into a spread-out passing game predicated on speed, the value of the…
Study: What Are The Best Metrics For Evaluating a Pitcher?
Between velocity, command, movement, and stamina, there are so many different skills that a pitcher needs to have, so it’s important to be able to quantity them. However, that doesn’t mean that all of those abilities are created equal. We’ve already discussed how much more valuable a pitcher’s “stuff” is over their command, but today,…
Study: What Metrics Best Dictate an MLB Player’s Defensive Ability?
A baseball player’s defensive skills are often debated heavily, as old-school minds tend to believe in the “eye test” more, while more analytically-minded fans and analysts lean on advanced metrics. However, even if those sabermetric fans rightfully believe in defensive metrics, there are so many different ones that it’s hard to know which ones to…
Ranking The Top 131 Edge Rushers From a Mathematical Perspective
Recently, we got a good idea of who the best front-four defenders were by ranking the top interior defensive linemen in the NFL. However, outside of Aaron Donald, most of the elite pass rushers come from the edge rush position, so this ranking the top edge rushers will give us a good idea of which…
2020 MLB Draft: Top 120 Prospects
Unfortunately, due to circumstances clearly out of our control, we can only hope that there will be an MLB season this year. However, it’s been confirmed that the MLB draft will still take place on June 10th, which is great news. It’s obviously harder to evaluate these prospects with limited data due to the COVID-19…
Ranking The Top 131 Interior Defensive Linemen From a Mathematical Perspective
As the NFL has evolved into a dynamic passing league, the need for interior defensive linemen has gone down. However, if you can effectively rush the passer, interior defenders can definitely still make an impact, and overall, this is a rather deep position. Placing an emphasis on pass-rush ability, we’ll let the numbers dictate who…
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