Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Reiter: MLB team standings often invert over three-year windows

Ben Reiter · Ben Reiter – Moneyball 2.0 (Capital Allocators, EP.64) · Aug 13, 2018 · at 18:33

Sports Illustrated writer Ben Reiter explains the analytical reasoning behind his 2014 cover story predicting the last-place Houston Astros would win the 2017 World Series.

0:00 / 0:09exact quote · 9.4s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Three years down the line, which is actually a long time in baseball terms, it doesn't sound like a long time, but often if you look at the schedule, at the standings from like three years ago, they're almost upside down from where they are today.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Ben Reiter

Opinion
MLB contradicted its ethical stance by rushing Steve Cohen's ownership approval
“Baseball having just gotten through this huge ethical scandal. We've cleaned up the game. We've kicked Jeff Luno out for a year. We've kicked the manager out. We really care about ethics. And then they turn around and they rush through the approval process. A …”
Ben Reiter Nov 30, 2020 ▶ 42:24 Ben Reiter – Over the Edge with the Houston Astros (Capital Allocators, EP.166)
Assertion Supported
Carlos Beltrán and Alex Cora led the Astros' sign-stealing scheme
“There was this specific makeup of the Astros clubhouse, in which one veteran in particular, one coach in particular, Carlos Beltran and Alex Cora, had a lot of influence in there. And in most ways, that influence was exerted in really positive ways, as far as …”
Ben Reiter Nov 30, 2020 ▶ 17:10 Ben Reiter – Over the Edge with the Houston Astros (Capital Allocators, EP.166)
Insight
Sports team equity appreciation accrues entirely and tax-free to franchise owners
“Sports teams like never go down in valuation and people never want to sell them. So The entirety of that valuation goes to the owner. That's not shared with anybody else who helped create the wealth. Like players don't get stock or equity in the franchises the…”
Ben Reiter Nov 30, 2020 ▶ 23:39 Ben Reiter – Over the Edge with the Houston Astros (Capital Allocators, EP.166)
Opinion
Houston Astros remain a model for the pitfalls of high-performing organizations
“I would argue that the Astros remain a model organization. Right? An organization that we can learn from. But now we can learn a lot of different things, besides how to turn the laughing stock of sports into a champion in a few short years. We can learn about …”
Ben Reiter Nov 30, 2020 ▶ 5:47 Ben Reiter – Over the Edge with the Houston Astros (Capital Allocators, EP.166)
Assertion Supported
MLB's investigation report explicitly absolved Houston Astros owner Jim Crane
“The commissioner, in the very first paragraph, actually, which stuck out like a red thumb to me, the very first paragraph of this nine-page report completely absolved the owner of the team, Jim Crane, from any responsibility or accountability whatsoever.”
Ben Reiter Nov 30, 2020 ▶ 12:31 Ben Reiter – Over the Edge with the Houston Astros (Capital Allocators, EP.166)
Assertion Supported
MLB investigators could not prove GM Jeff Luhnow knew of cheating
“Major League Baseball, as I said, did an extensive investigation into this. Even they couldn't prove that Jeff Luno knew. You know, they looked at tens of thousands of emails and texts and They interviewed, like, dozens and dozens of witnesses, many of whom pr…”
Ben Reiter Nov 30, 2020 ▶ 15:13 Ben Reiter – Over the Edge with the Houston Astros (Capital Allocators, EP.166)
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 700 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.