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Welcome to the latest episode of Hot Takedown, FiveThirtyEight’s sports podcast. On this week’s show (May 3, 2016), we look at little Leicester City’s title-winning season in the English Premier League and ask ESPN’s Mike Goodman if a miracle year like theirs could ever happen again. Then, we talk about the 15 quarterbacks taken in this year’s NFL draft and wonder whether there is a dearth of QB talent in the league at the moment. Finally, we chat with Rob Arthur about the supposed Tommy John surgery epidemic in Major League Baseball and ask why Tommy John surgeries are down this year compared to the past couple of seasons. Plus, a significant digit on the Oklahoma City Thunder’s offensive efficiency in their playoff series against the Spurs. Stream the episode by clicking the play button, or subscribe using one of the podcast clients we’ve linked to above. Links to what we discuss are here:
- FiveThirtyEight shows us Leicester’s stunning rise to the top in two charts.
- The Guardian’s Barney Ronay says their title win was never supposed to happen.
- Also in the Guardian, Stuart James provides the inside story behind Leicester’s remarkable season.
- While ESPN’s Mike Goodman says Leicester made their own luck.
- ESPN’s Stats and Info team lays out the numbers behind the Leicester miracle.
- There’s a dearth of good quarterbacks in the NFL, says ESPN’s Ron Jaworski.
- The chart that Neil made to show that QBs are about as good and bad as they used to be:
- FiveThirtyEight says it’s really hard to tell how skilled NFL teams are at the draft.
- Donald Trump thinks he knows exactly how good Joe Flacco is.
- Grantland investigated the rise in Tommy John surgeries in Major League Baseball.
- And The Wall Street Journal examined the new trend of coddling young pitchers.
- Significant Digit: 33.5. That’s the difference between the offensive efficiency the Oklahoma City Thunder gave up in Game 1 of their playoff series against the Spurs and the same stat in Game 2.
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