Moneyball
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Moneyball comes to the NHL with ProPuck Wizard
Billy Beane with the Oakland A's earned the most attention for his early use of analytics in setting up a line-up and running a major league baseball team. Now more and more sports are employing front office personnel with strong statistical and math backgrounds. ProPuck Wizard, a free universal app, now makes it possible for even casual fans to study and analyze their favorite NHL teams and try to discover what is responsible for the team's success or failure. ProPuck Wizard works on IOS 4.3 or later and makes available to fans a thorough breakdown of NHL team and league statistics that goes way beyond what fans would normally find available. Here is a breakdown of just some of the stats available: Tracks teams performance and standings by points, win percentage, and momentum Travel analysis including distance travelled, time zones, and back to back games Goal type analysis including even strength, power play, and short handed Shooting analysis of shots, shot percentage, and save percentage Game match-up analysis for past and future games Complete home/away/aggregate customizable game results All of these statistical breakdowns are updated each day so they are always up to date. In the Help section users will find explanations for all of the breakouts and how they are calculated. The breakout of season long travel for each of the teams demonstrates some numbers that might be important as the season progresses. Western Conference teams travel a much greater distance over the course of the season. All of the Eastern Conference teams are in the Eastern time zone so the distances between cities is relatively close. The only two teams that will travel more than 40,000 miles are Florida and Carolina. Meanwhile all but two of the Western Conference teams will exceed 40,000 miles in travel this year most by several thousand miles. Arizona and Dallas log the most air miles since the are both way south of the other teams. All those extra miles means longer flights after games and getting to bed much later. This could impact a team's performance at certain points of the year. The statistic breakdowns are all color coded. Green numbers mean the team is performing above the league average, red designates areas where teams are below the league average and the blue numbers mark the points where teams are right at the league average. That makes if very easy to see just how your team is doing as you go through the breakouts. All the number columns have headers which can be confusing but a single tap on the header brings up a table with an explanation of each header. If you are kind of a stat-head and really enjoy investigating all areas of performance by your favorite team in an effort to find the reasons for success or failure this app is for you. I am sure you will spend hours on ProPuck Wizard pouring through the numbers and forming your own conclusions on why your team should win the Stanley Cup.
Why Bobby Kotick has a cameo in Moneyball: The charitable conclusion
Bobby Kotick has a lot of things, including money, notoriety and a collection of fluffy, collared sweaters, but he also has something most people overlook -- a heart. He's alive, after all, and most living people need a beating mechanism to circulate blood throughout their bodies, and Kotick is no exception (unless he really is a cyborg sent from the future who got lost in the stock market on his way to kill a teenage boy). He also, however, has a sense of compassion, at least a little bit. Kotick has a small cameo (0:17 above) in the coming Brad Pitt movie, Moneyball, and we didn't know why he was in it -- turns out, it's all for charity. Kotick is buddies with Moneyball director Bennet Miller (Capote), who asked Kotick to be in the film. Kotick said yes, but only if Miller made a movie for the Call of Duty Endowment, Kotick's non-profit company that helps veterans transition into civilian life after their service. Kotick doesn't want a credit in the film and doesn't intend to pursue an acting career; he just wanted to help America's veterans. It's downright heartwarming.
Brad Pitt's latest includes a cameo from ... Bobby Kotick?
While you'd think the trailer for Brad Pitt's latest movie, Moneyball – being firmly ensconced in the underdog baseball archetype – would provide little in the way of surprises, a cameo at 0:58 threw quite the curveball! ... wait, is that Bobby Kotick? "We're not New York," Kotick's character, presumably a baseball franchise owner, tells Pitt. "Find players with the money we have." If you're wondering why Bobby Kotick is making an appearance as a rich white dude – admittedly, a well-cast appearance for the well-to-do CEO of Activision Blizzard – you're not alone. We reached out to Activision and a spokesperson confirmed that it was indeed Mr. Kotick and that he had been "asked to be in the movie." We imagine it went something like this: "Who do I know that's really really really really rich?" Check out the trailer from Entertainment Tonight after the break.
