John Sears, a special advisor to the Los Angeles Dodgers, joins the show for a wide ranging conversation. John has a graduate degree from Stanford and has also worked for the Philadelphia 76ers. Highlights include:
- His first experience with applied math (7:48)
- Working at the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis (12:32)
- The decision to go to grad school (19:00)
- The latest baseball data sets that John and the Dodgers are hiring quants to work on (26:09)
- The 2015 NBA draft with Philadelphia (33:50)
- Working with the Minnesota Timberwolves and match up problems (45:18)
- How to break into sports analytics (52:09)
The story about the 2015 NBA draft is an incredible lesson in predictive analytics, and I highly recommend listening to the seven minutes starting at 33:50. To listen here, click on the right pointing triangle.
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