April 2014 -
Basketball/Baseball
Our packages feature a persuasive combination of statistics, charts, descriptions and analysis. Agents find them invaluable for
NBA Draft preparation and NBA free agency. Call Steve Fall at 404-447-1861 to discuss your needs.
A Giant Step Forward
Among the 22 NBA Draft prospects that played for teams in the Elite Eight, none improved their statistics like Aaron Gordon.
He was one of just five players in that group to increase his per 40 minutes NCAA Tournament scoring compared to all previous games. He also increased both his rebound rate
and assist ratio. None of the other 21 prospects improved in all three categories.
Gordon’s numbers in the Pac-12 and NCAA Tournament combined look even more impressive. His assist ratio soared
during postseason tournaments compared to the regular season.
The 6-9 Gordon took his game outside during postseason play, knocking down 6 of 10 three-point shots. That 60 percent clip more
than doubled his regular season three-point percentage (28.6). His blocks and steals per 40 minutes rates also exploded, even though
the pace factor dropped in Arizona’s postseason games.
Gordon is an extremely young freshman (18.78 years old on Draft Night). It took until March for him to step up his
game. Even looking at Gordon’s season overall, there aren’t many others who approach his numbers. He surpassed 15 points and 10 rebounds
per 40 minutes this season. Only one player did that who entered the past 10 drafts younger than 19: Kevin Durant.
Some compare Gordon to Shawn Marion and Kenneth Faried, but they were both far older when they entered the draft.
Gordon compared himself to a combination of Blake Griffin and Scottie Pippen..
While Griffin possessed more offensive polish, he was a year and half older on Draft Night. Gordon’s passing, ball handling, and defense
make the Pippen comp realistic as well.
4 Signs Your Agency Website Needs an Upgrade
It is great to see so many agents expanding their web presence. There is no better, cost-effective method for reaching potential clients
and building your agency’s brand.
Unfortunately, many agency websites are difficult to find with Google searches. Even well-designed websites may lack content that tells
your story and makes an impact online.
So how do you make your web presence a winner? It may not require dramatic changes. Answer these four questions and you’ll know where you
stand.
1. Enter your agency’s name into a Google search and check the results. Does your website come up first? Are the results from websites
where you control the content, or articles from outside sources? Repeat this step by putting your agency name and appropriate league or
leagues (NBA, MLB, etc.). Then try your agency name and city.
2. Has your website content changed in the past month? If not, how often does your web content change? Since search engines like Google
rank websites higher that feature fresh dynamic content, your response here may explain your results to the first question.
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3. Are you active on social media? If so, can website visitors reach those sites with one click from your website? Agents have an
advantage over most businesses on social media. Because there is so much interest in your occupation, it’s easy to add followers by
posting quality content.
4. Can website visitors learn about your agency directly from your homepage – without going to another page? If you have a homepage
with cool graphics and photos but limited text, it’s time to change things up. This is a big negative with search engines.
If you answered no to any of these questions, it’s time to upgrade or make changes. The solution will likely fit within your budget.
You certainly don’t need a pricey digital agency to improve your web presence. In fact, many expensively-designed sports websites rank
low in the search engines or don’t resonate with today’s athletes.
Contact Steve Fall at
steve.fall@sportsresource.net or 404-447-1861 for a free 15-minute confidential consultation on your digital strategy. Nobody else can match
our team’s combination of analytics and digital expertise.
Highlights for MLB Agents from the Sports Analytics Conference
One of the biggest challenges agents face in arbitration is how to quantify defense. It’s about to get much easier.
MLB Advanced Media first introduced its new player tracking system at last month’s MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. The system
measures things like how fast a jump a fielder gets on a fly ball, and whether he took the best route to the ball. It will even determine
how well (and how fast) a base runner rounds third base on his way home from second base. This is huge for agents because it creates
accurate comparative data that never existed before.
Sportswriter/researcher Rob Neyer, who appeared on the Baseball Analytics Panel, summarized it best. “When we have the tracking system
in two-three years for player defense, we can say flat out this guy absolutely saved 30 runs. You don’t have to pay a player for this now.”
Here are more highlights from the conference:
Positional versatility is vastly underrated according to Vince Gennaro, a consultant for MLB teams. He explained that you get a much
better platoon advantage and when somebody gets hurt, there is less of a drop-off to the replacement player. He recognized the A’s as
a team that does a great job of positional versatility. The numbers back this up: batters in the A’s starting lineups had the platoon
edge 77 percent of the time in 2013, the highest in MLB and well above the league average (60 percent).
Quantifying “Pitch Framing”. Recently released research on pitch framing by Harry Pavlidis and Dan Brooks of Baseball Prospectus was
also a hot topic at the conference. They found that Jose Molina's excellence at pitch framing saved his teams 116 runs from 2008 through
2013. Neyer explained that teams haven't been paying for the 20 runs per year that Molina saves his team, but that is likely to change.
The Sports Resource
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Note:
All players used in this newsletter and our sample charts are selected at
random. None of the information comes from actual projects for agents. All projects and conversations
are confidential.
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