Passion Project #1 Week 4

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This week we had to make our final prototype to show to our class on Monday. I decided to put my skills to the test and make my only weekly team on Fan Duel for 25 cents, just to see how I do. There are 20 people in my bracket and my goal is to come in the top 5, 1st place would be great though. The way my contests works is, they give you 6,000 virtual coins to spend and you pick a quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, a tight end, a flex which could be a running back, wide receiver, or tight end, and lastly a defense.  However, the best players like Christian McCafferty are worth the most coins. For example McCafferty is worth 11,000 coins, which doesn’t give you enough money for other players. So I look for value for example I took Elliot this week for 8,400 coins, if he gets 24 points, and McCafferty gets 25 points, Elliot did better. Now he may get 1 less point than McCafferty, but now you get an extra 2,600 coins to spend on others. So after a lot of research and consideration here is my team:

Quarter back: Sam Darnold,  Running backs: Ezekiel Elliot, Aaron Jones, Wide receivers: Geronimo Allison, DeVante Parker, D.J Clark Jr, Tight end: Ryan Griffin, Flex: Stefon Diggs, Defense: New Orleans Saints.

For my presentation I will show everyone how I did, and why I took the players I took.

Passion Project #1 Week #3

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For my first attempt at Fantasy football weekly advice I decided to make a list of who I think will be the top 5 fantasy quarterbacks this week and why.  In my next post I will compare my ranking to what really happened.

Feel free to look at my rankings:

1.Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons, playing Tampa Bay Buccaneers, After coming back from injury in week 10 Matt Ryan has been solid against two good defenses, Saints and Panthers. Now, Matt Ryan is fully healthy and is playing against the defense that has let up the most points in the NFL, Tampa bay Buccaneers.

2. Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks, playing Philadelphia Eagles, The Seattle Seahawks offense is a very high scoring offense and Russell Wilson averages 2.3 touchdown passes a game, which is the highest passing touchdown average in the NFL. Also he has a very good matchup facing the Eagles  who arguably have the worst secondary in the NFL.

3. Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens, playing Los Angeles Rams, Lamar Jackson, has the most fantasy points this year of any quarterback. Not the best matchup this week as the Rams have a good defense, but I don’t think they will be good enough to stop Lamar Jackson.

4 Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints, playing Carolina Panthers, Drew Brees is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and after coming back from injury this year Brees has shown us why. He is playing indoors, which makes it easier to throw in, but playing the Panthers I expect Saints coach Sean Payton to come up with some trick plays for other players which may hurt Brees’s performance.

5. Deshaun Watson, Houston Texans, playing Indianapolis Colts, Deshaun Watson had a good chance to be MVP  up until last week when he got destroyed by the Lamar Jakson and the Ravens. However, I have a feeling he is going to bounce back against the Colts, who have recently gave up 16+ points to the Dolphins and the Jaguars ,two offenses that are way worse than the Texans.

These are the top 5 quarterbacks that FanDuel Predicts:

1. Lamar Jackson
2. Russell Wilson
3. Deshaun Watson
4. Matt Ryan
5. Drew Brees

Passion Project #1 Week 2

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  1. I will be learning about what goes to account when experts make their weekly rankings and advice. I plan to come up with my own advice and ideas based off of the ways professionals make and come up with them. 
  2. The reason I choose this topic was, I love football, I know a lot about it, and there are times when I research fantasy football advice and disagree with experts ideas so I want to learn how to do things on my own.
  3. I want to read articles and watch tv shows in which experts explain their thinking and provide evidence to learn learn this. To make this I will use a google doc and write down my ideas. 
  4. Success will look like coming up with my ideas and having them turn out sort of right or related to what actually happens.

Capstone #7

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Blog Post #7

I did it! Capstone is sadly now over, now that I did my final recording there’s nothing for me to do besides wait for camp. (Which is something I’ve been doing since the first day of school.) I’m sure you probably want to hear how it went so I’ll tell you both the good and the bad things that happened. However, I was so nervous because I am going to send it to Todd Ziele and wanted it to be very good and neat for him.

What I think went well was, I did it without cue-cards, I did a good job engaging with the audience, I did not shake and or move my foot back and forth, and lastly I looked into the camera. What I think could be better I stuttered on one of my slides, and I messed up on my words once. All in all I think it went well because not only was there more good things that I did then bad but, I am very proud of it. Feel free to watch it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6kuD-KtwJE&list=PLB96r9gj6B-YUTA4r–qqrYYjpjNezyNc&index=4

From capstone I learned how to research a topic, how to put together a presentation, and how to conduct a presentation. All in all Capstone was a really fun and a great learning project for me. I will never forget it and wish I could do it again.

Capstone #6

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Capstone Blog Post #6

 

What would you choose to do your final project as? Would you do a 4-6 minute video, or a 4-6 minute Ted Talk, or a 3 minute Ignite where every slide has to be 15 seconds each? I decided to do a Ted Talk because, one I wanted the challenge of memorizing everything unlike a video, and two I wanted to have more freedom, unlike an Ignite. I think what will be easy is, writing a script and putting the slideshow together, but what will be hard is memorizing the script. However, like I said before, I’m up for the challenge.

 

Coming up with the script was easy just like I thought. At first, I came up with a hook, and then I took what I wanted out of my essay and then turned it into a script form. For example, instead of saying, “A lot of people argue that the game is too slow and boring so the shift should be banned.” Instead I ask, “Does the shift make the game less exciting? What I mean is by a fan’s standpoint, it gets boring when it is just out, after out, after out, because of the shift.” Get the point? When I was putting my slideshow together I focused on three things:

  • Making sure the slides clean and consistent
  • Making sure that the photos engage and keep the audience interested
  • Making sure the photos matched what I was saying

 

At the start I thought it is easier to get the slides and the script all set up so I could memorize it and not have to change it along the way, and guess what? My thesis was right and, for this reason, I am having a way easier time memorizing my script. I separated my script into each slide and then taped each part onto a que-cards. In total I had 12 cards because I had 12 slides. After two days I had my script memorized! This happened because I just said my script until I got sick of it. Like if I was in the shower or in the car…

 

On Wednesday I am going to do my final recording of it, so come to my blog to find out how that goes. I am fully rehearsed and could record today if I had to so I’m in good shape. On Friday I am doing my capstone for my parents, as part of my moving up rehearsal.

Capstone #5

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Blog Post #5

By Gavin 

Do you play or watch sports on TV, and do you like using your phone, your Ipad, your computer, basically anything that involves technology? Well if you do then you are really going to enjoy reading this, because this essay is all about how technology has affected baseball. There are many ways that technology is impacting our lives, but from a sports fan point of view we can learn this through something we all love, Baseball! Today I am going to tell you about two different ways that technology has changed the game. One of them is it has changed the way the game is played, another is it has changed how people scout players. Overall technology has made the game better in some ways but, also worse in others.

You might be wondering how has technology changed the game? Well it has through Statcast. Statcast is one of many organizations that track everything players do. What I mean by this is Statcast tracks, and keeps all of the players “Stats” on an online website. It tracks everything from players batting averages to a players odds of scoring if they get a leadoff double. Click on the link below to see an example of Statcast being used in a real life game. https://www.mlb.com/news/statcast-facts-for-al-wild-card-game-c257153154 Isn’t this so cool, Statcast can do all this in a blink of an eye! Todd Zeile, a former baseball player who now is an analyst for SNY told me in an interview that he thinks when used Statcast works effectively as a tool in some ways, but also is just added information to give people something to talk about. I totally agree because not only does statcast help get baseball to be more interesting for some people but also teams can use Statcast also as a tool for many things. One of which is the Shift now this is how technology has affected the game, coaches can go onto Statcast and one of the Stats that it shows is hitting tendencies. This is important because teams can look at this and say, “Okay so Bryce Harper hits it to the left side 55% of the time. We must ‘shift’ to the left side every time he gets up.” This is how teams figure out where to stand in the field. Of course though none of this could be possible without technology. However does the shift make the game less exciting? I mean from a fans stand point it gets boring when it is just out, after out, after out, because of the shift. A lot of people argue that the game is to slow and boring so the shift should be banned. Here is another way it is used as a tool, when teams are debating what reliever and or pitcher should go in they can use Statcast. It may sound crazy but yes teams can look at who is up next and from this can decide which pitcher would have an easier time facing the batters. They can do this because of a couple different Stats. One is career against Righties/Lefties so if a bunch of righties are up the team will probably put in the guy that is better against righties, another stat, shows teams which pitcher is better in a day game or night game, teams can also use so much more stats to do this. I am not going to tell you everything that is made possible by Statcast because, I would be here for hours but, you get the point.

After reading that paragraph I think you get the idea of how technology has changed scouting, but actually teams use a different type of technology to scout. Have you ever heard coaches say, to prepare for the next game we are going to spend a lot of time in the film room? Well if you haven’t I will tell you what the ‘film room’ is. It is where teams go and scout out the team they are playing next using replays of the teams games. However there is normally more action and runs during the beginning of the season because, teams don’t have enough resources to have a scouting report yet. So you could say that replay has made the game less exciting just like Statcast. Of course though this would not be a thing without the technology in cameras. There is also a different kind of scouting that has been affected by technology. This kind of scouting is when teams ‘scout’ out college players to see who should be drafted. Take Prince Fielder as an example, does he look like a baseball player to you? Well from all of the replays and scouting reports teams quickly figured out that he was going to be great. Guess what as someone who was thought of as, “overweight” Prince Fielder ended up doing a lot of great things in his career. One of which is WINNING ALL STAR GAME MVP! Overall technology has made life easier for scouts in many ways.

All in all technology has made the game better in some ways but, also worse in others. Technology has made it easier for coaches to scout, but also made the game less exciting and boring for fans. Even Tood Ziele says that baseball is way to slow.  In my opinion technology is making the game better for players and coaches but, is making the game worse for fans.

 

Capstone #4

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If your Capstone project was on how technology has affected baseball where would you go for a required Site Visit? Also did I mention that it can’t be more than an hour from Scarsdale, New York because, your parents won’t take you. All I can say is if you thought of a place YOU’RE NOT HUMAN!!! Okay think about it even if you found a place you have get a time for your parents to take you. However maybe if I get good at convincing my parents and use my brain I can actually do this, I believe! Do you?

At first I started searching on Safari my searches were, “Places to go to learn about baseball” and, “Places to go to learn about technology.” After this I thought I found a place to go to! The place is The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown New York. There’s only one problem 🙁 remember rule number 2? “It can’t be more than an hour from Scarsdale, New York because, your parents won’t take you.” Yeah so guess how far Cooperstown is from my house. 4 Hours! So as you can guess my mom’s answer was a hard no. I was stumped there was no places that I could go to. I mean I had one idea but I can’t drive 8 hours back and forth just for an hour tour!
Two weeks went bye, still no site visit! 5 days still my site visit is due, still nothing! Then all of a sudden it hit me, and at that moment I felt so stupid why don’t I just go to a Mets game. I know you guys are probably thinking, “Duh Gavin, that is what I thought of right away.” All I can say is why did you not tell me this sooner then! On Sunday I went to the Mets game against the Tigers. One thing I comfirmed was how Statcast affects baseball. I did this by seeing that the Tigers coach was looking at the stats on the paper that he printed out of Statcast to tell his players what the mets normally do. Like where to stand because a certain player normally hits it to the left side…

All in all I did not learn as much as I did from my interview but, it was still something.

If you want to see some of the pictures I took here they are:

Capstone #3

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Blog Post #3

Have you ever got a chance to talk to a former Major League Baseball player? Well I have! As part of my research I had to do an interview, and if it is not obvious enough already I interviewed a former baseball player, which by the way is amazing! His name is Todd Zeile and guess what he is also on top of that an analyst for SNY. SNY is a company that partners with the Mets and broadcasts all their games.

My parents surprised me when I found out about the interview, when I got in my moms car she told me to look on my phone. After I looked I think people in New York city could hear me screaming! The day before the interview I looked Todd Zeile up on Safari so I could relate to him. I was so, so, so nervous, because before I did it he texted me, “Can I call you in fifteen minutes I just came off the air?” I thought to myself ” wow I am interviewing Todd Zelie right after he is on T.V.”When it started my heart felt like it was going to pop out of my chest! I am now actually happy that it was not in person because I don’t know how I could have got through it. However I somehow managed to do it over the phone.

I had to shorten it up a bit because I was told that he only had 20 minutes so I narrowed my questions down to my main 6. What really surprised me though was that as busy as a man that he is he still took his time and tried to think about his answers. What I mean by this is he did not try to keep it short and simple just to get it over with. This is what made the interview so great and is why I learned so much from it.

All in all my interview went great, I learned so much, and I think my final project will be so much better because of my interview. Come back to tomorrow to find out what happened at my site visit. Ps: it is at Citi Field.