Weekly Roundup 09.14.25

Hi everyone, welcome to another Sports Viz Sunday round-up. I write this a week on from the US Open, which was a fantastic final if a little more one-sided than the previous affairs between Alcaraz and Sinner. What struck me though, more than the match itself, was the dedication each of these players has to getting better.

Alcaraz himself said after the Wimbledon final that he needed to improve on his serve, and he clearly did so with a wonderful serving display throughout the US Open. But even after the final, Sinner acknowledged that maybe he needs to add more variety to his game. This is from a player who has been number one for a considerable period of time and competed in numerous consecutive Grand Slam finals — yet still feels the need to improve to compete when Alcaraz is at his top level. I thought that was truly fantastic and an inspriation to us all that even the top players are striving to improve.

This week, I also saw the quite extraordinary number of runs that England managed in their recent T20 — over 300 runs in 20 overs. I remember not so long ago, 300 was considered a decent Test score, and now teams are achieving it within 20 overs. Obviously, very different format, but it shows how far the game has come.

Okay, onto this week's roundup.

Today, we start with baseball and, perhaps surprisingly, not MLB initially. I love this simplistic but effective view from Chie, which depicts the recent National High School Baseball Championship in Japan, looking at every pitch made between Okyisyo and Sanko. The design depicts each individual pitch from the game and you follow along inning by inning, each set of vertical dots representing the sequence for that set of pitches to an individual batter. The colour key represent what happeneed with each specific pitch: ball, strike etc.

It’s a great way to see the story of the match unfold and the tool tips help an the extra information behind the design. A really nice way to bring this match to life — and thanks to Yasushi for recommending this viz.

Three MLB-related vizzes for the price of one now from Gregg Hirschberg:

Brooklyn Nets Hall of Fame — Huge detail comparing the Nets’ various seasons, progression, results, and successes. Displayed in a barcode-style design that works brilliantly for scanning across seasons.

CY Young Awards — A dashboard exploring whether the current system for selecting award winners is flawed. Gregg provides an alternative way of looking at the data, weighing different metrics to see if outcomes would change. A thought-provoking approach.

MLB Managers — A super-detailed view of Major League Baseball managers, their origins, and ultimate success. Covering an enormous timespan from 1932 to 2024, with filters and sorting to dig deep into managerial histories.

Great work, Gregg — plenty here to keep baseball fans busy.

Next up, Mo Wootten delights us with a refreshed version of his wonderful NFL match-flow viz showing ALL the first week’s fixtures from the new season. For those who haven't seen Mo's design before it's wel worth a look and for those who have, the next Week 1 view provides a hot of insights (Mo picks his top call outs in the X thread). It’s a fantastic view, well worth a look, whether you’re an NFL fan, a data design fan, or even a Tableau fan who wants to drill into the technical details.

I’m not a huge NFL fan, but even I can follow the scores and, simply by scanning the height of the match sections get a sense of where there's been high scoring, exciting matches. Fantastic work.

We turn to the Premier League next and compariosn of the transfer spend during the recent summer window by Damola Ladipo. A fantastic visualisation (made in R, I believe) featuring a multi-dimensional scatter plot of all the clubs in the Premier League, comparing the amounts each club spent vs. incoming transfer fees.

But it goes beyond a simple scatter plot, with the data points split in half (spend in/out) and then brokwn into:

• Colour-reflecting the average player age.

• Size-showing the number of players.

  
  

I particularly like the darker shades indicating older players being offloaded and younger players brought in. As always with Damola, it’s slick, clean, and very detailed.

Finally, if you’re into expected goals (xG), a metric that’s often talked about nowadays, there’s a fascinating article from Jesse Davis, Pieter Robberechts, Jan Van Haaren. It’s about a 10-minute read, looking at different ways xG can be calculated and highlighting the pitfalls of using Monte Carlo simulations compared with exact methods. Really interesting to see some of the statistical theory behind it — well worth a look.

That's it for this week. Until next time, keep enjoying your sport :-)

Simon & the #sportsvizsunday team