{"id":1878351,"date":"2026-04-12T04:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T01:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1878351"},"modified":"2026-04-12T04:00:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T01:00:45","slug":"mocking-the-nfl-draft-mlbs-robot-umps-and-nba-playoff-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1878351","title":{"rendered":"Mocking the NFL Draft, MLB\u2019s robot umps and NBA playoff pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<div class=\"sponsor-container spon-container spon-padding\">\n<div class=\"sponsor-slug sponsor-slug spon-slug\">Supported By<\/div>\n<div id=\"sponsor\" data-position=\"sponsor\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As the first season of \u201cThe Athletic Show\u201d comes to a close, we\u2019re taking a look at the changes facing each major sport at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>For some, like the NFL, it\u2019s the changing of the guard. With the draft less than a month away, <em>The Athletic<\/em>\u2019s Austin Mock joins the show to help give a sense of which franchises will have new faces at the forefront next season. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza is the consensus choice for the Las Vegas Raiders\u2019 selection at the top of the draft, but with so many big changes this offseason, the first round will have league-shifting picks for nearly every franchise. We learn how draft experts build their models and put our in-house scholars to the test with a mock draft<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid1\" data-position=\"mid1\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In the NBA, the Play-In Tournament is set to begin, which means the league will soon crown its next champion. But the issue of tanking has loomed large this season, and with roughly one-third of the current teams trying their best to lose, the NBA is at a crossroads heading into playoff time. <em>The Athletic<\/em>\u2019s Joel Lorenzi joins the show to help determine which teams define the short-term future of the league in this year\u2019s championship race, and outline the questions that must be answered for the long-term health of the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, baseball\u2019s new challenge system has been a game changer for the sport, but not everyone loves the change. Umpires, the face of the sport\u2019s \u201chuman element\u201d ethos, are taking umbrage with their new robot counterparts. MLB writer Sam Blum joins the show to break down human umps\u2019 shockingly good accuracy and explain the growing pains as baseball moves into a new era.<\/p>\n<p>You can watch the full conversation on the latest episode of \u201cThe\u00a0Athletic Show\u201d on Fire TV and wherever\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.lnk.to\/tas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">you\u00a0get your podcasts.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supported By As the first season of \u201cThe Athletic Show\u201d comes to a close, we\u2019re taking a look at the changes facing each major sport at the moment. For some, like the NFL, it\u2019s the changing of the guard. With the draft less than a month away, The Athletic\u2019s Austin Mock joins the show to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1878351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1878351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1878351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1878351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1878351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}