Showing posts with category "mlb"

Playoff Roulette

Jeffrey Beckmann at BleacherReport presents a slideshow of the "50 Best Teams" not to win a World Series.  Of the teams on this side of 1950, the 1996 Braves

Pitch Til You Lose

Game 1 of the ALCS between the Tigers and Yankees  once again spotlighted the flaws in the use of MLB "closers."  I've written about the topic in How Much v.

The World is Not Enough

Ryan Jazayerli at Grantland offers a thorough and insightful survey of the demise of the Astros in "Rock Bottom in H-Town." Many turns to the story -- hiring

Management by Discrete Jumps, Not Increments?

Tom Verducci of SI.com hammers the  management of pitching in MLB, particularly the role of "closers," in "With More Closers Breaking Down, It's Time to

MLB Umps Not so Color Blind?

The racial bias analysis of strikes-balls decisions of MLB umps by UT-Austin professor Daniel Hamermesh and coauthors (Parsons, Sulaeman, Yates) has generated

How Much v. How Well -- Michael Jordan as "6th Man"?

In 1968, Gates Brown hit .450 as a pinch hitter and .370 in total with an OPS of 1.12.  Yet, Brown did not register in the year end MVP voting.  His AL record

The IMF Surveys the Impact of Mega-Events

The latest issue of the IMF's journal, Finance and Development, has a number of essays on the impact of hosting events like the Olympics and the World Cup.

Something for Everybody: MLB's Mechanism Design

Continuing my recent Yankees theme ... in a curiously long post on his blog, SI writer Joe Posnanski considers the effect of MLB's playoff structure on the

Fans as Inputs

After last night's Twins/Tigers game - helluva game, no? - the announcers for TBS mentioned that the fans played a big part in the Twins win. 54,000 Twins

Sonia Sotomayor's Connection to Sports

President Obama is apparently going to nominate Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. But, you rightly say, what is the Sports Economics angle in this story?

Tracking Changes in MLB Baseball Attendance

Baseball-Reference.com has a handy page (HT to JC Bradbury) where they are tracking changes in MLB team attendance. It calculates overall attendance, per-game

Steroid Publicity & Hall Voting

Whatever readers and contributors to TSE think about publicity given to MLB steroid use, it continues to hammer the chances of Hall of Fame inductions for an