Tag Archives: MLB

MLB Playoff Home-Field Advantage Is Tinier Than David Eckstein

Posted on October 21, 2010 by

By David Roher These playoffs have been one for the road. In the Division Series, the home team went a combined 4-11, including a 1-7 showing in the ALDS. Why this happened isn’t that important — you can come up … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

Should MLB Realign Its Divisions?

Posted on March 29, 2010 by

By Ben Blatt Some people believe that baseball faces a serious parity problem. While most would acknowledge that the root of the problem is in unequal payrolls, the position of many owners and the player’s union makes it unlikely that … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Where Every Team Is Above Average: Home-Field Advantage and its Effects on Revenue

Posted on March 7, 2010 by

By David Roher Had an incredible time at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference yesterday. I got to tell so many people how long I’d been reading their books and blogs, or how important they were to my becoming interested in … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball, NBA Basketball, NFL Football, NHL Hockey | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Comfort Zone, Part 1

Posted on February 18, 2010 by

By David Roher Pitchers and catchers! I don’t need much of an excuse to start talking about baseball, but I probably need one to assume that people might listen. So I’m taking the opportunity presented on Wednesday by baseball’s first … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Media, Mark McGwire, and Chew

Posted on January 12, 2010 by

By David Roher Mark McGwire may have taken steroids, but he didn’t get the mileage out of them that Mike Lupica has. Lupica benefited from the 1998 home run chase, publishing a book about it a few months after its … Continue reading →

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What Went Wrong with the Hall of Fame Vote

Posted on January 6, 2010 by

By David Roher It seems to me that most of the negative response to this afternoon’s Hall of Fame vote is going to be focused on Andre Dawson’s getting in, which is unfortunate. I wouldn’t have voted for him, but … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

What Do Professional Athletes Have in Common With Bankers?

Posted on December 22, 2009 by

By Daniel Adler Today, we will examine two industries.  Neither produces a tangible product.  Both have close ties to the government and receive billions of dollars in government assistance.  Both pay their top performers millions of dollars. Wall Street firms … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, MLB Baseball, NBA Basketball, NFL Football, NHL Hockey | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Iverson Gap: Why Valuing Players Is Even Harder Than You Think

Posted on December 17, 2009 by

By David Roher Note: This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post. The value of Allen Iverson is one of the most contentious topics in the world of basketball statistics. HuffPost’s own Dave Berri is well known for thinking that … Continue reading →

Posted in NBA Basketball | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A New Way to Measure Payroll Efficiency (And what it says about the Yankees and Parity)

Posted on December 10, 2009 by

By David Roher Note: This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post. Did the 2009 New York Yankees have the most efficient payroll in baseball? According to some recent research we’ve done, they did indeed. Just not in the conventional … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Strikeouts and the Anna Karenina Principle, or: Why K’s Don’t Hurt MLB Batters

Posted on November 25, 2009 by

By David Roher “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So begins Leo Tolstoy’s 1878 masterpiece, Anna Karenina, an engrossing novel about late 19th century statistical analysis in baseball. Or about Russian aristocratic … Continue reading →

Posted in MLB Baseball | Tagged , , , , , , , | 18 Comments