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Keith Law explains why Joey Votto should bat second for the Cincinnati Reds.

Blog | Conversation | April 30, 2013

On Monday, the advanced statistics-loving community of Chicago Cubs fans got a welcome surprise when noted "saberist" Tom Tango announced he was working exclusively for the Cubs. In a post titled Psst...wanna work for the Cubs (and with me)?" Tango not...

In ESPN The Magazine, Peter Keating investigates the efficacy of the plus/minus statistic and its utility in the NBA.

Tom Tango looks at 19 players who are historically similar to Derek Jeter at this point in his career. He breaks down what they did after age 36, in terms of WAR, and determines Jeter should get a contract of around three years and $25 million.

Story | Conversation | November 04, 2010

This season, the TMI Blog has given you access to ESPN's Stats & Information department along with cutting-edge sabermetricians, with exclusive pieces from our friends at Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs along with Tom Tango among others. Sta...

Earlier this year, our colleagues in Stats and Information took a crack at redefining the quality start. Our TMI colleague Tom Tango devised a means to evaluate all relievers based on their win probability contributions (shutdowns/meltdowns). We hav...

Last week, I introduced a simple equation to determine the chances that a team will make the playoffs based on its payroll: Chance of Playoffs = (Payroll Index / 2) - 23 For example, from 1998 through 2009, the Tampa Bay Rays had a Payroll Index th...

Imagine a league in which you have a three-team division made up of the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets, and two of those teams make the playoffs each year. And imagine a league in which you have a 15-team division made up of low spenders, like the Royals,...

It's census time in the United States, so let's take a look at the demographics of Major League Baseball. In doing so, we can see that based on the influx of foreign players over the past few decades, baseball would be better off expanding before con...

Though Stephen Strasburg won't begin the year in the majors, he won't be down on the farm for long. So once he comes up, what can we expect from him as a rookie? Last year, the best rookie pitcher was Atlanta Braves right-hander Tommy Hanson, who ha...

Clayton Kershaw (2.79 ERA), Felix Hernandez (2.49), Jair Jurrjens (2.60) and Tommy Hanson (2.89) had their breakout seasons in 2009. Can we expect them to repeat those performances in 2010? If history is a guide, the answer is no. To clarify, I'm d...

Last week, we built a team of 25 free agents on one-year deals for a total cost of less than $100 million. The obvious next question is: How many games could this team win? To figure it out, let's examine each player, come up with a reasonable asses...

In case you didn't know, the Academy Awards use a voting system known as an instant run-off. In the spirit of Sunday's festivities, I thought it would be fun to see how last year's MLB awards would have looked had they used the same system. Most nota...

Debates on the designated hitter rule tend to end in a stalemate because of an "all or nothing" approach -- it's either everyone has a DH, or everyone doesn't. But once you compromise and get creative, it becomes a more reasonable discussion. For th...

Nearly $2.7 billion was spent on player salaries last season. That is an average of almost $90 million per team. This excludes minor league salaries, signing bonuses for draft picks and all other player development costs. But what if a team decide...

The Minnesota Twins reportedly are looking to lock up Joe Mauer for eight years at around $165 million. Good deal or bad deal? Mauer was born in April 1983, which makes him 27 years old for the 2010 season. At the conclusion of his existing contrac...