InstaGraphs: Job Posting: Colorado Rockies – Multiple Openings blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/...

I think LLMs have uses, but "1,000 targets, including a girls elementary school we hit twice with precision munitions" is indeed representative of their state-of-the-art—and likely a fundamental limitation of the technology. Sometimes sloppiness is okay; sometimes it's 160 dead children.

With very large numbers of n’s you don’t need randomization, and with LLM’s we can generate very large numbers of n’s, so I think all of science is solved by now. I don’t see any problems with this.

In the interest of their safety, I sure hope all these guys batted left handed...😬

NAASE invites nominations for the positions of President-elect (to serve 2026-2028, then 2028-2030 as president) and at-large executive committee member (2026-2030). Nominations should be sent to the chair of the nominating committee Mike Leeds (Temple University) by March 31, 2026.

NAASE invites nominations for the 2026 Larry Hadley Service Award recipient. Nominations should explain how the person “has distinguished herself or himself through service to NAASE and the field of sports economics” and be sent to Frank Stephenson (Berry College) by 3/31/26.

3rd UMBC Sports Econ Conference Update 47 papers as we reach the submission deadline for the 3 day conference in June.

The critique of unmeasured confounding is often levied in a lazy/broad way. It is trivially true in any observational study. But if the critic can't think of a plausible such confounder and posit a reasonable direction/magnitude of its bias then they're not doing productive science.

Anti-fascism should have broad support across the American political spectrum. Elections need to be defended. Here's an open letter from retired professors at HBS in which we call for business leaders to address that need. #econsky #academicsky marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2026/02/an-a...

This is the kind of thing the internet was made for

Learned today that McLean was a 2-way player in the minors and somehow managed to strike out at about 2x the rate as a batter than he strikes people out as a pitcher. Probably a good choice to hang up the bat.

NAASE is organizing sessions for the SEA conference to be held in Houston, TX Nov 21-23, 2026. To submit a paper, please email Frank Stephenson (Berry College) by March 28: --Name, affiliation, and email for presenter and all coauthors --The paper's title and abstract. --Two JEL codes

I think the PE investment in sports is interesting and potential incentives they distort in these organizations is worth looking at. But the profit motive and comfort in losing has been the case since the start of organized professional sports.

There is evidence the umps make more correct calls in higher leverage situations. Teams will save challenges for these situations. This suggests to me challenges may be least successful in such situations. Makes the equilibrium success rate even more uncertain in my book.

InstaGraphs: Job Posting: Kansas City Royals – Analyst-Research and Development blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/...

This is on a different planet when it comes to bad analysis.

Almost like the the general public have been dramatically influenced by bullshit propogandists wrt confidence in colleges. College campuses are an incredible & welcoming place. 2% of students/recent grads & just 3% identifying as Republican feel otherwise. www.insidehighered.com/news/student...

Well this is neat: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...

I don’t know that we needed ABS for this since we’ve had all the data for 17 years now, but, yes.

"No more copy-pasting" it says. "Imagine the schlubs who have to waste time punching CTRL+C and then CTRL+V one whole time to write their 300 page dissertation. You don't have time for that, do you? Well no more. We have found a way around such labor.

what even is the fucking point

Even if you love baseball history, you probably don’t know exactly How Retrosheet Saved Baseball History. Whether you love the stats, games, or stories, my new book has something for everyone who loves the game. To learn more, visit www.retrosheet-book.com and follow @retrosheet.bsky.social

Mom asks: “how'd the game go?” Pitcher: “Threw a 2-hitter!”

D3 baseball, everyone! 🧐

The Dodgers have a huge payroll. Biggest ever. The gap between the haves and have-nots is growing. Baseball will be fine. Great, actually. Enjoy it. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Nice article on the Dodgers and MLB's current competitive balance non-problem, with quotes from me! (and a 100+ year old reference I forwarded along that @rodneyfort.bsky.social shared here a while back). www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Language broad enough that I guess I could get canned for “LeBron or Jordan” day.

As of next year, apparently UT Austin will not have a Department of Statistics (it will be rolled into a single unit with Comp Sci and Information...not a college with 3 departments...a single academic unit)...

As someone who loves pitch data, teaches sports analytics, and understands why teams are doing this, I think it sucks. One of the most enjoyable things about pitching is being the one to make decisions and go one-on-one with the the other team. If you don't want that, just put robots on the field.

Happy Kevin wants economists to be disciplined by their bosses for contradicting the regime's understanding of The Truth.

David Brooks out here uttering some of the most incoherent drivel I've ever heard. The faux intellectualism of this guy is incredibly grating. "Trump has made it acceptable for progressives to think that character is important, and we should think more about it." www.chronicle.com/article/were...

First and only pack of Topps 2026 today. Not bad for a single pack rip! @sabrbbcards.bsky.social

Come work as an empirical researcher at Berkeley Law! We are taking applications now, with a deadline of 11:59pm on March 1. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05264

Everyone feigning anger over the Dodgers, but have you even seen the U.S. team for the WBC? 👀

Excellent interview here. Dr. Das Acevedo clearly explaining a wide range of important characteristics of tenure and political interest in removing it. www.chronicle.com/podcast/coll...

Headline starts out with a bang, but the story is that for-profit colleges (see: lots of fraud and scams) made up 88% of the decline. www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

As media continues to clutch pearls about baseball salaries and proposes caps, I would like to remind everyone that the unstoppable Dodgers (who nobody can ever beat!) had the 5th most wins in baseball last year. That's 83rd percentile, lower than the average UT Austin admit on the SAT.

I love being a labor economist, where null is interesting if your model is still convincing. Anytime a student tells me they are worried they didn't find statistically significant results, I remind them of David Card. Two Nobel winning papers had null results (NJ/PA minimum wage and Mariel Boatlift)

I have strongly advocated for MLB banning all injuries for many years now. They have yet to take me up on this proposal. ☹️

Thanks, Canvas, for ruining my first day of R Lab. It turns out that if students download a .csv data file from a preview of on Canvas, it downloads it as a PDF no matter what the file type is. Really super fantastic stuff. Amazing software. Beautiful.

Rereading a paper of mine and was reminded I got to include a dig on Pepsi in a footnote: "Mileage varies on the substitutability of Coke with such an inferior tasting product like Pepsi, but we will make simple assumptions about this soda market for exhibition purposes."

Academic reading discussion today in grad Sports Economics. Main points for today’s coverage.

First few paragraphs here should be required reading for anyone writing about college sports finance. Another example: operating+non-operating revenue at UT Austin, which has probably the largest athletics dept at $332 million in revenues is ~$5.6 billion. That's just 5-6% of what goes on here.

*paper ready to start submission* *reads journal requirements* *all papers must use metric units*

I always started my sports Econ class with the Q: What is a sport? If I was still teaching, this piece would make a fun motivator. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/inter...

It is Friday after 4:00 pm and I can tell you quite assuredly I do not need whatever this shit is

Stupid and irrelevant statistic fantasy of the day: If you took Aaron Judge's career HR per 162 G rate and applied it to the number of games Pete Rose played, Judge would have 1,145 career home runs.

InstaGraphs: Job Posting: New York Yankees – Full-Stack Software Engineer blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/...

one of the least-appreciated own-goals happening right now is the deliberate sabotage of our knowledge/research sector www.bloomberg.com/news/article...