Results tagged “natesilver”

Governor Paterson hasn't winning any popularity contests in quite some time—maybe that's why he's played hardball yesterday, "stunning" people with his veto of the routine pension measure for police officers and firefighters that has been in place for almost thirty years. The plan allows newly hired employees to retire after 20 years at half salary.

Baseball Prospectus, the annual book of hardcore statistical analysis and predictions, doesn't seem to think the big off-season moves of both our local teams have turned them into division favorites. (You may have heard of BP recently because of its many mentions as the launching pad for 2008 election predictor Nate Silver.) This year's Prospectus (courtesy this week's Onion) sees both teams coming in with under 90 wins— 89 for the Mets, 87 for the Yankees. Despite the Yankees becoming “simultaneously better and younger" with their free agent signings, the book says, "(They) only partly mask an aging lineup and a shoddy defense.” As for the Mets, BP doesn't exactly predict Philadelphia to run away with the NL East (with 93 wins) and goes so far to declare that the team “will never have a better opportunity to win a World Series with their current core than they do now.” The harshest criticism around town (as it often is with statheads) comes at Derek Jeter, who the book says “By 2010, Jeter’s glove won’t play in the infield and his bat won’t play anywhere else.”