Nate Silver hired by ESPN

Political analyst and sports statistician Nate Silver will be leaving The New York Times for ESPN, The Times reported on Friday citing ESPN sources (which is just comical in itself).

Silver is a sabermetrician who developed a baseball player stats prediction system called PECOTA, which he sold to Baseball Prospectus in 2003. After managing PECOTA for BP for several years, Silver expanded his statistical analysis to politics, where he began making predictions for the 2008 presidential election under the pseudonym “Poblano.” Silver eventually started writing on his own website FiveThirtyEight.com, which was later published by The Times. He wrote a book and gained notoriety for his accurate predictions concerning the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.

The Times says Silver will be a contributor to Keith Olbermann’s evening talk show ESPN2, in addition to providing statistical analysis. He will also have a role at ABC News during political years.

[Related: Keith Olbermann returning to ESPN to host nightly talk show]

Silver has recently expressed an interest in getting back to sports, so this deal will allow him that opportunity.

Photo: Randy Stewart