Best Baseball stat sites

by WyoRanger on Mar 4, 2009 2:42 PM CST

A couple people people were talking about stat cites and one mentioned that BP is becoming obsolete. The other day I just discovered (based on a discussion here) that baseballcube is really good for draft information. But the fact is, I'm not really well versed on what site is good for what (nor do I know all of them). I basically use baseball-reference for most things since it has OPS+ and ERA+ and also look at fangraphs, mlb.com, yahoo, but I'm wondering if other people want to share their opinions.

What I'm thinking is: what site do you use and for what specific purpose? A unique metric, intuitive organization, easy to categorize what you're looking for, good biographical information, good minor league site, individual pitch information, etc. I'm sure people use different sites for different purposes so that's what I'm trying to figure out. If I want to find X categorized by Y I'd like to easily do it.

I'd like to understand what sites offer what without spending hours trying to figure it out plus I'm guessing there might be some lesser known sites. I'm unlikely to subscribe to a site but it would be good to know what they have to offer.

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I like

fangraphs and firstinning, for things like K and BB rates (not per 9 innings, but as a % of batters faced). firstinning also has wOBA. statcorner is the home of tRA and has wOBA as well. fangraphs and statcorner calculate wOBA a little differently, but statcorner and, especially first inning has these stats for more minor leaguers than fangraphs seems to. First inning seems to include most minor leaguers all the way down to rookie ball and even some guys from the DR summer leagues.

For minor leaguers I go to firstinning, milb.com (which has GB rates and splits), and baseball cube, and sometimes minorleague reference (sister site to BR). cube is updated less during the season it seems. For major leaguers I don’t think you can beat fangraphs and statcorner.

I wish one site had all the stats I like, wOBA, K and BB rates, tRA, GB rates, splits, age, draft info, etc. I hate having to go to a few different sites all the time.

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by t ball on Mar 4, 2009 2:57 PM CST reply actions

I second all of those

and wish there was one site that had them all as well.

http://minormoosings.blogspot.com/

by Goyogringo on Mar 4, 2009 5:57 PM CST up reply actions

I use

B-R the most because of the sheer colume of information and ease of use, and I use Fangraphs because it compiles projections.

I also like Cot’s contracts. It’s not technically a baseball stats site, but it’s extremely useful.

And, finally, I come to LSB, because chances are, if you’re looking for Pedro Guerrero’s OPS+ against lefties in 1988, there’s already a FanPost about it and kinslerhomer already has a link posted.

Purgatory's kind of like the in-betweeny one. You weren't really shit, but you weren't all that great either. Like Tottenham.

by TheJeezus on Mar 4, 2009 3:00 PM CST reply actions

+1

cot’s is awesome

and this is what i use the most – baseball reference, cot’s and fangraphs are far and away the top 3 i spend the most time on

Scout: He was a first-round pick right? Got a huge bonus?
KG: Oh yeah.
Scout: Well, he spent a lot of it on milkshakes.

by knockoutking on Mar 4, 2009 3:07 PM CST up reply actions

It's a pretty hard question to answer because every stat has some purpose, it's just how you use it.

The best site is the most thorough, and in that case, Baseball Reference has the most information. It’s mostly basic, but every uber stat comes from the basics so that’s perhaps even more important. And B-R just has so much information, it’s indespensible.

FanGraphs would come after that not only for thorough numbers and lots of ways to look at them, but some great uber stats (UZR, FIP, WAR, wOBA). As well as a decent blog.

Baseball Prospectus is mostly there for the writing these days, but they do still have some stat purposes. With an account, you can go back in time and look at some pretty useful and sortable historical stats that other sites don’t have. In particular, EqA.

Bill James Online has, I think the best defensive stat (plus/minus), but it’s not free and there’s not much else to the site.

If you’re looking for the best uber stats and were to find them, here’s a listy type thing:

tRA/pRAA: Stat Corner. I feel the best way to evaluate pitchers statistically, and they have it for the minors, as well.

xFIP/Win Shares/Runs Created/GPA/OOZ/RZR: The Hardball Times. While I don’t think xFIP is better than tRA, or Win Shares better than WAR, or GPA better than wOBA, or OOZ and RZR better than UZR or Plus/Minus, they are all still somewhat useful and at the same site.

wOBA/wRAA/WAR/UZR/WPA: Fan Graphs. WOBA is probably the best freely available offensive measure, UZR is probably the best free defensive measure. And FanGraphs’ version of Wins Above Replacement is probably the best current form of an all-encompasing player metric out there, and they even give you every individual element of it.

Minor League Stats: Minor League Splits.

Projections: Baseball Prospectus.

Historical WAR: Baseball Projections. The CHONE guy recently came out with this nifty encyclopedia of the WAR (using Total Zone for defense) of every player back through 1955.

Hopefully that actually answers the question.

And That Happened: Sports with a Hint of Sarcasm

by philkid3 on Mar 4, 2009 3:17 PM CST reply actions 2 recs

That's pretty comprehensive.

And I especially agree on the idea that Baseball Reference is my usual first stop.

My 2009 New Years Resolution: Quit feeding the trolls.

by ghtd36 on Mar 4, 2009 4:14 PM CST up reply actions

Nice compilation

Now, write it up as a FanPost with links and we can all rec it up so that its easy to find in the future. :-)

by NorCalRangersFan on Mar 4, 2009 5:58 PM CST up reply actions

I might do that.

Solid idea.

And That Happened: Sports with a Hint of Sarcasm

by philkid3 on Mar 4, 2009 7:23 PM CST up reply actions

Forgot about THT

I go there for xFIP and win shares. I like to use FIP, xFIP, tRA, ERA+ and rate stats all to get an overall picture of the pitcher. I don’t use any one of those as the holy grail stat.

G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....

by t ball on Mar 4, 2009 6:24 PM CST up reply actions