One Year Ago Today

by Jeff Sullivan on Jan 12, 2009 3:26 PM PST in Seattle Mariners News, Great

Fangraphs, circa January 2008.

Over the past twelve months, David Appelman has added to his blossoming website:

CHONE projections
Marcel projections
ZiPS projections
Better and exportable leaderboards
Pitch type information
Pitch velocity information
Live play logs and box scores
Plate discipline information
UZR
Win value data
A stable of awesome writers, headed by our own Matthew and Dave
A bunch of other stuff that I'm forgetting

Fangraphs used to be a neat little place that served a handful of interesting but ultimately minor uses, like Brandon Fahey's playpen, or Canada. Now it's turned into required daily reading and one of the most informative baseball websites on the planet. Seriously, if you're not reading, you're not trying. So kudos to you, Mr. Appelman - we are forever indebted to you and your efforts. I may never delete Baseball-Reference from my bookmarks, but baseball analysis wouldn't be where it is today were it not for your extraordinary vision.

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Comments

You stole this from my post in the other thread.

You are such a shameless whore.

(Man I wish I could’ve attended the LL/USSM get-together…I think I’m still just pissed about missing it.)

Patriotism, Pepper, Professionalism

by esoteric on Jan 12, 2009 3:31 PM PST reply actions

Hear hear!

Fangraphs has become the definitive non-Mariners baseball site for me. Amazing stuff they’ve done in such a short time period.

by Teej on Jan 12, 2009 3:37 PM PST reply actions

I use it as much as baseball-reference

and that’s a lot of usage.

by JI on Jan 12, 2009 3:38 PM PST reply actions

It's as if B-Ref supplemented their site with a more appealing visual layout and a stable of interesting writers churning out cool stuff every day.

Well, I guess “as if” is pretty unnecessary in this case. It IS B-Ref with all of those things.

Patriotism, Pepper, Professionalism

by esoteric on Jan 12, 2009 3:39 PM PST up reply actions

I very much like the layout for bbref's player and team pages

infinitely more than Fangraphs’

In fact it’s a testament to how much great stuff there is at Fangraphs that I use it constantly despite it being so visually unappealing.

by JI on Jan 12, 2009 3:42 PM PST up reply actions

Huh. Guess it's just an aesthetic difference of opinion.

Patriotism, Pepper, Professionalism

by esoteric on Jan 12, 2009 3:44 PM PST up reply actions

Although I do appreciate the Fangraphs will accept nearly any typo and bring to the player I want

by JI on Jan 12, 2009 4:04 PM PST up reply actions

B-R's splits and gamelogs make it indispensable, though.

As well as a wealth of other stuff that Fangraphs doesn’t have. Two awesome sites, and both deserve high praise.

by Teej on Jan 12, 2009 3:45 PM PST up reply actions

Yeah, the gamelogs are wonderful.

I just wish there was an option to add delightful anecdotal commentary to the gamelogs. The stories contained in some of those logs are just dying to be told with more than numbers.

Patriotism, Pepper, Professionalism

by esoteric on Jan 12, 2009 3:47 PM PST up reply actions