By Sean in DC
In my last two articles, I looked at podcasts that keep you up to date. This week, I am going to look at some statistical websites that you can consult for help.
Most of the major sites - i.e. Yahoo!, Sporting News, ESPN, CBS - all give you the ability to sort player stats (for the major stat categories) by season, last 30 days, last 15 days, and last week. As the season gets longer, you need to pay more attention to how a player has done recently, not look just at season-long numbers as it normally, for example, won’t do you much good if you pick up a player who was hot at the start of the season but has been slumping in the last month.
As we all know, it’s a case of “what have you done for me lately?”, and with the season half over, you want someone who is performing now. Instead of simply picking up whoever has the most home runs on your waiver wire, check to see who has done what lately and use the statistics to notice trends. By sorting the stats accordingly, you can tell who is hot now!
Sometimes, when researching a player, you need more than the basic statistics. Here are a few sites that can help you when you need more than what your league sites have to offer.
FanGraphs.com is one of the best stat sites out there, in my opinion. Chris in NorCal also publicized them quite extensively on a recent episode of his podcast, Fantasy Baseball Mafia’s “The Game Plan”. FanGraphs.com offers not only the most basic of stats but also many more advanced statistics - the ones that many of you sabermetricians desire.
You can sort player stats by any month, get ground ball and fly ball percentages, figure out what pitches pitchers are throwing, grab minor league leader stats for those up and coming rookies, and much, much more.
Baseball HQ.com and BaseballProspectus.com both offer great articles, that accompany their statistics, while Rotowire.com and Rotoworld.com are also useful for daily updates. Both also offer some nice statistics options. However, you need to be aware that all four of these sites are subscription-based.
Baseballmonster.com is an interesting site that allows you to rank players based on your league statistics. It’s also great for preseason rankings and mid-season drafts.
Sometimes you may want to check out how well a player has done historically. If that’s the case, check out Retrosheet.com - the granddaddy of all historical baseball statistic sites - and Baseball-Reference.com which have some nice historical stats.
As with podcasts, there are dozens of sites, with all sorts of various statistics, available. We’ve only scratched the surface. The biggest lesson to keep in mind is this: use all of your sources wisely. Use them as you can and where you can. But be careful to remember: there is such a thing as information overload.