hi everyone,
if you are here you probably know i run the pitch leaderboard as a free, publicly accessible source of mlb's statcast data. it is a labor of love—emphasis on the labor.
five years and ~300,000 pageviews later, i am putting part of the leaderboard behind a "paywall." this decision still gives me some heartburn; i favor the open source, and, lest i mince words, baseball data gatekeeping infuriates me.
the deal is my daughter's in preschool now and i've got a mortgage. moreover, i'd be lying to myself if i said i didn't know the pitch leaderboard is a valuable resource, not just for writers and researchers but for active players and coaches as well. this is an experiment in me (or, i guess, you) valuing my time, mostly retroactively.
most of the leaderboard remains publicly available. in my opinion there are parts that should, if not need, to remain publicly available: the core measurements of pitching and hitting, and the metrics that support the analysis of them. behind the paywall—what your membership will unlock—is the "value added" metrics, the half-baked byproducts of my flimsy, soggy brain:
blast rate (blast%)
launch angle tightness, aka standard deviation of launch angle (sdLA)
exit velocity (EV) and launch angle (LA) influence
dERA and pFIP (and their components)
my pride and joy: the pitcher profiler
(new for 2024) percentiles
(new for 2024) fantasy baseball player values with specific date filters
this is a no-frills deal. there's one membership tier. you either subscribe or you don't; you either get the password or you don't. no fun extra content and, ideally, no annoying emails (except for the new monthly password).
there will inevitably be growing pains, but hopefully they're few and far between. i appreciate your patience in advance.
if you made it this far, thank you. i hope you consider supporting me (again, for those of you have before, which is many of you).
if you have questions, find me on twitter @DolphHauldhagen (or @Pitch_Leaderbrd). thanks, and i hope you still enjoy the pitch leaderboard despite my avarice.
<3 alex