Archive for Site News

Hello! This year marks 21 seasons of FanGraphs, and as we look ahead to the August 5 anniversary of our launch, I wanted to thank you for reading and visiting the site. And, as has become an annual tradition, I also wanted to provide you with an update on the state of FanGraphs.

I started last year’s version of this piece by listing all of our new features and site improvements. As this year’s list is even longer, instead of detailing everything up front, I’ve included a Feature Appendix at the bottom of this post. Take a look – it’s quite a scroll. What I was struck by as I was compiling that list is just how much we’ve been able to accomplish with our Members’ support, support that has translated into new features, voices, data, and other random fun stuff you didn’t even know you wanted. From the written work of our dedicated team of baseball experts to all the stats and leaderboards, the data and fantasy tools to the prospect analysis, the projections, RosterResource, the mobile app, the podcasts, the chats — the depth and breadth of the site is very special. Plus, we do it all without private equity funding or sports betting partnerships, allowing us to produce the independent analysis and high-quality tools you’ve come to rely on.

And while I think the future of FanGraphs is bright, I also think it’s worth talking about the realities of running a sports media site in 2026, the challenges we see looming, and why your support matters more now than it ever has before.

First, if you are a FanGraphs Member, thank you so much for your continued support. Membership is set to account for about 80% of our revenue this year. Six years ago, that number was about 25%. Still, our Members only make up about 2% of what we believe to be the real-life human visitors to the site. We want our work and data to be accessible, but we’re up against a number of challenges.

Data Is More Expensive

FanGraphs isn’t free to operate. We don’t scrape data, opting instead to maintain agreements with all our data providers. This has been our model from day one, both because I wanted FanGraphs to be sustainable and for our data to be reliable, and because people deserve to be paid for their work. This strategy seems to have worked out, but it comes at a cost. Our data costs have nearly doubled over the past five years. At the same time…

Advertising Revenue Is Down, While Bots and Scraping Cost Us More

Our advertising revenue has decreased 50% since 2024. There are multiple factors at work here, some of which are good. We’ve decreased the number of ads on some pages, and our Members enjoy a fully ad-free experience as one of their Member benefits. But as I mentioned, even with the growth we’ve seen, Members only account for about 2% of our total users, and there is a massive discrepancy between the ads served to non-Members and the number of pageviews we’ve served. This May, multiple site analytics tools we use claim we served about 12 million pageviews to non-Members; ads were served on just 2.1 million of those pageviews. That’s only about 18% of pageviews, compared to 51% two years ago. That’s a staggering amount of missing ad revenue.

Two things are likely happening here. First, we’re seeing a lot more bot traffic, which often doesn’t register as the sort of browser session that advertisers care about. We estimate that at least 60% of all traffic coming to FanGraphs is from non-human sources, including web crawlers, AI bots, and scrapers. In addition to the decline in ad revenue, this has led to increased server costs and us spending valuable time figuring out where the offending traffic is coming from in order to keep the site operational.

Second, folks are much more apt to use ad blockers these days, so while our overall site traffic hasn’t declined, our non-Member users are seeing ads at much lower rates. This creates the untenable situation where we’re serving up more content, but also serving up fewer ads because those ads are either being blocked, or the thing using our resources isn’t even a person.

Those are some of the challenges we face right now, but the landscape we operate in also has some big potential shocks on the horizon, one likely to affect digital publishing more generally, the other specific to baseball.

The Impact of AI

First, I’ll take this opportunity to share our editorial policy around the use of AI. All of the editorial content at FanGraphs is written entirely by the members of our staff, without any assistance from generative AI models, and that will remain our policy going forward. You don’t come to FanGraphs to read ChatGPT’s analysis, and there’s no way it could come up with the headlines Michael Baumann does.

And while the development team has found AI to be a useful coding tool, we don’t use it to create stats or metrics, or ask it to source the data displayed on the site. I have no interest in Claude hallucinating Jacob Misiorowski’s strikeout rate or average fastball velocity (though you’d be forgiven for wondering if either is real).

Of course, AI’s impact goes beyond the need for code checks or an editorial policy. Put simply, AI is taking our content and repurposing it in a way that could make it so that there’s no need to actually visit the site. Indeed, changes to many popular search engines mean many people unfamiliar with FanGraphs might not even discover the site in the first place. Just think about the AI results you see on Google. How many people are going to click through to our Brewers Top Prospect list, a piece that took days to write and edit, when Gemini will serve up much of Jesús Made’s scouting report, tool grades and all? If there’s ever been an existential crisis for online publishers, it’s this. Whether it’s Membership or advertising revenue, our business model depends on visiting the site, and AI seems poised to keep people away, eroding the link between writers and readers.

Baseball’s Looming Lockout

The precise impact of this winter’s seemingly inevitable lockout is tough to gauge, as it will greatly depend on how long it takes MLB and the Players Association to reach an agreement. But if the pandemic and the last lockout taught us anything, it’s that not having major league baseball isn’t great for a baseball media site. We saw our traffic dip 50% during the 2021-22 lockout. The support of our Members helped us weather it, but it was a challenge, and if we were to lose an entire season, I’m not sure what it would mean for FanGraphs without significant Membership growth.

So what should you take from all of this? Well first, become a FanGraphs Member! Membership allows us to continue to grow and improve the site, providing a source of revenue that’s immune from macro forces like AI or baseball’s labor dispute, and that’s more stable than advertising. We’re in a moment where it’s incumbent upon all of us to support the writers, artists and publications we love, or risk losing them. Obviously I hope FanGraphs is on that list for you, but this isn’t just a FanGraphs thing. Unfortunately, the era of good free content is over. Ultimately, the advertising model syphoned a shocking amount of money away from publishers to middlemen and tech giants, and AI is threatening to destroy one of the most reliable ways for us to surface our work to new readers. But your direct support puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s not what SEO wants, or AI wants, or what the advertisers want. It’s what you want.

Our pledge to you is that if you support us, we’ll keep producing all the great baseball analysis you’ve come to rely on, and continue to grow the site in new and interesting ways, just like we have for the past 21 years.

New Feature Appendix

More Voices

• Four New Full-Times Hires
• Six New Contributors

FanGraphs Lab

• Baseball Simulator
• PitchingBot Visualizer
• Heat Maps Pivot Tables
• Squared-Up Explorer
• Hot Streak Finder
• Paired Pitches
• Power Rankings Board
• Count Progression Analysis

New App Features

• Greater Customization
• RosterResource Integration
• Prospect Integration, including The Board
• Score and Game Status Push Notifications
• Article Push Notifications
• College Leaderboards
• KBO Leaderboards
• NPB Leaderboards

Over 100 New Metrics, Including…

• Statcast Bat Tracking Stats
• ABS Zone Stats
• Strike Zone Breakdowns
• Spin and Arm Angle Metrics
• Statcast Spring Training Data on Player Pages
• Statcast Minor League Data on Player Pages (Triple-A/Florida State League)

RosterResource

• Contract Summary Pages
• Contract Incentive Data
• Projected Platoon Lineups
• Coaching Breakdown

Site Enhancements

• Updated Game Graphs, Box Scores, and Schedule Pages
• New Pitcher Cards with Live PitchingBot Data
• Updated WAR Graphs Tool
• Updated Player Comparison Tools
• Pitch Type Leaderboards

Projections

• THE BAT X for pitchers
• OOPSY Peak projections

Other Cool Stuff

• Spring Training and Holiday Headers
• WBC Flag Banners and Opening Day Bunting
• Additional FanGraphs Walk-Off Metrics
• Trade Value ELO
• New Merchandise

Late last season, we completely rebuilt the Scores section of FanGraphs from the ground up. During the offseason, we continued that effort by redesigning the pages that support it, including new Box Scores, Game Graphs, Game Stats, and Play Logs. Those updates were aimed at making it easier to explore and understand everything that happens during a game, from the first pitch to the final out.

Today, we’re excited to introduce the newest addition to that suite of tools: Pitcher Game Cards, which can be found in Game Graphs.

The Pitcher Game Cards are designed to provide a detailed, game-level snapshot of every pitcher who appears in a game. While a traditional box score can tell you what happened, the Pitcher Game Cards help explain how it happened by combining game results, pitch usage, movement profiles, and pitch quality metrics into a single view. Read the rest of this entry »

Father’s Day is right around the corner, and the last day to order FanGraphs merchandise and have it arrive in time for the holiday is June 12. We ship everything USPS Priority mail, so it typically takes 2-3 days to arrive, with some remote locations potentially taking longer.

Below, I’ve curated a brief list of potential gifts for the dad in your life. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the latest installment of FanGraphs Changelog, where we update you on some of the recent improvements we’ve made to the site as we work to build a better FanGraphs.

First, a few things you might know about already:

• We updated the Baseball Simulator to include a bunch more features, including historical players and park and weather factors.
• We launched the RosterResource Roster Grid.

App Updates!

We’ve added The Board to the FanGraphs mobile app, which can be download here: App Store (iOS) or Play Store (Android).

In adding prospects to the app, we’ve outgrown the bottom tab bar, so you can now select between a few preset tab bar configurations; Members can fully customize the tab bar. To customize the tabs, go to the More Menu and select “Customize Tabs.” As a reminder, all features in the app can be found within the More Menu.

We’ve also implemented a new Member feature that allows users to set their default player page view options, while also allowing for temporary changes:

One of the challenges of fitting a data-intensive website into a mobile app is figuring out how to allow users to view the ever-growing number of tables they want to see. For example, I might have default tables that I typically look at for a given player (in the image above, it’s the Standard table), but today I need to see that player’s wRC+, WAR and Win Probably Added to settle a debate with a friend. Using the Temporary view option, I can temporarily enable the tables to see those stats. The next time I use the app, however, it will reset to the default view that I’m used to.

We’ve also implemented push notifications for both Android and iOS. After enabling notifications at the OS level, you can find the main controls for the notifications in the More Menu under “Notifications.” There you can choose to follow updates based on a scoring change in a selected team’s game, see when that team’s game goes final, or both:

If you are using iOS, you can enable Live Activities within the Scores tab to follow a live updating Win Expectancy Graph on your lock screen. Note that iOS limits Live Activities to five at a time:

You can also get a notification when we publish a new article, or follow a writer by tapping the subscribe (bell) button on their byline. Note that co- and tri-bylines are considered distinct from individual authors:

You can also now submit feedback directly in the app to report a bug or request new features:

RosterResource Contracts on Player Pages

Last month, Jon Becker added player contract details to the RosterResource Payroll pages. We’ve now integrated that feature into the player pages. If you go to a player page, find the RosterResource section on the side bar, and click Contract History, you can find the contract history for the player contracts we have tracked since 2020, when we integrated RosterResource into FanGraphs:

We’ve also upgraded the Closer Depth Charts to include more information about a given appearance, including how many innings the pitcher pitched, which innings they pitched, the number of batters they faced, and the leverage when they entered the game:

Legacy Team Usage Lineup/Def

We’ve moved the two player usage tools — Batting Lineups and Defensive Lineups — from the team pages into RosterResource:

These offer different views than the Lineup Tracker, showing the batting and defensive lineups vertically. The “row banding” allows you to see usage streaks more easily.

Flair

We’ve continued expanding our customization options for Members. We wanted to do a black header to go with our Dark Mode, which might have been inspired by some of the recent City Connect uniforms. But unlike the City Connects, the header and theme is totally up to you, the FanGraphs Member!

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below, and if you have any suggestions for site features, please be sure to let us know. And lastly, a thank you to our Members! Membership is the best way to support our staff, and ensure that we can continue to grow and improve the site. We couldn’t do any of this without you!

As you may recall, last month we rolled out the FanGraphs Baseball Simulator as part of FanGraphs Lab. A couple of days later, we added a home field advantage feature.

Well, we’re back with even more features!

Historical Players, Marcel Projections, and Season Stats

You can now select any player from all of baseball history for your simulations. Want Babe Ruth’s 1923 season outcomes in your sim? Not a problem! Want a 1999 version of Pedro Martínez on the mound? You can do that too! Read the rest of this entry »

The Retro FanGraphs Sweatshirt is back in stock!

We partnered with the clothing brand Ellsworth & Ivy to make these retro-themed FanGraphs sweatshirts. They have fully stitched chenille lettering and a stitched logo near the bottom hem:

As a quick reminder, when we put these up for sale in January, they sold out in 24 hours. So get yours before they’re gone!

Over in the RosterResource corner of the site, Jason Martinez and I get a lot of suggestions for things to add, none more popular than something to the effect of “Can we get a way to look at all 30 teams at once?” And now you’ve got it, with the Roster Grid. This was a popular feature in the pre-FanGraphs days of RosterResource, and now it’s back and better than ever:

The view defaults to all 30 teams, grouped by division and stacked (i.e., you’ll scroll down to see more teams), but using the toggles you can customize your viewing experience to:

• Flip lineups from the team’s “go-to” vs. righties to their “go-to” vs. lefties.
• View just a single league or division.
• Switch to a “packed” view such that all of your selected teams will be in a row, allowing for scrolling from left or right (this may be your preferred view for mobile).

This view isn’t meant to replace the main RosterResource pages, which include full 40-man rosters, notable minor league players, lineups, bullpen usage, and statistics. Rather, it’s a quicker “at a glance” view of who’s currently active, versus on the IL, Paternity List, Restricted List, Bereavement List, or Family Medical Emergency List. And for Members, it’s exportable to Excel!

Feedback is welcome and much appreciated, so if you think we’re missing anything that could be incorporated into a future edition of the Roster Grid, please leave a comment!

And of course, as always, thanks to all of our readers and Members for your support. We couldn’t have made all of the additions we have to RosterResource this year without you.

Welcome to the latest FanGraphs Changelog, where we update you on some of the recent improvements we’ve made to the site as we work to build a better FanGraphs.

First, here are some important updates we’ve already announced over the past month, in case you missed them:

• We added three new tools to the FanGraphs Lab, rolling out the Paired Pitches tool, the Power Rankings Board, and the Baseball Simulator.
• We also added Home Field Advantage to the Baseball Simulator.
• Lastly, we added ABS strike zone, arm angle, and spin rate related stats to our player pages and leaderboards.

We’ve worked hard to get our tools updated for the new strike zone and the ABS challenge system. In addition to the new plate discipline metrics added to player page season stats and leaderboards, those stats were also added to the game logs and spark graphs cards. To see how successful players have been when they make ABS challenges, we added an ABS Challenges leaderboard.

We also made a significant update to the FanGraphs mobile app, which can be download here: App Store (iOS) or Play Store (Android).

• We’ve added the full Major League Leaderboards to the app, including your custom reports. The custom report features are the same on the app as they are on the website. You have to be a FanGraphs Member to have more than 10 player or custom stat columns:
  
• You can also set the default for all leaderboards in the app to show you the left edge of the data grid or the right edge. We put some of the most important stats on the right side and default sort data grids by the right column on the website, so we are giving users the option to change this. This can be found under More >> App Settings:
  
• We also updated the RosterResource Closer Depth Charts in the app to reflect the updates on the site:
  

Speaking of RosterResource, the Closer Depth Charts now have more stats:

• The Results section has most of the stats that were previously there, and we’ve added SwStr%, K%, BB%, Shutdowns, and Meltdowns.
• The Arsenal section has individual pitch metrics, including Stuff+.
• We also added the number of pitches thrown and innings pitched over the last six days for each pitcher.
• There’s now a tooltip that has game-level information including innings pitched, total batters faced, innings appeared in, and leverage when the pitcher entered game.

We also made a small Member update. You are now able to download or copy a .png image of many of our graphs and charts, so you no longer have to screenshot them:

If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below, and if you have any suggestions for site features, be sure to let us know. And lastly, a thank you to our Members! Membership is the best way to ensure that we are able to continue to grow and improve the site, and support our staff. We couldn’t do any of this without you.

Last week, we released a baseball simulator in the FanGraphs Lab. This week, we’re adding home field advantage to the simulator. You can toggle HFA on and off using a new menu option:

The chosen home field advantage will then be applied to whatever simulation you run. But how do we calculate home field advantage in this simulated environment? Let’s go over it. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re excited to announce that the latest addition to the FanGraphs Lab is a baseball simulator:

You can click on any of the day’s games to pre-fill the rosters, or build your own using current players. The simulator will then simulate a game 10,000 times. Read the rest of this entry »