Introducing the RosterResource Lineup Tracker!
The Lineup Tracker is the latest addition to our RosterResource collection at FanGraphs. This newest feature is an extension of our “Projected Go-To Lineups vs RHP” on the RosterResource depth charts, allowing readers to pick up on trends by providing a regularly updated look at where every player has batted in the order and lined up defensively throughout the season. The link to this feature can be found in the RosterResource drop-down menu under “In-Season Tools”.
I’ll be explaining the Lineup Tracker in detail on today’s episode of The RosterResource Show, which will air live at 4:30 PM PT/7:30 PM ET on Twitch and the FanGraphs homepage. It will be the first topic covered.
As has been the case with the last few RosterResource additions, including the Closer Depth Chart, Transaction Tracker, and Injury Report, we have several ideas that would improve this feature once we circle back around for upgrades. We have only one remaining feature to build — the Schedule Grid/Probable Starting Pitchers — that had been part of the RosterResource website prior to joining FanGraphs.
Among the ideas we have for improvements are breakdowns per lineup spot and defensive position, links to box scores, specific date ranges, and a hover option that will show a stat line from any particular game. Continue reading for an explanation of what is currently included.
What information is included?
Every position player who has been on a roster, regardless of status (injured, released, designated for assignment, on a different team), is listed under that particular team. Here is the information included and how they’re sorted:
- Sorted from Top to Bottom: 1. Projected Go-To Lineup vs RHP (defined as the expected lineup if the playoffs started today and the opposing pitcher was right-handed) 2. Bench 3. Paternity/Bereavement/Restricted/Family Emergency 4. Injured List 5. Minors 6. New Team 7. DFA/Released/Retired.
- Name: A light blue background is for players on the Active Roster; a white background/red font is for players on the Injured List; a white background/black font is for everyone else not on the Active Roster.
- Role: 1-9 refers to batting order; everything else refers to current roster status.
- Power Rankings (Overall/Last 7 Days): Refers to a player’s overall and “last 7 days” RosterResource Power Ranking, which is based on offensive production using several weighted categories. A red background is shown for a ranking in the Top 30.
- Date/vsR or vsL: A blue background means that the starting pitcher on that day was right-handed. A red background means that the starting pitcher on that day was left-handed.
- Lineup spot and defensive position are listed as “position (lineup spot).” Therefore, “CF (1)” means that the player was in the starting lineup as the center fielder and leadoff batter.
- Additional abbreviations:
- INJ: Injured/Active Roster
- ILL: Illness/Active Roster
- IL: Injured List
- PL: Paternity List
- RL: Restricted List
- BL: Bereavement List
- FME: Family Medical Emergency List
- SUSP: Suspended
- DFA: Designated for assignment
- AAA: Triple-A
How often is the Lineup Tracker updated?
“Projected Go-To Lineups” and any roster moves are updated simultaneously with the RosterResource depth charts. Each day’s lineup will usually show up within 10-15 minutes of being announced.
Feedback and Suggestions
Anything else we add or change aside from my aforementioned list of ideas will be a result of reader feedback and suggestions. Please use the comment section below to let us know what you like or dislike about the Lineup Tracker, and what other information you’d like to see.
This is SO incredibly helpful! Please don’t tell anyone else in my fantasy league about it.
For a second, I thought that the page that showed all MLB teams’ rosters on one page was going away.
Glad to see it’s still there!
Love this feature. It’s been helping me all season to pick up those fringe bats.
I like this. I like this a lot. Thank you
Man this looks cool. I really like the idea of linking to box scores for each given date, that sounds like an incredibly powerful feature.
This looks like another great tool from the RosterResources team – the attention to UI optimization to maximize the amount of instantly understandable information at a glance is remarkable and greatly appreciated.
Speaking of which, does anyone know of a tool with a similarly quickly informative UI that will allow you to quickly see whether the players on your specific fantasy roster are out of the lineup for the day and therefore should be substituted out if possible in a daily moves fantasy league? For instance, Andrew McCutchen got a day off yesterday and I was able to put in Lorenzo Cain for him (who got me a much needed SB), but only after spending an inordinate amount of time checking, double-checking and triple-checking each starting lineup on the MLB.com scoreboard as they were provided.
This tool might substitute for the MLB.com scoreboard for that use case, but it would still require a lot of labor and tons of clicks checking each team’s lineup repeatedly.
Most, if not all, platforms should show you that each day on your team roster page – I’ve played daily leagues in CBS, Fantrax and ESPN and those all did.
The daily moves league I am particularly interested in having a tool like this for is on OnRoto, a once groundbreaking but now quite antiquated platform – there is just not a tool there that provides this functionality. I also use CBS — that is a weekly moves league so I do not need a daily moves tool like I described there, but if I did the tools available there are still far less robust and convenient than the tool I am imagining — the news feed there will probably tell you when a player is out of the lineup, but I do not think it will report it 100% of the time, and it will not provide the assurance of telling you when the player IS in the lineup.
Baseball Press has a useful tool for this.
The Baseball Press has a “My Lineups” tool. You create a list of the players on your fantasy team(s) and it shows you on one handy page who is starting that day as well as some general weather info.
https://www.baseballpress.com/my-lineups
Thanks … that is more or less what I was looking for (although I sure do wish the Roster Resources folks would work their UI magic on something like that).
Neat
This is awesome! I assume this is not possible, but it would be amazing (for fantasy players) if Fangraphs Custom Teams could somehow pull this data in.
This is a big dealllll
One suggestion that would be very helpful to fantasy owners. When projecting in-season stats, it would be really helpful to see how many games each player (including pitchers) has been on the active roster without having to count each game manually using the lineup tracker. Once we have that information, it makes projecting the at bats/innings pitched for the rest of the season much easier. I do this manually every week. It would be awesome if Fangraphs could provide that information. Thank you! The website is great!
Absolutely amazing. I am starting to look at this daily. Great addition. I can’t wait until a Starting Pitcher tool is available. Keep up the excellent work.
Very impressive!
This is a superb feature, thank you!
My suggestion is for you to add a rolling (say past 20 games) summary of how often a player is being benched against same-side pitchers. I’ve been using the lineup tracker since I first saw it as a way of judging who is being platooned and how regularly, but counting through games every week is time-consuming.
Thanks Jason. This is really cool. Another great tool to distract me from what I should be doing. I haven’t listened to the podcast yet but do you dive into what the weighted categories are for the rankings? One thing that would be fun is if we could control the rankings based on our league settings just like the auction calculator.