I'd like to build a web app that is a sports stats/simulation combination game.
The basis of the game is you get to pick one player at each position - LF, CF, RF, 3B, SS, 2B, 1B, C, SP, RP so 10 players total.
The way you choose a player is by pressing a "SPIN" button that randomly picks an MLB team and year from anytime in the last 50 years.
You are then presented with the players and their statistics on that team and that year as options to fill one of the empty slots you have not filled in your lineup. There will be 10 spins to fill each of the 10 spots. You can fill the spots in any order you wish, but only 1 player for each spot. So, if you pick a starting pitcher from the 1985 Cardinals for your first pick, you can no longer pick a starting pitcher on the next turn.
After all roster spots have been filled, we will run a simulation to evaluate/predict what the record would be for the team based purely on the statistics of those players from only the year/version of that player.
Things we need for this:
1) We need to build a database of players and years and statistics from each year. It would be like:
For hitters:
Player, Team, Year, Batting Avg, Runs, HR, RBI, SB
For pitchers:
Player, Team, Year, Wins, Losses, Saves, ERA, WHIP, SO
So if we do not have those statistics we cannot build this. That is the first question I need answered. If yes, we should proceed.
cloudsec9•31m ago
That said, I see the appeal, so: there are a few spots to pick up stats for little or no cost, excluding of course the current years games. I think that's okay, as you'd want full year coverage, not pro-rated bits.
My question is whether you want to download ALL the stats as one chunk (seems unwise), or it little bits? I've heard of 82-0 but not sure if that's a commercial endeavor or just a fun exercise.
I'm not at my main machine ATM, but will circle back and post some URLs that stats are available at later today.