The New Player Search Tool.

Keeping data on multiple spreadsheets isn't ideal, and while moving it all onto a webpage would be ideal it unfortunately isn't something that can happen right now. In the mean time, I want to make these spreadsheets a little easier to use.  This new Player Search tool is a good first step. Let me show you its features.

  1. You can type the name of a player or use the drop down menu to search for a player.
  2. Once you begin a player search, the Status will change to "Processing." When the data is ready to use the Status will change back to "Loaded". This should only take a few seconds.
  3. New Home/Away Splits! More splits!
  4. Projection data is currently imported from the "Rest of Season" spreadsheet. This is not yet updated for true 2018 Projections, but hopefully that will come very soon.
  5. User Customizable Batted Ball Fields. You can use the drop down menu to change which stats you're interested in. Note that combining different types of fields may break the charts, since they are on different scales. For example, BIP% and EV will not get along, since one is on a 0-1 scale and the other is on a 70-100 scale. You can type in or select "Empty" to leave the column empty. 

Why Is the Spreadsheet Structured Like this?

This spreadsheet is built on top of importrange and query functions, with a second spreadsheet working in the background. That hidden spreadsheet is importing data from each of the xStats spreadsheets (the main sheet, the home/away splits sheet, and the projection sheet) and querying that data for whichever batter or pitcher you elect to search for.

The results of this query are then imported into the Player Search spreadsheet.  I structured the spreadsheets in this manner to reduce the download size and time, but in doing so I increased the processing time when searching for each individual batter or pitcher, hence the use of the Status marker. It can take a few seconds to retrieve data from the hidden sheet.  

Where is the Month to Month Data?

It is coming. It requires a second backend spreadsheet to query the month data, since I maxed out the storage space in the first hidden page. You can only store about 2 GB of data in a spreadsheet, and that hidden sheet is currently sitting on 1.8 to 1.9 GB. This is why I created that hidden sheet in the first place, so you don't need to wait to download those 2 GB of data each time you open the Player Search. The Player Search is lean and mean so it will load quickly. 

What is going on with the Projections?

They aren't ready yet, so I am using the rest of season projections for the moment. The final projections probably will not change much, and hopefully they will be ready soon. I am aiming for January 1st but no promises.

The Plate Appearance totals are a weighted average of the past three season Plate Appearance totals. I will soon put together "retired" flags for players, so batters like David Ortiz will be removed. If you would like to help me out with that, you can make a copy of the "Names" tab of the Main Stats Spreadsheet, create 2015 DL, 2015 Mi, 2016 DL, 2016 Mi, 2017 DL, and 2017 Mi columns. Put a -1 for a retired player, the number of days on the DL in the DL column, and number of days in the minors for the Mi column. That would be very helpful.

If you have any feedback:

Once again, here is a link to the Player Search Tool: