Baseball Data Center was created with the goal of making the data retrieval process for baseball statistics simple.

The baseballdc library exposes one function to the end user, the get_data function. By calling this function with the required parameter object, you can retrieve baseball statistics in a Pandas DataFrame to use in your Python project.

Use pip to install baseballdc:

pip install baseballdc

To retrieve data with baseballdc, you need to pass a Python dictionary as a parameter into the get_data function. (If you are not familiar with Python dictionaries, here is a quick overview.)

The format of the dictionary that the get_data function requires is:

{
	'data_source': string,
	'query_params': {
		'scope': string,
		'table': string
	}
}

baseballdc currently only scrapes data from Baseball Reference, so the data_source should be set to 'BASEBALL_REFERENCE'.

'data_source': 'BASEBALL_REFERENCE',

The query_param object is itself a dictionary, with two required values, and multiple optional values.

The two required values are scope, and table.

The scope of the data you can retrieve is one of three options:

• 'INDIVIDUAL_PLAYER'
• 'TEAM'
• 'SEASON'

The table is the name of the table on Baseball Reference

For example the request:

{
        'data_source': 'BASEBALL_REFERENCE',
        'query_params': {
                'scope': 'TEAM',
                'table': 'Active Franchises',
        }
}

will retrieve the Active Franchises table, that can be found here on Baseball Reference.

There are also optional values that can be included in query_params. These are used to further specify which table you are requesting. The list of accepted optional parameters are

• first_name
• last_name
• team
• league
• year

A few example requests you could make are below.

Retrieve Shohei Ohtani's Player Value--Pitching table, found here on Baseball Reference:

{
        'data_source': 'BASEBALL_REFERENCE',
        'query_params': {
                'scope': 'INDIVIDUAL_PLAYER',
                'table': 'Player Value--Pitching',
                'first_name': 'Shohei',
                'last_name': 'Ohtani'
        }
}

Retrieve Juan Soto's Advanced Batting table, found here on Baseball Reference:

{
        'data_source': 'BASEBALL_REFERENCE',
        'query_params': {
                'scope': 'INDIVIDUAL_PLAYER',
                'table': 'Advanced Batting',
                'first_name': 'Juan',
                'last_name': 'Soto'
        }
}

Retrieve the Detroit Tigers 2021 Team Pitching table, found here on Baseball Reference:

{
        'data_source': 'BASEBALL_REFERENCE',
        'query_params': {
                'scope': 'TEAM',
                'table': 'Team Pitching',
                'team': 'DET',
                'year': '2021'
        }
}

Retrieve the National League's Team Standard Batting table for the 2021 season, found here on Baseball Reference:

{
            'data_source': 'BASEBALL_REFERENCE',
            'query_params': {
                'scope': 'SEASON',
                'table': 'Team Standard Batting',
                'league': 'NL',
                'year': '2021'
            }
        }

import baseballdc

baseballdc_request = {
	'data_source': 'BASEBALL_REFERENCE',
	'query_params': {
                'scope': 'INDIVIDUAL_PLAYER',
                'table': 'Standard Batting',
                'first_name': 'Shohei',
                'last_name': 'Ohtani'
	}
}

data_frame = baseballdc.get_data(baseballdc_request)