They have a ton of statistical data and sabermetric information, but they also have excellent analysis from a group of very good writers. They do daily live chats and podcasts and are great about giving the people what they want. You can find a section that explains every sabermetric statistic and they do a fantastic job improving the functionality of the site and provide readers with much more user friendly leaderboards than BR. If you want stats, this is the best place to get them. If you want smart analysis, this is also the best place to get it.

The amount of information on this site is staggering. Statistics, draft info, random trivia. It’s a clearinghouse for everything you need to know and the exceptionally cool Play Index allows you to go looking for quirky events on top of the regular things you find on any given page. Serious, get the Play Index.

The hesitation on BP is that most of their content is behind a paywall. That’s certainly their right, but one should judge a site based on its quality to cost ratio. They have statistics, but the quality of presentation trails Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs (even if they do keep some good esoteric ones), and the overall visual appeal of the site is lacking. That said, I’m telling you why they’re 9th instead of 4th. They have a huge range of content, great set of podcasts, and overall excellent product that mixes MLB, fantasy, and prospect level coverage.

This is the site you need to bookmark if you care about transactions. Trades and signings. The staff at MLBTR does a great job synthesizing the news of the day and they do it quickly. I happen to follow a million baseball writers on Twitter and keep tabs on almost everything, but if you don’t have quite that much time, MLB TR does it for you. When roster moves happen, they’re always there for you.

Brooks Baseball is a top nine website for its Pitch F/X tool. You can select a date, game, and pitcher and within minutes, be looking at everything he threw that day, where it went, and how much it broke. Those graphics you see on MLB Gameday and MLB At-Bat with all of this data are compiled here and stored in a very accessible way. They’ve also added data on hitters and have dramatically improved the functionality of the site since this list was originally published. 

Obvious.  We have to include our hometown team!  We used a KK tourney logo to stay away from using a protected logo.

They’re so great that BP bought them. Every contract for every play and spreadsheets of team payroll data. Want to know how long a contract is and how much it’s worth in each year? They have that. It’s incredible. A one stop shop.

They have an amazing Pitch F/X search tool. If you’re into that type of data, it’s an excellent resource to go deeper into the weeds than Brooks allows. But it’s more than that considering the amount of work Daren has put in over the last year. Graphics, comparisons, catcher data, you name it. Plus, he seems to be willing to add features on request. Hugely vital for the baseball researcher.

If you are going to subscribe to one baseball magazine, this is the one to choose.  Great information on college and professional baseball.  

We so often forget about the minor league baseball players.  It is hard to find information and data.  This is the place to start.