MLB Terminal
Access to historical and real-time MLB baseball scores and stats in the terminal.
Overview
Don't you just wish you could have a little terminal app to stream out real-time stats for a MLB baseball game? Look no further! Please note, the use of this data is subjected to the terms put forth by the MLB. More information can be found here: http://gdx.mlb.com/components/copyright.txt. You're okay if you're using this data for individual use!
Although there are several other gems out there that provide access to MLB Gamday data, mlb_terminal
provides a one-stop shop for streaming data and piping it to other processes. For the true sports hacker in us all!
Installation
To install MLB Terminal, please install Ruby 1.9.3 and RubyGems. Then install MLB Terminal via:
gem install mlb_terminal
For more information regarding this gem, please visit the RubyGems page for mlb_terminal.
Syntax
Typical usage starts off by scanning the games for a specific date:
> mlb games --date yesterday
0 Athletics (0-2) @ Tigers (2-0) 12:00 ET (Final) 4-5
1 Nationals (1-0) @ Cardinals (0-1) 3:00 ET (Final) 3-2
2 Yankees (1-0) @ Orioles (0-1) 6:00 ET (Final) 7-2
3 Reds (2-0) @ Giants (0-2) 9:30 ET (Final) 9-0
If the --date
flag isn't used, all commands will assume today.
Then you can use the index in the first column to pull out additional data, such as game events, pitches and hits.
> mlb game --date yesterday --pitches 1 | head | cut -f 1,4-6
2012-10-07 15:08:11 -0400 Adam Wainwright Jayson Werth B
2012-10-07 15:08:29 -0400 Adam Wainwright Jayson Werth S
2012-10-07 15:08:53 -0400 Adam Wainwright Jayson Werth B
2012-10-07 15:09:08 -0400 Adam Wainwright Jayson Werth S
2012-10-07 15:09:53 -0400 Adam Wainwright Jayson Werth S
2012-10-07 15:10:40 -0400 Adam Wainwright Bryce Harper X
2012-10-07 15:10:55 -0400 Adam Wainwright Ryan Zimmerman S
2012-10-07 15:11:13 -0400 Adam Wainwright Ryan Zimmerman B
2012-10-07 15:11:33 -0400 Adam Wainwright Ryan Zimmerman S
2012-10-07 15:12:16 -0400 Adam Wainwright Ryan Zimmerman S
> mlb game --date yesterday --hits 1 | head
1 Top Adam Wainwright Bryce Harper O Groundout 140.56 163.65
1 Bottom Gio Gonzalez Carlos Beltran O Groundout 140.56 162.65
1 Bottom Gio Gonzalez Allen Craig O Flyout 128.51 82.33
2 Top Adam Wainwright Ian Desmond H Single 134.54 87.35
2 Top Adam Wainwright Kurt Suzuki H Single 87.35 132.53
2 Top Adam Wainwright Jayson Werth O Groundout 111.45 164.66
2 Bottom Gio Gonzalez David Freese O Flyout 125.5 47.19
2 Bottom Gio Gonzalez Jon Jay O Flyout 73.29 108.43
2 Bottom Gio Gonzalez Carlos Beltran O Flyout 145.58 71.29
3 Top Adam Wainwright Ryan Zimmerman H Single 113.45 98.39
> mlb game --date yesterday --pitches 1 | head
2012-10-07 1 Top 1 2/3/1 Jayson Werth strikes out swinging.
2012-10-07 1 Top 2 0/0/2 Bryce Harper grounds out, second baseman Daniel Descalso to first baseman Allen Craig.
2012-10-07 1 Top 3 1/3/3 Ryan Zimmerman strikes out swinging.
2012-10-07 1 Bottom 4 1/3/1 Jon Jay called out on strikes.
2012-10-07 1 Bottom 5 2/1/2 Carlos Beltran grounds out, second baseman Danny Espinosa to first baseman Adam LaRoche.
2012-10-07 1 Bottom 6 4/1/2 Matt Holliday walks.
2012-10-07 1 Bottom 7 2/2/3 Allen Craig flies out to center fielder Bryce Harper.
2012-10-07 2 Top 8 4/1/0 Adam LaRoche walks.
2012-10-07 2 Top 9 0/3/1 Michael Morse strikes out swinging.
2012-10-07 2 Top 10 0/1/1 Ian Desmond singles on a line drive to center fielder Jon Jay. Adam LaRoche to 3rd.
Commands
To find out more about a specific command, use mlb [command] --help
to view the appropriate documentation.
help
: Display global or [command] help documentation.games [options]
: Print out a list of scheduled games for the specified dategame [options] [game_number]
: Print out play-by-play events for a specific game. Use--pitches
to output realtime pitch trajectory data.
Global options
-h, --help: Display help documentation
-v, --version: Display version information
-t, --trace: Display backtrace when an error occurs
Data Output Format
Each command outputs data in tab-separated format. When outputting data for a game in progress, the application will continue to pipe in data as it is made available.
games
(Game listings)
- Game index. A numbered value unique to the specified date that is referenced in the
game
command. - Opposing teams. A string containing: `
(Wins - Losses) @ (Wins - Losses). - Starting time and status.
- Current score.
game
(Game events)
- Event time.
- Inning.
- Top or bottom of inning.
- Event number.
- Event description.
game --pitches
(Pitch events)
- Pitch time.
- Inning.
- Top or bottom of inning.
- Pitcher name.
- Batter name.
- Pitch type. (S-Strike, B-Ball, X-hit)
- X (x). The horizontal location of the pitch as it crosses the home plate. Units: Old Gameday coordinate system
- Y (y). The vertical location of the pitch as it crosses the home plate. Units: Old Gameday coordinate system
- Start speed (start_speed). The initial speed of the pitch. Units: miles per hour
- End speed (end_speed). The speed measured as it crosses the home plate. Units: miles per hour
- Top of Strike Zone (sz_top). The distance from the ground to the top of the strike zone. Units: feet
- Bottom of Strike Zone (sz_bot). The distance from the ground to the bottom of the strike zone. Units: feet
- Horizontal movement (pfx_x). The horizontal movement of a pitch relative to a theoretical pitch thrown at the same speed with no spin-induced movement. Measured at 40 feet from the home plate. Units: inches
- Vertical movement (pfx_z). The vertical movement of a pitch relative to a theoretical pitch thrown at the same speed with no spin-induced movement. Measured at 40 feet from the home plate. Units: inches
- Horizontal pitch location at home plate (px). The horizontal location of the pitch as it crosses home plate from the perspective of the umpire. Units: feet
- Vertical pitch location at home plate (pz). The height of the pitch as it crosses the front of home plate. Units: feet
- Initial horizontal measurement for pitch (x0). Initial horizontal measurement of pitch as measured by PITCHf/x. Units: feet
- Initial depth measurement for pitch (y0). Initial deptch measurement of pitch as measured by PITCHf/x. Note that this is fixed per stadium and typically located around 40-50 feet from home plate. Units: feet
- Initial height measurement for pitch (z0). Initial height measurement of pitch as measured by PITCHf/x. Units: feet
- Initial x velocity (vxo). Initial velocity in the horizontal direction at the initial point. Units: feet per second
- Initial y velocity (vxo). Initial velocity in the depth-wise direction at the initial point. Units: feet per second
- Initial z velocity (vxo). Initial velocity in the vertical direction at the initial point. Units: feet per second
- Breaking point (break_y). The distance from the home plate in which the pitch achieved its greatest deviation from the straight line path between the release point and the front of home plate. Units: feet
- Breaking angle (break_angle). The angle at which the pitch crossed the front of home plate as seen by the umpire. Units: degrees
- Breaking length (break_length). The greatest distance between the pitch's trajectory and the straight path between release and home plate. Units: inches
- Pitch type (pitch_type). Pitch type as classified by the PITCHf/x system.
- FA = Fastball
- FF = Four-seam fastball
- FT = Two-seam fastball
- FC = Fastball (cutter)
- FS / SI / SF = Fastball (sinker, split-fingered)
- SL = Slider
- CH = Changeup
- CB / CU = Curveball
- KC = Knuckle-curve
- KN = Knuckleball
- EP = Eephus
- UN / XX = Unidentified
- PO / FO = Pitch out
- Pitch type confidence (type_confidence). A rating corresponding to the liklihood of the pitch type classification.
- Pitch zone (zone).
- Nasty factor (nasty). A auto-generated factor that describes the difficulty in hitting the pitch.
- Spin direction (spin_dir).
- Spin rate (spin_rate).
- Comments (cc).
- Unknown (mt).
For more information regarding PITCHf/x tracjectory data, please visit http://fastballs.wordpress.com/category/pitchfx-glossary/.
game --hits
(Hit events)
You also have access to hit locations for each batter. However, the coordinate system that is used relies on a 250-by-250 pixel image where the corresponding scale depends on which stadium the hit was made at. See the examples of how hits can be plotted on a generic baseball field.
- Inning.
- Top or bottom of inning.
- Pitcher.
- Batter.
- Hit / Out / Error.
- Description of hit.
- X-coordinate.
- Y-coordinate.
Examples
List todays games:
> mlb games
0 Red Sox (69-88) @ Orioles (90-67) 7:05 ET (F) 1-9
1 Reds (95-62) @ Pirates (76-81) 7:05 ET (F) 1-0
2 Royals (70-87) @ Indians (66-91) 7:05 ET (F) 5-8
3 Yankees (91-66) @ Blue Jays (69-88) 7:07 ET (F) 11-4
4 Phillies (78-79) @ Marlins (67-90) 7:10 ET (F) 1-2
5 Mets (73-84) @ Braves (91-66) 7:35 ET (F) 3-1
6 Angels (87-70) @ Rangers (92-65) 8:05 ET (F) 7-4
7 Tigers (84-73) @ Twins (66-91) 8:10 ET (F) 2-4
8 Astros (52-105) @ Brewers (80-77) 8:10 ET (F) 7-6
9 Rays (86-71) @ White Sox (83-74) 8:10 ET (F) 1-3
10 Nationals (95-62) @ Cardinals (85-72) 8:15 ET (F) 2-12
11 Cubs (59-98) @ D-backs (79-78) 9:40 ET (F) 3-8
12 Mariners (73-84) @ Athletics (89-68) 10:05 ET (F) 2-8
13 Giants (92-65) @ Padres (74-83) 10:05 ET (F) 3-1
14 Rockies (62-95) @ Dodgers (82-75) 10:10 ET (F) 0-8
How did the Nationals do on 5/30/2012?
> mlb games --date 2012-05-30 | grep -i nationals | cut -f 2,4
Nationals (29-21) @ Marlins (29-22) 3-5
How did Bryce Harper do tonight?
> mlb games | grep Nationals | cut -f 1 | xargs mlb game | grep Harper
2012-09-29 19:18:00 1 2 1/2/1 Bryce Harper singles on a soft line drive to center fielder Jon Jay.
2012-09-29 19:20:11 1 3 1/2/1 Ryan Zimmerman doubles (36) on a fly ball to left fielder Matt Holliday. Bryce Harper to 3rd.
2012-09-29 19:26:56 1 5 0/0/1 Play reviewed and overturned: Michael Morse hits a grand slam (17) to right field. Bryce Harper scores. Ryan Zimmerman scores. Adam LaRoche scores.
2012-09-29 19:48:35 2 14 3/2/3 Bryce Harper grounds out, second baseman Skip Schumaker to first baseman Allen Craig.
2012-09-29 19:56:08 2 17 3/2/2 Carlos Beltran lines out to center fielder Bryce Harper.
2012-09-29 20:09:19 3 23 3/2/1 Pete Kozma flies out to center fielder Bryce Harper.
2012-09-29 20:38:38 5 36 3/3/1 Bryce Harper called out on strikes.
2012-09-29 21:15:16 7 51 2/2/1 Bryce Harper singles on a line drive to left fielder Matt Holliday.
2012-09-29 21:19:08 7 53 1/1/2 Adam LaRoche singles on a sharp line drive to first baseman Allen Craig. Bryce Harper to 3rd.
2012-09-29 21:24:34 7 55 0/1/1 Yadier Molina flies out to center fielder Bryce Harper.
2012-09-29 21:37:46 7 61 1/2/2 Matt Carpenter flies out to center fielder Bryce Harper.
2012-09-29 22:10:49 9 71 1/0/2 Bryce Harper doubles (25) on a line drive to left fielder Matt Holliday.
2012-09-29 22:21:20 9 76 0/0/2 Jon Jay out on a sacrifice fly to center fielder Bryce Harper. Pete Kozma scores.
Visualize pitch speed for Gio Gonzalez on his full game on August 8, 2012.
> mlb games --date 2012-08-08 \
| grep Nationals \
| cut -f 1 \
| xargs mlb game --pitches --date 2012-08-08 \
| awk 'BEGIN{FS="\t"}{ if ($4=="Gio Gonzalez") print}' \
| cut -f 1,9,6 \
| Rscript -e "
library(ggplot2); \
library(scales); \
d <- read.csv('stdin', header=F, sep='\\\\t', col.names=c('time', 'type', 'pitch_speed')); \
png('gio-pitch-speed.png'); \
ggplot(d, aes(x=as.POSIXlt(time), y=pitch_speed, colour=type, shape=type)) \
+ geom_point() \
+ labs(title='Pitch Speed Over Time for Gio Gonzalez', x='Time', y='Pitch Speed') \
+ scale_x_datetime(breaks=date_breaks('1 hour'), minor_breaks=date_breaks('15 min'), labels=date_format('%H:%M')) \
+ scale_colour_discrete(name = 'Pitch Type') \
+ scale_shape_discrete(name = 'Pitch Type'); \
dev.off()"
Get a breakdown of pitch types for Ross Detwiler in this season up until 9/30/2012.
> mlb pitchers --date 2012-09-30 11 \
| grep "Ross Detwiler" \
| cut -f 2 \
| xargs mlb pitcher --date 2012-09-30 11 \
| cut -f 8,9 \
| awk 'BEGIN{FS="\t"}{arr[$1]+=$2} END {for (i in arr) {print i,arr[i]}}' \
| sort
Changeup 172
Four-seam Fastball 1136
Sinker 838
Slider 314
What is Adam LaRoche's last 30-day spray pattern compared to that of 60-90 days ago?
> for DAY in `seq 1 30; seq 60 90`
do
mlb games --date "$DAY days ago" \
| grep Nationals \
| cut -f 1 \
| xargs mlb game --date "$DAY days ago" --hits \
| grep "Adam LaRoche" \
| cut -f 5-8 \
| sed -e "s/^/Day #DAY /"
done \
| Rscript -e " \
library(ggplot2); \
library(png); \
library(gridExtra); \
field_url <- 'http://i.imgur.com/0phAi.png'; \
download.file(field_url, '/tmp/baseball-field.png', mode = 'wb'); \
m <- readPNG('/tmp/baseball-field.png', FALSE); \
w <- matrix(rgb(m[,,1],m[,,2],m[,,3], m[,,4] * 0.2), nrow=dim(m)[1]); \
d <- read.csv('stdin', header=F, sep='\\\\t', col.names=c('time', 'type', 'desc', 'x', 'y')); \
png('laroche-spray-chart.png', width=600, height=1200); \
ggplot(d, aes(x,y, shape=type, colour=type)) \
+ geom_point() \
+ annotation_custom(xmin=-Inf, ymin=-Inf, xmax=Inf, ymax=Inf, rasterGrob(w)) \
+ labs(title='Hit Locations For Adam LaRoche', x='', y='') \
+ scale_x_continuous(breaks=c(), limits = c(0,250)) \
+ scale_y_continuous(breaks=c(), limits = c(0,250)) \
+ theme(panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), \
panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), \
panel.background = element_blank(), \
axis.ticks = element_blank()) \
+ facet_grid(time ~ .); \
dev.off();"