FanGraphs turns 20 years previous immediately!
As you’ve little question seen, we’ve added some balloons to the positioning to mark the event. For those who click on on one, you’ll be offered with an article that’s been deemed a worthy piece of FanGraphs historical past by our present workers, FanGraphs alumni, and business associates. (I hope you’ll add your favorites within the feedback right here.)
Past the balloons, 20 years appeared like an applicable second to mirror on how the positioning began, and the way it has gotten to the place it’s immediately.
I began FanGraphs once I was 23 years previous. I used to be working at AOL, and my job concerned placing collectively powerpoint decks of dialup metric graphs for executives. I assumed the dialup enterprise’ days have been numbered — considerably ironic, since dialup appears to have lived on for nearly precisely 20 extra years.
Again then, I had been enjoying fantasy baseball for just a few years and had just lately been launched to baseball analytics by the work of Ron Shandler’s BaseballHQ. I assumed I might take loads of what I had realized graphing dialup metrics at AOL and apply it to baseball stats to assist folks (largely myself) with participant efficiency validation.
I discovered an information supplier in Baseball Information Options and began coding up the positioning in April 2005. FanGraphs launched with 10 graphs for batters and pitchers on August 15, 2005.
That was the start of a two-and-a-half 12 months interval the place I labored on the positioning primarily on my own. There have been loads of business associates who took an curiosity in FanGraphs and lent their recommendations and experience, like Dave Studeman of The Hardball Instances and Tom Tango, but it surely was primarily a solo endeavor. I left AOL in the summertime of 2006 to pursue FanGraphs full-time. I lived at my dad and mom’ home and labored out of my room. It was a considerably lonely expertise as the positioning struggled to achieve traction, and I truly thought of quitting in 2007.
However in early 2008, I made a decision to attempt to discover some writers for the positioning. In that first group of hires was Dave Cameron. Dave immediately remodeled FanGraphs, giving it a much-needed voice, to not point out loads of concepts about what we should always do. I grew to become an typically keen implementer of these concepts, one of the crucial vital of which got here that very same 12 months. In December 2008, in collaboration with Tom Tango and Sean Smith, we launched Win Values, which Dave unveiled in a seven-part sequence; we later modified the title to WAR.
Dave joined the positioning full-time in 2010, and from there, we continued to rent extra full-time writers and editors, together with Carson Cistulli, Eno Sarris, Jeff Sullivan, August Fagerstrom, Paul Swydan, Kiley McDaniel, Craig Edwards, Travis Sawchik and, a lot later, Jon Tayler and Kevin Goldstein. Every left their mark on the positioning, and over time, they have been complemented by a formidable array of contributing writers who at the moment are scattered throughout baseball media, together with Mike Petriello, Dayn Perry, R.J. Anderson, Patrick Dubuque, and lots of, many extra.
In 2015, we employed Sean Dolinar, who has since develop into accountable (together with Keaton Arneson and now Jon Becker) for the entire user-facing components of FanGraphs and most of our tech stack. From a web site perspective, Sean’s work has been transformational, as he has labored to methodically overhaul FanGraphs from the jumble that was my decade-old code to a contemporary tech stack, with new options continually being added. Sean can be the power behind our iOS and Android apps.
In 2018, FanGraphs confronted an actual inflection level when Dave determined to take a job with the San Diego Padres. A 12 months later, Carson, who had assumed the managing editorship from Dave, left to affix the Toronto Blue Jays. However happily for FanGraphs and for you, our readers, Meg Rowley took over as managing editor in 2019; this previous 12 months, she grew to become editor-in-chief of FanGraphs. Meg’s eye for excellence and expertise allowed us to transition somewhat seamlessly by what might have been a devastating time for FanGraphs. She has helped the positioning to navigate various unpredictable crises, from the pandemic to the lockout to the shift of our enterprise mannequin away from promoting and towards Membership. And she or he has expanded the scope of our editorial mission, broadening the definition of what counts as a FanGraphs piece, mixing sabermetrics with the whimsy of NotGraphs.
In 2019, Jason Martinez agreed to carry RosterResource to FanGraphs. Jason’s pace and a focus to element has made FanGraphs a go-to supply for depth charts and different roster evaluation, with Jon Becker tackling the contract aspect of the equation. It’s onerous to recollect what FanGraphs seemed like with out RosterResource.
After all, not one of the work you’ve come to depend on would potential with out our present full-time editorial workers — so as of tenure, Jeff Zimmerman, David Laurila, Eric Longenhagen, Paul Sporer, Jay Jaffe, Dan Szymborski, Ben Clemens, Michael Baumann, Matt Martell, and Davy Andrews — and our great contributors at each FanGraphs and RotoGraphs. I’d even be remiss if I didn’t provide particular due to all of our projection suppliers in Jared Cross, Sprint Davidson, Peter Rosenbloom, Derek Carty, Ariel Cohen, Dan Szymborski (once more), and Jordan Rosenblum.
I’ve been very fortunate to spend the final 20 years working alongside such sensible and proficient folks, and I’ve made life-long associates within the course of. The 23-year-old model of me might by no means have imagined that FanGraphs alums would now be scattered throughout most of the league’s entrance workplaces, or that our writers can be credentialed to cowl the World Collection, or that I might see our model of WAR cited on huge league broadcasts. I began the positioning with the thought of determining learn how to be a greater fantasy participant, however during the last 20 years, that preliminary curiosity has grown into a much wider need to grasp baseball, each on and off the sphere. Alongside the best way, I hope we’ve impressed our readers to assume deeply, study one thing new, and discover neighborhood with just a few like-minded nerds (even when we’re all gonna go dateless). Whether or not you’re on the lookout for analysis or reporting, statistical instruments or fantasy recommendation, hard-nosed evaluation or fun, I believe you’ll find it right here, from prospects to huge leaguers, and in leagues world wide.
I used to assume that it could be troublesome to duplicate the early days of FanGraphs, and I wasn’t flawed. There’s no going again. However I actually consider that proper now, at this very second, FanGraphs is in one of the best place it’s ever been.
After all, we wouldn’t be anyplace with out our Members and readers. I’m so grateful for everybody who has taken the time to learn our work, peruse our stats, take heed to certainly one of our podcasts, or contribute to our continued success. Hopefully we’ve made baseball extra gratifying for you alongside the best way.
Twenty years is a fairly very long time on this planet of web media, however I’m hoping it’s simply the beginning.