Sports Reference Blog

In April, May, and June, we launched the Versus Finder on Stathead for Hockey, Basketball, and Football. Last but not least, we’re excited to announce that we’ve launched the Versus Finder on Stathead Baseball!

The Baseball Versus Finder has many of the same powerful tools as the Versus Finders across our other Stathead sports, as well as a couple of new ones that are specific to baseball. Here’s a primer on what it offers and how to use it.

No matter what search type you’re using, you’ll be greeted with a visual containing overall stats for each player or team like the one above, as well as the awards that they’ve received. Now, you can compare different players’ WAR and All-Star honors at the same time, as well as World Series appearances and championships!

Now, let’s break down the four main searches of the Versus Finder:

Player vs. Player

With a Player vs. Players search, you can compare up to six different players, such as this search with Justin Verlander, Dylan Cease, Alek Manoah, Sandy Alcantara, Max Fried, and Julio Urías. You can also choose whether you want to compare a specific year of someone’s career, combined seasons, or an entire career. For example, you can compare Trea Turner and Kris Bryant when they were both 25, from 2017-2019, or during their whole careers. 

This is especially helpful in comparing players whose careers may not overlap, which can be an asset in defending your friendly rivalry over who is a better player. Another capability of the Player vs. Player search is examining head-to-head matchups between batters and pitchers, which we’ll dive into in the Today’s Probables section.

Player vs. Team

The Player vs. Team search allows you to uncover a player’s performance against a franchise. For example, you can see Mike Trout’s stats against the Milwaukee Brewers, including every time he’s faced the team. 

This search allows you to break down a player’s entire career or franchise’s history; you could also choose to filter specific years for both the player and team or choose different years for both. For example, we can see Albert Pujols’ performance against the Dodgers from 2010-2020.

Team vs. Team

The Team vs. Team search allows you to see how teams stack up against each other. You can compare a franchise’s entire history, like the Red Sox and Twins, and a span of seasons, such as the Dodgers and Angels in the 21st century.

Another potential Team vs. Team search is for separate years, just like the other primary searches. One possibility is comparing World Series Champions, such as the 2015 Royals and 2011 Cardinals.

Today’s Probables

We’ve migrated the “Today’s Starting Pitchers vs. Opponents” tool that was located at the Batter vs. Pitcher view to the Versus Finder. 

This page links directly to the Player vs. Player search for a probable comparison that changes daily, which includes every previous game where the players have faced each other, broken down through plate appearances and game logs. 

While this page has the probable matchups, including Andrew Heaney vs. José Abreu from the Rangers - Astros game on July 26th, you can examine the head-to-head matchup between any batter and pitcher from the Player vs. Player search page.

What’s Next

Try out the Versus Finder for yourself and let us know what you think! Once you have, we’d love to hear from you! We want to ensure our tools are meeting (or exceeding) your needs. If you have any feedback for Stathead or our other sites, please reach out here.

If you don’t know already, Stathead is your all-access pass to the Sports Reference websites you already know and love. Our array of discovery tools will let you dive deeper into the sports you love. Plus, you can browse the Reference sites ad-free with a Stathead subscription. If you want to try Stathead for the first time, sign up here for a 1-month free trial!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 27th, 2023 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Announcement, Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.