College Batting Research | College Pitching Research | College Data @ Data Store
Unlike its major sports cousins football and basketball, College Baseball has long been overlooked as one of the primary sources of talent into Major League Baseball. College Baseball is vibrant and vast with approximately 300 D1 schools and more than 1000 schools playing the sport in other divisions across the country. Its time we raised the profile of College Baseball
The Baseball Cube don't believe a player's career statistics look complete without their college stats sitting at the top of their statistics grid. Since the inception of the site in 2002, we have been capturing yearly stats and team information for all D1 schools and since 2017, have been adding stats for all of the other divisions including NCAA D2, D3, the NAIA and all Junior Colleges.
As of 2023, for each school/season that we capture, we include a player profile page and a TBC ID#. This will allow for all of that player's stats to be linked together. Each school includes many season attributes such as season record, ranks, tournament results, coaches, rosters and stadium names.
Though the basic guidelines suggest we have D1 since 2002 and other divisions since 2017, this is not always the case. Statistics for many schools exist prior to 2002. Season/school records have been captured for all D1 schools since 1965.
In addition to the content above, we also have a large database of Summer College League statistics which includes ~25 of the larger leagues across the nation. Where possible, stats are linked to player pages. We also have a Men's College World Series section, results from Conference Tournaments (D1), some awards, standings, RPI rankings and coaching staffs for D1 schools. The College section is large and growing as we add new datasets yearly.
Finally, if you are a college baseball fan like me, you can subscribe to TBC PREMIUM and get access to the College Stats research applications. And if you need more data than that section provides, you can visit the TBC Data Store to purchase standard or custom data extracts. Download these datasets and load them into Excel and slice and dice at your convenience.
Draft Research | Draft Data @ Data Store
TBC is proud to have collected the entire history of the Major League Baseball Amateur entry draft since its inception in 1965.
The draft is the mechanism by which players enter professional baseball. Its intention is to provide a fair way of distributing baseball talent across organizations to maintain as much competitive balance as possible between the wide array of franchises and their financial situations. The draft is also designed to reward lower performing teams as well as smaller market teams through the draft order and the injection of compensation picks. The upside is almost all for the teams though as players cannot create a bidding war for their services nor do they have a choice for their eventual first franchise. A player's power lies in his leverage. A High School talent has more leverage than a college Junior and a college Junior has more leverage than a college Senior. The player is rewarded with a bonus upon signing though it is theoretically limited by governing rules.
Still, the draft is interesting to all connected to the industry and yearly draft rankings and mock drafts provide much content for baseball junkies, allowing them to get familiar with the incoming class of players.
Here is a description of the draft data on the site and its various data elements:
Coverage: All picks are included.
Eligibility: High School seniors (18yrs old at draft time), Junior College Players, Juniors at 4-year schools (or 21-years old) Players must be 18 years old, Junior College players. They must also reside in the US, Canada or Puerto Rico.
Phases: The current draft is a single phase in the middle of the summer in June or July. Prior drafts, 1986 and earlier, had several other phases that aligned with players earning professional eligibility at different times. "Signed" is also sometimes included as a phase even though it is not technically a draft phase. It refers to players signed as Undrafted Free Agents. Either as International Players or North American undrafted players.
Rounds: Each draft is comprised of multiple rounds. The draft order is set based on the prior season's final standings. Teams may not trade picks. Additional compensation and competitive balance picks are injected after the end of the first few rounds. Each round will begin with the same order. The number of rounds as of 2021 was 20 with only 5 rounds in 2020, due to COVID. Prior iterations of the draft have had as many as 100 rounds though more recent seasons have been between 40-50.
Overall: Each pick will have an overall pick# unique to the draft.
Drafting Team: The team that selected the player. The player and team will then negotiate on a signing bonus using the slot value and the player's leverage as guides. A player may elect not to sign and re-enter a subsequent draft which may benefit a player with remaining amateur eligibility but a College Junior electing to return to the draft as a college senior will result in less leverage the following season.
Draft source: Players are mostly selected from a school. Either High School or College. It is considered to be the last school the player played for the prior summer/spring. TBC tracks the school and the school type. (HS vs College). Some players are listed as Free Agents when drafted. These may be players who are unaffiliated with a school. (Luke Hochevar, Kumar Rocker)
Signing status: Indicates whether the player signed with the drafting team or not. Signing players will receive a bonus, which may or not be publically revealed. Unsigned players remain amateurs and can enter a future draft. Every player's situation is unique.
Signing Date: The date the player signed. We can't guarantee the accuracy of this date since it can be the date reported instead of the date signed. If nothing else, it can tell you "around" when the player signed. Did he sign early or late? In the earlier draft years, teams had until the next draft to sign players and would often draft and follow players. If they performed well the next spring, they would sign them. If not, they would not offer a contract. The deadline for signings has now been moved to August.
Position at Draft: The position listed next to the player when drafted. Often does not match the player's current position.
Sequence: The nth time the player was picked. Theoretically, a player can be picked for 5 straight years if they continuously elect not to sign. With multiple phases in earlier drafts, it is common to see players drafted in multiple phases in a year. Once the player signs, however, they can no longer be drafted. From that point, if released, they are free agents and can sign with whichever organization will have them.
Signing Bonus: Skewed towards more recent seasons, this is the agreed upon bonus between player and team. The data is not available for all picks throughout history though recent drafts have published more and more bonuses. In more recent seasons, we could rely on the top 10 rounds displaying bonuses. This data is available for Drafted Players and Undrafted Free Agents (mostly International)
Slot Value: In recent years, MLB has assigned a slot value for each overall pick# for the first 10 rounds. Teams have a `bonus pool` that they can use to spend in the first 10 rounds and the slot value helps guide them within that pool. Teams are free to spend more or less than the slot value though it can have an effect on the final bonus. Many players simply accept the slot value as their bonus. This data element is available since 2014. Players signed in rounds 11- at a bonus higher than $150k will have that difference count against their bonus pool.
Player Class: Indicates the player's class at University. "HS" indicates the player was drafted out of high school while college players will be listed as Fr/So/Jr/Sr/5S. The player class is intended to be based on athletic eligibility. Players are granted 4 years of eligibility in college with 1 red-shirt season (sitout) allowed. Players in the COVID era were granted an additional year due to the loss of most of the 2020 season.
Scouts: Players may have up to 3 scouts listed with their signing draft record. Most North American players will list 1 scout. Usually the area scout assigned to the area where they player was active. The scout is given credit for the signing.
School Type: Indicates the type of school the draft pick attended. Can be High School, Junior College or 4-year University.
School Division: Within the College System, there are multiple divisions of College Baseball within the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA. TBC lists them as NCAA-1, NCAA-2, NCAA-3, NAIA and JuniorCollege (NJCAA/CCCAA/NWAACC).
Draft Region: The state/province/country from where the player was drafted. Generally refers to the school for North Americans and the country for International players.
Draft Notes: Indicates whether the player was drafted as a compensation pick, a competitive balance pick or if the pick was voided (rare). Will also indicate whether a player was the 1st player drafted from his school.
TBC is proud to have collected the entire history of the Major League Baseball Amateur entry draft since its inception in 1965.
The draft is the mechanism by which players enter professional baseball. Its intention is to provide a fair way of distributing baseball talent across organizations to maintain as much competitive balance as possible between the wide array of franchises and their financial situations. The draft is also designed to reward lower performing teams as well as smaller market teams through the draft order and the injection of compensation picks. The upside is almost all for the teams though as players cannot create a bidding war for their services nor do they have a choice for their eventual first franchise. A player's power lies in his leverage. A High School talent has more leverage than a college Junior and a college Junior has more leverage than a college Senior. The player is rewarded with a bonus upon signing though it is theoretically limited by governing rules.
Still, the draft is interesting to all connected to the industry and yearly draft rankings and mock drafts provide much content for baseball junkies, allowing them to get familiar with the incoming class of players.
Here is a description of the draft data on the site and its various data elements:
Coverage: All picks are included.
Eligibility: High School seniors (18yrs old at draft time), Junior College Players, Juniors at 4-year schools (or 21-years old) Players must be 18 years old, Junior College players. They must also reside in the US, Canada or Puerto Rico.
Phases: The current draft is a single phase in the middle of the summer in June or July. Prior drafts, 1986 and earlier, had several other phases that aligned with players earning professional eligibility at different times. "Signed" is also sometimes included as a phase even though it is not technically a draft phase. It refers to players signed as Undrafted Free Agents. Either as International Players or North American undrafted players.
Rounds: Each draft is comprised of multiple rounds. The draft order is set based on the prior season's final standings. Teams may not trade picks. Additional compensation and competitive balance picks are injected after the end of the first few rounds. Each round will begin with the same order. The number of rounds as of 2021 was 20 with only 5 rounds in 2020, due to COVID. Prior iterations of the draft have had as many as 100 rounds though more recent seasons have been between 40-50.
Overall: Each pick will have an overall pick# unique to the draft.
Drafting Team: The team that selected the player. The player and team will then negotiate on a signing bonus using the slot value and the player's leverage as guides. A player may elect not to sign and re-enter a subsequent draft which may benefit a player with remaining amateur eligibility but a College Junior electing to return to the draft as a college senior will result in less leverage the following season.
Draft source: Players are mostly selected from a school. Either High School or College. It is considered to be the last school the player played for the prior summer/spring. TBC tracks the school and the school type. (HS vs College). Some players are listed as Free Agents when drafted. These may be players who are unaffiliated with a school. (Luke Hochevar, Kumar Rocker)
Signing status: Indicates whether the player signed with the drafting team or not. Signing players will receive a bonus, which may or not be publically revealed. Unsigned players remain amateurs and can enter a future draft. Every player's situation is unique.
Signing Date: The date the player signed. We can't guarantee the accuracy of this date since it can be the date reported instead of the date signed. If nothing else, it can tell you "around" when the player signed. Did he sign early or late? In the earlier draft years, teams had until the next draft to sign players and would often draft and follow players. If they performed well the next spring, they would sign them. If not, they would not offer a contract. The deadline for signings has now been moved to August.
Position at Draft: The position listed next to the player when drafted. Often does not match the player's current position.
Sequence: The nth time the player was picked. Theoretically, a player can be picked for 5 straight years if they continuously elect not to sign. With multiple phases in earlier drafts, it is common to see players drafted in multiple phases in a year. Once the player signs, however, they can no longer be drafted. From that point, if released, they are free agents and can sign with whichever organization will have them.
Signing Bonus: Skewed towards more recent seasons, this is the agreed upon bonus between player and team. The data is not available for all picks throughout history though recent drafts have published more and more bonuses. In more recent seasons, we could rely on the top 10 rounds displaying bonuses. This data is available for Drafted Players and Undrafted Free Agents (mostly International)
Slot Value: In recent years, MLB has assigned a slot value for each overall pick# for the first 10 rounds. Teams have a `bonus pool` that they can use to spend in the first 10 rounds and the slot value helps guide them within that pool. Teams are free to spend more or less than the slot value though it can have an effect on the final bonus. Many players simply accept the slot value as their bonus. This data element is available since 2014. Players signed in rounds 11- at a bonus higher than $150k will have that difference count against their bonus pool.
Player Class: Indicates the player's class at University. "HS" indicates the player was drafted out of high school while college players will be listed as Fr/So/Jr/Sr/5S. The player class is intended to be based on athletic eligibility. Players are granted 4 years of eligibility in college with 1 red-shirt season (sitout) allowed. Players in the COVID era were granted an additional year due to the loss of most of the 2020 season.
Scouts: Players may have up to 3 scouts listed with their signing draft record. Most North American players will list 1 scout. Usually the area scout assigned to the area where they player was active. The scout is given credit for the signing.
School Type: Indicates the type of school the draft pick attended. Can be High School, Junior College or 4-year University.
School Division: Within the College System, there are multiple divisions of College Baseball within the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA. TBC lists them as NCAA-1, NCAA-2, NCAA-3, NAIA and JuniorCollege (NJCAA/CCCAA/NWAACC).
Draft Region: The state/province/country from where the player was drafted. Generally refers to the school for North Americans and the country for International players.
Draft Notes: Indicates whether the player was drafted as a compensation pick, a competitive balance pick or if the pick was voided (rare). Will also indicate whether a player was the 1st player drafted from his school.
MLB Boxscore data is built off of Retrosheet data. Retrosheet provides, free of charge, both Games-level attributes and play-level data that can be rolled up into Boxscores, game logs, extended stats and batting/pitching splits. TBC has this level of data since 1957 for both regular season and playoff games.
The Baseball Cube leverages this data to populate data in several different sections of the site. Pages where Retrosheet data is used are mostly indicated and if they aren't the footer of every page explains that boxscore-level data is from Retrosheet.
The granularity of the data from Retrosheet provides is short of statcast but does provide game states and fielders for every play since 1957.
In-season boxscores data are also collected for MLB but with less information. This data will be refreshed at the end of the season.
Minor League Boxscors are collected daily and remain as-is (no post-season refresh). You can view minor league boxscores and game logs throughout the site. Historical boxscores and related logs are available since 2015.
The Baseball Cube leverages this data to populate data in several different sections of the site. Pages where Retrosheet data is used are mostly indicated and if they aren't the footer of every page explains that boxscore-level data is from Retrosheet.
The granularity of the data from Retrosheet provides is short of statcast but does provide game states and fielders for every play since 1957.
In-season boxscores data are also collected for MLB but with less information. This data will be refreshed at the end of the season.
Minor League Boxscors are collected daily and remain as-is (no post-season refresh). You can view minor league boxscores and game logs throughout the site. Historical boxscores and related logs are available since 2015.
Prospects Research | Prospects History @ Data Store
In the context of baseball, a prospect is a player who has potential to play in the Major Leagues but who has not yet been given the opportunity or who is not yet ready. The term is often applied to all minor leaguers since in essence, they are a prospect to one degree or another but for this site, we consider a prospect to be someone who has been ranked by a prospects-ranking web site.
Several sites put in a lot of hard work evaluating players and talking to scouts around the league to come up with a ranked list of Major League Baseball prospects as well as top x per team. The x can be as high as 30. TBC accumulates these lists and integrates the data within the site.
Though each ranking site has a different methodology for their lists, they often come out similar at the top. Ranking talent is very subjective and it is almost impossible for Baseball America or MLB Pipeline to visibly evaluate all the players themselves and so there is a reliance on sources, which of course is also very subjective.
Not to say there aren't statistical metrics to use to help separate the players. Often physical tools such as power, speed or fastball velocity, rated on a scale of 20-80, can help. Also, player statistics, in context with the levels of competition faced, can assist as well.
The earliest prospects list we have in our system is from 1983 Baseball America. It is top 10s for each team. From there, we add Baseball America MLB rankings in 1990 and then MLB Pipeline in 2016 for both team and MLB rankings. FanGraphs has MLB Rankings since 2018 and Baseball Prospectus has both team and MLB rankings since 2019. It is possible we will add more providers in the future but as of now, these are the only 4 sources we have.
Finally, an important note about the Prospect yearly cycle and how its changed over the last few years while not changing for TBC. Prospect lists are now upated dynamically throughout the year based on "graduations" to the Majors. When a player is no longer a prospect, the rankings are updated. TBC only tracks prospects once a year. During the late Winter/Spring Training, ranking sites provide a pre-season prospect list. These are the lists we capture.
In the context of baseball, a prospect is a player who has potential to play in the Major Leagues but who has not yet been given the opportunity or who is not yet ready. The term is often applied to all minor leaguers since in essence, they are a prospect to one degree or another but for this site, we consider a prospect to be someone who has been ranked by a prospects-ranking web site.
Several sites put in a lot of hard work evaluating players and talking to scouts around the league to come up with a ranked list of Major League Baseball prospects as well as top x per team. The x can be as high as 30. TBC accumulates these lists and integrates the data within the site.
Though each ranking site has a different methodology for their lists, they often come out similar at the top. Ranking talent is very subjective and it is almost impossible for Baseball America or MLB Pipeline to visibly evaluate all the players themselves and so there is a reliance on sources, which of course is also very subjective.
Not to say there aren't statistical metrics to use to help separate the players. Often physical tools such as power, speed or fastball velocity, rated on a scale of 20-80, can help. Also, player statistics, in context with the levels of competition faced, can assist as well.
The earliest prospects list we have in our system is from 1983 Baseball America. It is top 10s for each team. From there, we add Baseball America MLB rankings in 1990 and then MLB Pipeline in 2016 for both team and MLB rankings. FanGraphs has MLB Rankings since 2018 and Baseball Prospectus has both team and MLB rankings since 2019. It is possible we will add more providers in the future but as of now, these are the only 4 sources we have.
Finally, an important note about the Prospect yearly cycle and how its changed over the last few years while not changing for TBC. Prospect lists are now upated dynamically throughout the year based on "graduations" to the Majors. When a player is no longer a prospect, the rankings are updated. TBC only tracks prospects once a year. During the late Winter/Spring Training, ranking sites provide a pre-season prospect list. These are the lists we capture.
Transactions Research | Transactions History @ Data Store
TBC considers Transactions to be any change in a player`s roster status or change in contract. TBC has been capturing transactions information since 2012 for all MLB-affiliated players. This includes the Minor Leagues. Here is a list of the different transaction types and related concepts you may find throughout the site.
Promotions: Players recalled from the minor league affiliate to the Major League parent team. These transactions begin with "Recalled from (team name)" and will refer to players already on the 40-man roster being recalled to the majors.
Contracts Purchased: These are players being promoted to the 40-man roster. If during the season, these players are typically added to the active roster. If during the off-season, players having their contract purchased are normally added to 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft.
Assignments: Transactions expressed with "Assigned to ... " refer to players changing teams within an organization, whether promoted or demoted. A Major Leaguer moving from the MLB team to the minors without leaving the 40-man roster is technically "optioned" but the word "assigned" is used. An optioned player is allowed to move back and forth between the Majors in 3 separate years. Otherwise, these players will need to clear waivers. Other assignments listed on the site will be for minor leaguers changing teams.
Signed... There are 2 types of signing transacions. (1) Players signed to Major League Contracts where their contract duration and $value will be listed alongside some other relevant contract info such as option years or bonuses. Within each contract signed, the context of the signing will also be included. This could be "Free Agent","Extension","Arbitration","Intl Free Agent" or "Renewed". All MLB contracts include a spot on the 40-man roster. (2) Signed to minor league contract will be written for all other signings. These are players who are joining the organization but not on the 40-man roster.
Injuries: Visits to the Injured List (Formerly known as the Disabled List) are captured for both Minor Leaguers and Major Leaguers. For players on the active MLB roster, the description will include, if available, the injury as well as the cause. Most minor league injured list transactions will not include the reason or the cause. Day-to-day injuries that don't involve a trip to the IL will not be included. There are also different IL designations. IL-60 means a player is on the long-term IL and unavailable to the active roster for at least 60 days and is thus safely removed from the 40-man roster. The 10-day IL is used for short-term injuries. The injury dates are as of the reporting of the injury. Many injuries are retroactively started as of the date of their last appearance in a game. Minor league has the IL-7 list and the IL-60 list as well though TBC captures them all with the status of IL-7. The transaction description will include the IL-7 or IL-60 designation. Just not the status.
Designated for Assignment When a player is removed from the 40-man roster, it is called being DFA'd. The status DFA refers to the state of limbo where a player's future will be decided where he will either be traded, released, claimed on waivers or outrighted to the minors.
Outrighted Similar to assigned. Outright means the player is assigned while also being removed from the 40-man roster. It will mean he cleared waivers. It will often occur after a DFA transaction.
Waiver Claims: When a player is DFA'd, he becomes available to other teams to be claimed. Teams have some time to submit a claim and the team with the lowest waiver ranking (based on standings) will claim that player. When the player is claimed, they will likely have to remove another player from their own roster. A team may orchestrate a trade with a team lower down the waiver ranking to at the least, get a player in return. The claiming team must place the player on their 40-man roster though not necessarily in the Majors.
Trades: Player trades are the most interesting of players changing teams. All trades are captured in each player's transaction list. The transaction is described from his perspective and includes all players involved (if not too complicated) and does not include the selected player's name. In a transaction list, for trades of 5 players, you will see 5 records for the trade. There is no single trade record. The database was designed for the player's perspective.
Rule 5 Draft MLB and Minor League Rule 5 draft transactions are captured including their possible return to their original team. ("Returned to x"). Rule 5 picks are unprotected minor leaguers who are selected by a different organization to put on their active roster for the upcoming season. Minor league rule 5 picks do not affect active or 40-man rosters. They provide an opportunity for another team to promote them above their place in their current organization.
Free Agency: Players being granted free agency (or electing free agency) are free to sign with another team. The act of becoming a free agent is captured as a record whether it is at the conclusion of a contract or as a result of a release or non-tendering.
Releases: Players who are released are mostly done so at the choice of an organization. These transactions are captured and players will become free agents similarly to when they are granted free agency.
Retired: Not all players officially announce their retirement. Many attempt to keep playing and never declare their careers officially over. Only declared/published retirements are incldued. Therefore, you may see many former players with a perpeptual status of "FA". Who are we to decide that they are done. Eventually, we will display that player's status as "inactive" on his player page. The retired status is often added later.
Restricted List: Players who are suspended or having other difficulties are often placed on the restricted list. This will remove them from the 40-man roster and keep them in the organization. Common reasons are drug suspensions, trouble with the law, VISA issues or ongoing family issues. Gameplay suspensions are listed in the Transactions database but are not given a "Restricted" status. These players normally don't leave the 40-man roster.
Bereavement: Players with a death in the family are given time off and removed from the Active Roster.
Paternity Leave: On a brighter note, players becoming a parent get a few days off to spend time with their family and are removed from the active roster.
Draft Records: Many players have a transaction record included for their draft signing date (or UDFA signing date) that includes the school from where they were signed. TBC doesn't put a lot of effort into this data element since the draft database includes this information and displays it on the player page.
Assigned to minors: No particular minor league as part of the assignment. Could be extended spring training, an alternative training location or the player is simply without a team.
TBC considers Transactions to be any change in a player`s roster status or change in contract. TBC has been capturing transactions information since 2012 for all MLB-affiliated players. This includes the Minor Leagues. Here is a list of the different transaction types and related concepts you may find throughout the site.
Promotions: Players recalled from the minor league affiliate to the Major League parent team. These transactions begin with "Recalled from (team name)" and will refer to players already on the 40-man roster being recalled to the majors.
Contracts Purchased: These are players being promoted to the 40-man roster. If during the season, these players are typically added to the active roster. If during the off-season, players having their contract purchased are normally added to 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft.
Assignments: Transactions expressed with "Assigned to ... " refer to players changing teams within an organization, whether promoted or demoted. A Major Leaguer moving from the MLB team to the minors without leaving the 40-man roster is technically "optioned" but the word "assigned" is used. An optioned player is allowed to move back and forth between the Majors in 3 separate years. Otherwise, these players will need to clear waivers. Other assignments listed on the site will be for minor leaguers changing teams.
Signed... There are 2 types of signing transacions. (1) Players signed to Major League Contracts where their contract duration and $value will be listed alongside some other relevant contract info such as option years or bonuses. Within each contract signed, the context of the signing will also be included. This could be "Free Agent","Extension","Arbitration","Intl Free Agent" or "Renewed". All MLB contracts include a spot on the 40-man roster. (2) Signed to minor league contract will be written for all other signings. These are players who are joining the organization but not on the 40-man roster.
Injuries: Visits to the Injured List (Formerly known as the Disabled List) are captured for both Minor Leaguers and Major Leaguers. For players on the active MLB roster, the description will include, if available, the injury as well as the cause. Most minor league injured list transactions will not include the reason or the cause. Day-to-day injuries that don't involve a trip to the IL will not be included. There are also different IL designations. IL-60 means a player is on the long-term IL and unavailable to the active roster for at least 60 days and is thus safely removed from the 40-man roster. The 10-day IL is used for short-term injuries. The injury dates are as of the reporting of the injury. Many injuries are retroactively started as of the date of their last appearance in a game. Minor league has the IL-7 list and the IL-60 list as well though TBC captures them all with the status of IL-7. The transaction description will include the IL-7 or IL-60 designation. Just not the status.
Designated for Assignment When a player is removed from the 40-man roster, it is called being DFA'd. The status DFA refers to the state of limbo where a player's future will be decided where he will either be traded, released, claimed on waivers or outrighted to the minors.
Outrighted Similar to assigned. Outright means the player is assigned while also being removed from the 40-man roster. It will mean he cleared waivers. It will often occur after a DFA transaction.
Waiver Claims: When a player is DFA'd, he becomes available to other teams to be claimed. Teams have some time to submit a claim and the team with the lowest waiver ranking (based on standings) will claim that player. When the player is claimed, they will likely have to remove another player from their own roster. A team may orchestrate a trade with a team lower down the waiver ranking to at the least, get a player in return. The claiming team must place the player on their 40-man roster though not necessarily in the Majors.
Trades: Player trades are the most interesting of players changing teams. All trades are captured in each player's transaction list. The transaction is described from his perspective and includes all players involved (if not too complicated) and does not include the selected player's name. In a transaction list, for trades of 5 players, you will see 5 records for the trade. There is no single trade record. The database was designed for the player's perspective.
Rule 5 Draft MLB and Minor League Rule 5 draft transactions are captured including their possible return to their original team. ("Returned to x"). Rule 5 picks are unprotected minor leaguers who are selected by a different organization to put on their active roster for the upcoming season. Minor league rule 5 picks do not affect active or 40-man rosters. They provide an opportunity for another team to promote them above their place in their current organization.
Free Agency: Players being granted free agency (or electing free agency) are free to sign with another team. The act of becoming a free agent is captured as a record whether it is at the conclusion of a contract or as a result of a release or non-tendering.
Releases: Players who are released are mostly done so at the choice of an organization. These transactions are captured and players will become free agents similarly to when they are granted free agency.
Retired: Not all players officially announce their retirement. Many attempt to keep playing and never declare their careers officially over. Only declared/published retirements are incldued. Therefore, you may see many former players with a perpeptual status of "FA". Who are we to decide that they are done. Eventually, we will display that player's status as "inactive" on his player page. The retired status is often added later.
Restricted List: Players who are suspended or having other difficulties are often placed on the restricted list. This will remove them from the 40-man roster and keep them in the organization. Common reasons are drug suspensions, trouble with the law, VISA issues or ongoing family issues. Gameplay suspensions are listed in the Transactions database but are not given a "Restricted" status. These players normally don't leave the 40-man roster.
Bereavement: Players with a death in the family are given time off and removed from the Active Roster.
Paternity Leave: On a brighter note, players becoming a parent get a few days off to spend time with their family and are removed from the active roster.
Draft Records: Many players have a transaction record included for their draft signing date (or UDFA signing date) that includes the school from where they were signed. TBC doesn't put a lot of effort into this data element since the draft database includes this information and displays it on the player page.
Assigned to minors: No particular minor league as part of the assignment. Could be extended spring training, an alternative training location or the player is simply without a team.