scrapeFX: Scrape Major League Baseball's PITCHf/x Data

Description

This function is deprecated as of version 1.0

Usage

scrapeFX(start, end, tables = list())

Arguments

start

date "yyyy-mm-dd" to commence scraping of pitch F/X data

end

date "yyyy-mm-dd" to terminate scraping pitch F/X data

tables

XML nodes to be parsed into a data frame

Value

Returns a list containing a data frame specific to each element in tables. The default setting returns two data frames. The larger one contains data "PITCHfx parameters" for each pitch. The smaller one contains data relevant to each atbat.

Details

This function is a wrapper around urlsToDataFrame which increases convenience for scraping PITCHf/x directly from XML files.

Data should be collected on a yearly (or shorter) basis. By default, records from the 'pitch' and 'atbat' level are collected. One should manipulate the tables parameter if other data is desired.

Examples

Run this code

#Collect PITCHf/x data for May 1st, 2012
dat <- scrapeFX(start = "2012-05-01", end = "2012-05-01")
#Join tables for data analysis
pitches <- plyr::join(dat$pitch, dat$atbat, by = c("num", "url"), type = "inner")

Algorithm for obtaining all available PITCHfx data**
# (1) Collect PITCHfx data from 2012
data12 <- scrapeFX(start="2012-01-01", end="2013-01-01")
# (2) Write data12$pitch and data12$atbat to a database
# (3) Remove 2012 data from working space
rm(data12)
# (4) Repeat (1)-(3) for 2011, 2010, 2009 & 2008