Sandlot

A mobile-first daily fantasy baseball draft challenge. Pick from curated historical MLB player-seasons (1961-2025) and see how your lineup stacks up.

How It Works

1. Daily Challenge: Every day, a new set of 10 draft rounds goes live. Same slate for everyone.
2. Pick Your Lineup: Each round shows 3 legendary players with 3 year options each. You have 30 seconds to pick.
3. Legend Score: Every pick gets a Legend Score (1-10) based on how dominant that player was at their position that year.
4. Compare: See what % of other players picked each option, and how your total score ranks.

Development Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Docker (for PostgreSQL)
• Python 3.10+ with pip (for data pipeline, one-time setup)

Quick Start

# 1. Start PostgreSQL
docker compose up -d

# 2. Set up backend
cd backend
cp .env.example .env    # Edit with your keys
npm install
npx drizzle-kit push    # Create database tables
npm run dev             # Starts on http://localhost:3001

# 3. Set up frontend (new terminal)
cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev             # Starts on http://localhost:3000

# 4. Load player data (one-time)
cd data-pipeline
pip install -r requirements.txt
python preprocess-to-postgres.py ../data-preprocessing/lahman_1871-2025_csv

Data Source

Player statistics come from the Lahman Baseball Database (1871-2025, CC BY-SA 3.0). Download the CSV archive and extract it to data-preprocessing/lahman_1871-2025_csv/.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 19, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Framer Motion
• Backend: Express 5, TypeScript, Drizzle ORM, PostgreSQL
• AI: OpenAI API for player blurbs (optional)
• Data: Python preprocessing with pandas, numpy, scipy

Acknowledgments

• Lahman Baseball Database for historical baseball statistics
• OpenAI for AI-generated player blurbs