About the project

The numbers are only the beginning.

Sports statistics are full of extraordinary stories. Out of the Box is a place to find them—through play, comparison, visualization and curiosity.

01 / PLAY

Guess first.

Make a prediction, then see what history actually says. Small games with a real discovery at the end.

02 / EXPLORE

Look deeper.

Move between careers, teams, eras and statistical universes. Change the question; watch the data rearrange.

03 / DISCOVER

Share the surprise.

Clean, portable charts and facts that keep the definitions and evidence attached.

Simple on the surface. Deep underneath.

The best sports analysis should be understandable at a glance, useful after a minute, and rewarding after an hour. That's our design challenge: visual clarity without sacrificing statistical depth.

We start with baseball, where the historical record is unusually rich. The broader idea can extend to basketball, football and other sports.

Data you can question.

Different eras have different rules, contexts and source coverage. We show the time window, qualifying population, formulas and limitations alongside the graphics. A missing value is never secretly a zero.

Prototype status. This is an evolving collection of locally connected experiences, not yet one production database. Player profiles currently cover a curated historical cohort through 2020; some other exhibits use team data through 2025. Cohort-based rankings are not all-time MLB rankings. Some visualizations use custom indices that are not official OPS+ or ERA+.

A home for the curious.

Out of the Box is a working title. The project grew out of Oddball, a baseball data experiment from Minor Works. We want it to feel like the best part of an election-night big board: an interesting observation followed by ten possible questions.

What comes next?

More historical coverage, greater depth in the Atlas, better cross-era comparisons, game-generated discoveries, and genuinely reusable share images and links.

Explore the prototype →