Create MLB Player Tiers — mlb_player

This function sets up a ggplot to visualize MLB player tiers. Adapted from nflplotR

Usage

mlb_player_tiers(
  data,
  title = "MLB Player Tiers",
  subtitle = "Created with the #mlbplotR Tiermaker",
  caption = NULL,
  tier_desc = c(`1` = "MVP Candidates", `2` = "Very Good", `3` = "Medium", `4` = "Bad",
    `5` = "Negative WAR", `6` = "", `7` = ""),
  presort = FALSE,
  alpha = 1,
  width = 0.1,
  no_line_below_tier = NULL,
  devel = FALSE,
  background_color = "#1e1e1e",
  line_color = "#e0e0e0",
  title_color = "white",
  subtitle_color = "#8e8e93",
  caption_color = subtitle_color,
  tier_label_color = title_color,
  headshot_type = "main",
  na_headshot_to_logo = TRUE
)

Arguments

data: A data frame that has to include the variables tier_no (the number of the tier starting from the top tier no. 1) and player_id (the player's MLBAM/Savant ID). If data includes the variable tier_rank, these ranks will be used within each tier. Otherwise, if presort = FALSE, the function will assume that data is already sorted and if presort = TRUE, teams will be sorted alphabetically within tiers.
title: The title of the plot. If NULL, it will be omitted.
subtitle: The subtitle of the plot. If NULL, it will be omitted.
caption: The caption of the plot. If NULL, it will be omitted.
tier_desc: A named vector consisting of the tier descriptions. The names must equal the tier numbers from tier_no
presort: If FALSE (the default) the function assumes that the teams are already sorted within the tiers. Will otherwise sort alphabetically.
alpha: The alpha channel of the logos, i.e. transparency level, as a numerical value between 0 and 1. Defaults to 1
width: The desired width of the logo in npc (Normalised Parent Coordinates). A typical size is 0.1.
no_line_below_tier: Vector of tier numbers. The function won't draw tier separation lines below these tiers. This is intended to be used for tiers that shall be combined (see examples).
devel: Determines if headshots shall be rendered. If FALSE (the default), headshots will be rendered on each run. If TRUE the player ids will be plotted instead of the logos. This is much faster and helps with the plot development.
background_color: Background color for the plot. Defaults to "#1e1e1e"
line_color: Line color for the plot. Defaults to "#e0e0e0"
title_color: Text color for the title. Defaults to "white"
subtitle_color: Text color the the subtitle. Defaults to "#8e8e93"
caption_color: Text color the the caption. Defaults to be equal to the subtitle
tier_label_color: Text color for the tier labels. Defaults to be equal to the title
headshot_type: "main" or "dot" headshots? Defaults to "main"
na_headshot_to_logo: Should NA/non-matches return the MLB logo instead of a grayed out blank headshot? Defaults to TRUE

Value

A plot object created with ggplot2::ggplot().

Examples

# \donttest{
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr, warn.conflicts = FALSE)
player_ids <- load_headshots() |>
  head(35) |>
  pull(savant_id)

# Build the player tiers data frame
# This is completely random!
df <- data.frame(
  tier_no = sample(1:5, length(player_ids), replace = TRUE),
  player_id = player_ids
) %>%
  dplyr::group_by(tier_no) %>%
  dplyr::mutate(tier_rank = sample(1:n(), n()))

# Plot player tiers
mlb_player_tiers(df)


# Create a combined tier which is useful for tiers with lots of players that
# should be split up in two or more rows. This is done by setting an empty
# string for the tier 5 description and removing the tier separation line
# below tier number 4.
# This example also shows how to turn off the subtitle and add a caption
mlb_player_tiers(df,
                 subtitle = NULL,
                 caption = "This is the caption",
                 tier_desc = c("1" = "MVP Candidates",
                               "2" = "Very Good",
                               "3" = "Medium",
                               "4" = "A Combined Tier",
                               "5" = ""),
                 no_line_below_tier = 4)


# For the development of the tiers, it can be useful to turn off image
# rendering as this can take quite a long time. By setting `devel = TRUE`, the
# headshots are replaced by player ids which is much faster
mlb_player_tiers(df,
                 tier_desc = c("1" = "MVP Candidates",
                               "2" = "Very Good",
                               "3" = "",
                               "4" = "A Combined Tier",
                               "5" = ""),
                 no_line_below_tier = c(2, 4),
                 devel = TRUE)

# }