ChasinBase started as a hobby project: a way to settle the never-ending bar-stool arguments about which historical players you'd actually want to build a team around. The Hall of Fame plaque is one thing — but if you had to pick nine bats and a rotation tonight, who are you taking?
The site is built and maintained by one person — a lifelong baseball fan, not a studio. There are no VC dollars behind it, no ad agency optimizing every pixel. Just a developer who got tired of paying $60 for sports games that don't let you draft Babe Ruth and Mike Trout onto the same team and watch what happens.
How the simulation actually works
Every player in ChasinBase is graded on their real career numbers, pulled from Baseball Reference. Hitters get ratings derived from career wRC+, ISO, walk rate, and strikeout rate. Pitchers are graded on ERA+, FIP, K/9, and BB/9. Era adjustment normalizes dead-ball-era counting stats against modern offensive environments so a 1908 ace isn't penalized for playing in a league that didn't hit home runs.
The sim engine then runs a 162-game season using Pythagorean expected wins from your team's aggregate run-scoring and run-prevention profile, with variance applied so the same team won't always end up at the same record. That's why one drafted lineup might go 95–67 one run and 88–74 the next — same roster, different season.
The modes
- Classic — eight roster spots, one slot machine. You get the player you spin. Trust the variance.
- Diamond IQ — see three candidates per spot and pick one. Rewards positional understanding and roster construction.
- Team Mode — locked to a single franchise. How good can you make the all-time Royals?
- Head-to-Head — live online drafts against another human. Snake-style picks from a shared pool, both teams sim, winner takes the bigger run differential.
What's next
The roadmap includes NHL and NFL drafts (the data scrapers already live in the repo — they just need UI polish), private invite-code lobbies for Head-to-Head, and a season-long tournament ladder for Pro members. If there's something you want to see, the contact page is the fastest way to reach the dev.
Supporting the project
ChasinBase is free to play. Solo modes (Classic, Diamond IQ, Team Mode) are unlimited and always will be. Pro is $3.49/month and unlocks unlimited online Head-to-Head matches plus early access to new sports as they launch. If you'd rather chip in once, Ko-fi works too. Every dollar covers hosting and a little bit of the developer's coffee budget.