Pybaseball currently throwing 403 error - cannot use any functions

[andrewscheiner]

When running pybaseball functions in my Python code, I am unable to use any of the package's functions because I get the following error:

get_pitching_leaders("AL")
HTTPError: Error accessing 'https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders-legacy.aspx'. Received status code 403.

I am also unable to run the functions pitching_stats() and batting_stats() as the throw the same error. When I click on this link (in the error above), it seems Fangraphs is asking for a security check (some sort of CAPTCHA) so Python is unable to access the site and thus, cannot run the code in the functions.

Python / Version Details

Python version: 3.12.4 | packaged by Anaconda, Inc. | (main, Jun 18 2024, 15:03:56) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)]
pybaseball version: 2.2.7
pip-26.0.1

Can someone please look into how to fix this error? I would be happy to provide more details if needed. Thank you!

[ChetW0719]

This seems to be an issue for the Baseballr group too. Fangraphs apparently had to up security to protect against bots? At any rate...this may be dead.

[MancusoM]

I tried to use the fix from #472 and tested it locally, but haven't had any luck yet. It looks like Fangraphs's captcha is stopping all automated requests to their site.

[andrewscheiner]

Yep looks like Fangraphs upped protection against automated requests. I will make note that my projects that use

statcast_batter(start_date, end_date, player_id)

are still working. So Savant is still scrapable, but looks like Fangraphs is not.