MLB League State Reader
Table of Contents
Example
Scenario: Morning brief run on 2026-04-17. Coach needs current roster, matchup, FAAB, and standings before launching lineup-optimizer.
Inputs read first:
yahoo-mlb/context/league-config.md (league ID 23756, team 5, 12 teams, 5x5 cats)
yahoo-mlb/context/team-profile.md (prior known roster skeleton)
Chrome navigation sequence (authenticated):
https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/5 — roster with today's opponents per player
https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756?lhst=stand — standings + category ranks
https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/matchup — this week's head-to-head vs Los Doyers
https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/transactions — FAAB spent to date → remaining
https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/players?status=A — top free agents (page 1)
Extracted bundle:
| Field |
Value |
| Record |
8-6-1 |
| Rank |
5 of 12 |
| FAAB spent |
$14 |
| FAAB remaining |
$86 |
| This week opp |
Los Doyers |
| Live matchup score |
4-3-3 (us leading R, HR, K; losing OBP, ERA, WHIP) |
| Roster returned |
26 of 26 slots populated |
| Free agents top-20 |
captured for waiver-analyst |
Outputs written:
context/team-profile.md — roster snapshot updated in place (slot, player, MLB team, today's opp, status)
signals/2026-04-17-league-state.md — signal file with YAML frontmatter, source_urls, confidence
Every downstream agent (lineup-optimizer, waiver-analyst, category-strategist) now reads this signal file and team-profile.md rather than re-scraping Yahoo.
Workflow
Copy this checklist and track progress:
League State Reader Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Read context files (league-config.md + team-profile.md)
- [ ] Step 2: Pull Yahoo pages via Claude-in-Chrome (5 URLs)
- [ ] Step 3: Parse roster, standings, matchup, FAAB, free agents
- [ ] Step 4: Update team-profile.md in place
- [ ] Step 5: Emit signal file with frontmatter + source_urls
Step 1: Read context files
Load the authoritative contract and the last known state before touching Yahoo. This both verifies the league ID/URL and provides the skeleton to diff against.
Step 2: Pull Yahoo pages via Claude-in-Chrome
The user is already authenticated in the browser. Navigate in order; parse page text; if any step fails, jump to Degraded Mode for that specific URL only (do not abort the whole run). See resources/methodology.md for the exact tool-call sequence and page-parsing patterns.
Step 3: Parse and normalize
Extract structured data from each page. See resources/methodology.md for row-level parsing logic, and resources/methodology.md for how to reconstruct FAAB remaining from the transactions log.
Step 4: Update team-profile.md in place
See resources/template.md for the exact output shape. Overwrite the existing file (not append); this file is meant to always reflect "as of the latest run."
Step 5: Emit signal file
Write yahoo-mlb/signals/YYYY-MM-DD-league-state.md with YAML frontmatter per the signal framework. Every URL navigated must appear in source_urls. Degraded fetches drop confidence to 0.5; full-failure fields drop to 0.3 and are flagged. See resources/template.md.
Degraded Mode
Chrome can fail for several reasons: tab not open, session expired, Yahoo rate-limiting, 500 error, unreadable DOM. Never abort the whole run. Fail gracefully per-URL.
Per-URL fallback decision tree:
| Failure |
Fallback |
| Navigation error / timeout |
Retry once. If still failing, ask user: "Paste the contents of {URL} and I'll parse from that." |
| Session expired (login page returned) |
Ask user: "Please log into Yahoo in your Chrome tab, then say 'retry'." Do not attempt to re-authenticate. |
| Page loads but parse fails (unknown layout) |
Dump the first ~4000 chars of get_page_text into the signal file under raw_capture: and drop confidence to 0.4 for that field. |
| Free-agents page gated / empty |
Mark free_agents: [] and flag in the signal. The waiver-analyst can still run on roster + standings. |
| Transactions page gated |
Ask user: "What's your FAAB remaining right now? Visible at the top of the transactions page." Accept user value; mark faab_confidence: 0.6. |
User-paste template (reuse for any Yahoo page):
"I couldn't reach {URL}. Please copy the visible table on that page (select all, paste into chat) and I'll extract the fields I need from your paste."
Parse the pasted text with the same regex/row patterns as the live page. See resources/methodology.md.
Guardrails
Never assume the roster is still what it was yesterday. Waivers clear daily and trades can fire any time. Always re-read the Yahoo team page at the start of every run, even if team-profile.md looks fresh.
FAAB remaining is derived, not displayed. Yahoo's UI sometimes shows "FAAB Balance" and sometimes doesn't. The authoritative computation is: $100 minus sum of all winning bids on the transactions page this season. Do not trust a single visible number over the ledger.
Cite every URL. The signal file's source_urls: list must contain every Yahoo page actually visited. If a page was skipped because of degradation, note it in the signal body, not silently.
Do not re-scrape downstream. Once this skill has emitted today's league-state signal, lineup-optimizer / waiver-analyst / category-strategist MUST read that signal rather than re-visit Yahoo. Re-scraping wastes tokens and risks drift.
Overwrite team-profile.md; append nowhere. This file is "current state." Preserving yesterday's roster pollutes it. The append-only log lives in tracker/decisions-log.md, not here.
Status values are normalized enums. Map Yahoo's labels (P, DTD, IL-10, IL-60, NA, SUSP) to the normalized enum: active | BN | IL | DTD | NA | SUSP. Downstream agents branch on the enum, not Yahoo's strings.
Today's opponent may be blank. Off-days, postponements, and doubleheaders all produce unusual opp_today values. Record exactly what Yahoo shows (@TEX, TEX, Off, PPD, DH1/DH2) — do not normalize away information the downstream lineup-optimizer needs.
Don't emit a signal with zero source URLs. If every page failed, write an empty-body signal with confidence: 0.0 and a prominent note to the coach: "Could not reach Yahoo — paste or retry required before any downstream agent runs."
Quick Reference
The five Yahoo URLs (from context/frameworks/data-sources.md):
Team: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/5
Standings: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756?lhst=stand
Matchup: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/matchup
Transactions: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/transactions
Free agents: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/players?status=A
Chrome tool order (load via ToolSearch first, then call):
1. mcp__claude-in-chrome__tabs_context_mcp (confirm active tab, auth state)
2. mcp__claude-in-chrome__navigate (go to URL)
3. mcp__claude-in-chrome__get_page_text (extract DOM text)
4. mcp__claude-in-chrome__read_page (structured read if text fails)
Roster slot order (for team-profile YAML; matches league-config.md):
C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, UTIL, UTIL, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, IL, IL, IL
Status enum mapping:
| Yahoo |
Normalized |
| (blank) / P |
active |
| BN |
BN |
| DTD |
DTD |
| IL-10 / IL-60 / IL |
IL |
| NA |
NA |
| SUSP |
SUSP |
Signal frontmatter (minimum fields):
---
type: league-state
date: 2026-04-17
emitted_by: mlb-league-state-reader
variant_synthesis: false
confidence: 0.9
source_urls:
- https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/5
- https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756?lhst=stand
- https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/matchup
- https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/transactions
- https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/players?status=A
---
Key resources:
- resources/template.md: team-profile.md output format, signal file output format, roster YAML schema, free-agents table schema
- resources/methodology.md: Yahoo navigation sequence, parsing patterns per page, FAAB reconstruction, paste parsing, degraded-mode prompts
- resources/evaluators/rubric_mlb_league_state_reader.json: 8 scoring criteria (roster completeness, FAAB accuracy, URL citation, fallback handling, etc.)
Inputs required:
- Authenticated Yahoo Fantasy session in Chrome (user's responsibility)
context/league-config.md (league ID, team ID, roster shape)
context/team-profile.md (prior state, may be stub)
Outputs produced:
- Updated
context/team-profile.md (overwrite; reflects today's state)
signals/YYYY-MM-DD-league-state.md (with frontmatter + source_urls)
- Degraded-mode prompts to user if any page fails
1---2name: mlb-league-state-reader3description: Parses Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league state (roster, standings, current matchup, FAAB remaining, free agents) from authenticated Yahoo team pages via Claude-in-Chrome browser automation, then grounds it against league-config.md and team-profile.md to emit a normalized league-state bundle every other agent can consume without re-scraping. Use when the coach or any downstream agent needs to read Yahoo roster, refresh team profile, pull league state, get current matchup, check FAAB remaining, list free agents, or when user mentions "what's on my roster", "who am I playing this week", "how much FAAB do I have left", or "refresh my team".4---5# MLB League State Reader
6
7## Table of Contents
8- [Example](#example)
9- [Workflow](#workflow)
10- [Degraded Mode](#degraded-mode)
11- [Guardrails](#guardrails)
12- [Quick Reference](#quick-reference)
13
14## Example
15
16**Scenario**: Morning brief run on 2026-04-17. Coach needs current roster, matchup, FAAB, and standings before launching lineup-optimizer.
17
18**Inputs read first**:
19- `yahoo-mlb/context/league-config.md` (league ID 23756, team 5, 12 teams, 5x5 cats)
20- `yahoo-mlb/context/team-profile.md` (prior known roster skeleton)
21
22**Chrome navigation sequence** (authenticated):
231. `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/5` — roster with today's opponents per player
242. `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756?lhst=stand` — standings + category ranks
253. `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/matchup` — this week's head-to-head vs Los Doyers
264. `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/transactions` — FAAB spent to date → remaining
275. `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/players?status=A` — top free agents (page 1)
28
29**Extracted bundle**:
30
31| Field | Value |
32|---|---|
33| Record | 8-6-1 |
34| Rank | 5 of 12 |
35| FAAB spent | $14 |
36| FAAB remaining | **$86** |
37| This week opp | Los Doyers |
38| Live matchup score | 4-3-3 (us leading R, HR, K; losing OBP, ERA, WHIP) |
39| Roster returned | 26 of 26 slots populated |
40| Free agents top-20 | captured for waiver-analyst |
41
42**Outputs written**:
43- `context/team-profile.md` — roster snapshot updated in place (slot, player, MLB team, today's opp, status)
44- `signals/2026-04-17-league-state.md` — signal file with YAML frontmatter, source_urls, confidence
45
46Every downstream agent (lineup-optimizer, waiver-analyst, category-strategist) now reads this signal file and team-profile.md rather than re-scraping Yahoo.
47
48## Workflow
49
50Copy this checklist and track progress:
51
52```
53League State Reader Progress:
54- [ ] Step 1: Read context files (league-config.md + team-profile.md)
55- [ ] Step 2: Pull Yahoo pages via Claude-in-Chrome (5 URLs)
56- [ ] Step 3: Parse roster, standings, matchup, FAAB, free agents
57- [ ] Step 4: Update team-profile.md in place
58- [ ] Step 5: Emit signal file with frontmatter + source_urls
59```
60
61**Step 1: Read context files**
62
63Load the authoritative contract and the last known state before touching Yahoo. This both verifies the league ID/URL and provides the skeleton to diff against.
64
65- [ ] Read `yahoo-mlb/context/league-config.md` — confirm league ID 23756, team 5, roster shape (C/1B/2B/3B/SS/3OF/2UTIL/3SP/2RP/5P/3BN/3IL = 26), FAAB budget $100
66- [ ] Read `yahoo-mlb/context/team-profile.md` — capture prior FAAB remaining, prior roster for diff
67- [ ] Read `yahoo-mlb/context/frameworks/signal-framework.md` — confirm signal file format
68- [ ] Read `yahoo-mlb/context/frameworks/data-sources.md` — confirm the 5 Yahoo URLs
69
70**Step 2: Pull Yahoo pages via Claude-in-Chrome**
71
72The user is already authenticated in the browser. Navigate in order; parse page text; if any step fails, jump to [Degraded Mode](#degraded-mode) for that specific URL only (do not abort the whole run). See [resources/methodology.md](resources/methodology.md#yahoo-navigation-sequence) for the exact tool-call sequence and page-parsing patterns.
73
74- [ ] Team page: `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/5`
75- [ ] Standings: `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756?lhst=stand`
76- [ ] Matchup: `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/matchup`
77- [ ] Transactions (for FAAB): `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/transactions`
78- [ ] Free agents: `https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/players?status=A`
79
80**Step 3: Parse and normalize**
81
82Extract structured data from each page. See [resources/methodology.md](resources/methodology.md#parsing-patterns) for row-level parsing logic, and [resources/methodology.md](resources/methodology.md#faab-remaining-computation) for how to reconstruct FAAB remaining from the transactions log.
83
84- [ ] Roster: for each of 26 slots, capture `{slot, player, mlb_team, opp_today, status: active|IL|DTD|NA|BN}`
85- [ ] Standings: W-L-T record, rank, per-category rank (10 cats)
86- [ ] Matchup: opponent name, live scoreline by category (W-L-T across the 10 cats so far this week)
87- [ ] FAAB: sum all `-$N` entries from transactions history this season; remaining = $100 - total spent
88- [ ] Free agents: capture top 25 by rostered% — enough for waiver-analyst to start ranking
89
90**Step 4: Update team-profile.md in place**
91
92See [resources/template.md](resources/template.md#team-profile-output-format) for the exact output shape. Overwrite the existing file (not append); this file is meant to always reflect "as of the latest run."
93
94- [ ] Header: `## As of YYYY-MM-DD`
95- [ ] State table: record, rank, FAAB remaining, current opponent, acquisitions used, IL slots used
96- [ ] Roster snapshot: full 26-slot YAML block
97- [ ] Open questions: empty unless a page failed
98
99**Step 5: Emit signal file**
100
101Write `yahoo-mlb/signals/YYYY-MM-DD-league-state.md` with YAML frontmatter per the signal framework. Every URL navigated must appear in `source_urls`. Degraded fetches drop `confidence` to 0.5; full-failure fields drop to 0.3 and are flagged. See [resources/template.md](resources/template.md#signal-file-output-format).
102
103- [ ] Frontmatter: `type: league-state`, `date`, `emitted_by: mlb-league-state-reader`, `confidence`, `source_urls[]`
104- [ ] Body: roster table, standings table, matchup table, FAAB ledger, top-25 free agents
105- [ ] Validate via `mlb-signal-emitter` before writing (if that skill is available in this run); otherwise write directly
106
107## Degraded Mode
108
109Chrome can fail for several reasons: tab not open, session expired, Yahoo rate-limiting, 500 error, unreadable DOM. **Never abort the whole run.** Fail gracefully per-URL.
110
111**Per-URL fallback decision tree:**
112
113| Failure | Fallback |
114|---|---|
115| Navigation error / timeout | Retry once. If still failing, ask user: "Paste the contents of `{URL}` and I'll parse from that." |
116| Session expired (login page returned) | Ask user: "Please log into Yahoo in your Chrome tab, then say 'retry'." Do not attempt to re-authenticate. |
117| Page loads but parse fails (unknown layout) | Dump the first ~4000 chars of `get_page_text` into the signal file under `raw_capture:` and drop confidence to 0.4 for that field. |
118| Free-agents page gated / empty | Mark `free_agents: []` and flag in the signal. The waiver-analyst can still run on roster + standings. |
119| Transactions page gated | Ask user: "What's your FAAB remaining right now? Visible at the top of the transactions page." Accept user value; mark `faab_confidence: 0.6`. |
120
121**User-paste template** (reuse for any Yahoo page):
122
123> "I couldn't reach `{URL}`. Please copy the visible table on that page (select all, paste into chat) and I'll extract the fields I need from your paste."
124
125Parse the pasted text with the same regex/row patterns as the live page. See [resources/methodology.md](resources/methodology.md#paste-parsing).
126
127## Guardrails
128
1291. **Never assume the roster is still what it was yesterday.** Waivers clear daily and trades can fire any time. Always re-read the Yahoo team page at the start of every run, even if `team-profile.md` looks fresh.
130
1312. **FAAB remaining is derived, not displayed.** Yahoo's UI sometimes shows "FAAB Balance" and sometimes doesn't. The authoritative computation is: `$100 minus sum of all winning bids on the transactions page this season`. Do not trust a single visible number over the ledger.
132
1333. **Cite every URL.** The signal file's `source_urls:` list must contain every Yahoo page actually visited. If a page was skipped because of degradation, note it in the signal body, not silently.
134
1354. **Do not re-scrape downstream.** Once this skill has emitted today's league-state signal, lineup-optimizer / waiver-analyst / category-strategist MUST read that signal rather than re-visit Yahoo. Re-scraping wastes tokens and risks drift.
136
1375. **Overwrite team-profile.md; append nowhere.** This file is "current state." Preserving yesterday's roster pollutes it. The append-only log lives in `tracker/decisions-log.md`, not here.
138
1396. **Status values are normalized enums.** Map Yahoo's labels (`P`, `DTD`, `IL-10`, `IL-60`, `NA`, `SUSP`) to the normalized enum: `active | BN | IL | DTD | NA | SUSP`. Downstream agents branch on the enum, not Yahoo's strings.
140
1417. **Today's opponent may be blank.** Off-days, postponements, and doubleheaders all produce unusual `opp_today` values. Record exactly what Yahoo shows (`@TEX`, `TEX`, `Off`, `PPD`, `DH1/DH2`) — do not normalize away information the downstream lineup-optimizer needs.
142
1438. **Don't emit a signal with zero source URLs.** If every page failed, write an empty-body signal with `confidence: 0.0` and a prominent note to the coach: "Could not reach Yahoo — paste or retry required before any downstream agent runs."
144
145## Quick Reference
146
147**The five Yahoo URLs (from `context/frameworks/data-sources.md`):**
148
149```
150Team: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/5
151Standings: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756?lhst=stand
152Matchup: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/matchup
153Transactions: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/transactions
154Free agents: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/players?status=A
155```
156
157**Chrome tool order (load via `ToolSearch` first, then call):**
158
159```
1601. mcp__claude-in-chrome__tabs_context_mcp (confirm active tab, auth state)
1612. mcp__claude-in-chrome__navigate (go to URL)
1623. mcp__claude-in-chrome__get_page_text (extract DOM text)
1634. mcp__claude-in-chrome__read_page (structured read if text fails)
164```
165
166**Roster slot order (for team-profile YAML; matches `league-config.md`):**
167
168```
169C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, UTIL, UTIL, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, IL, IL, IL
170```
171
172**Status enum mapping:**
173
174| Yahoo | Normalized |
175|---|---|
176| (blank) / P | `active` |
177| BN | `BN` |
178| DTD | `DTD` |
179| IL-10 / IL-60 / IL | `IL` |
180| NA | `NA` |
181| SUSP | `SUSP` |
182
183**Signal frontmatter (minimum fields):**
184
185```yaml
186---
187type: league-state
188date: 2026-04-17
189emitted_by: mlb-league-state-reader
190variant_synthesis: false
191confidence: 0.9
192source_urls:
193 - https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/5
194 - https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756?lhst=stand
195 - https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/matchup
196 - https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/transactions
197 - https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/23756/players?status=A
198---
199```
200
201**Key resources:**
202
203- **[resources/template.md](resources/template.md)**: team-profile.md output format, signal file output format, roster YAML schema, free-agents table schema
204- **[resources/methodology.md](resources/methodology.md)**: Yahoo navigation sequence, parsing patterns per page, FAAB reconstruction, paste parsing, degraded-mode prompts
205- **[resources/evaluators/rubric_mlb_league_state_reader.json](resources/evaluators/rubric_mlb_league_state_reader.json)**: 8 scoring criteria (roster completeness, FAAB accuracy, URL citation, fallback handling, etc.)
206
207**Inputs required:**
208
209- Authenticated Yahoo Fantasy session in Chrome (user's responsibility)
210- `context/league-config.md` (league ID, team ID, roster shape)
211- `context/team-profile.md` (prior state, may be stub)
212
213**Outputs produced:**
214
215- Updated `context/team-profile.md` (overwrite; reflects today's state)
216- `signals/YYYY-MM-DD-league-state.md` (with frontmatter + source_urls)
217- Degraded-mode prompts to user if any page fails