Here's the format of each record in the transaction database. primary-date, time, approximate-indicator, secondary-date, approximate-indicator (for secondary-date), transaction-ID, player, type, from-team, from-league, to-team, to-league, draft-type, draft-round, pick-number, info primary-date - "yyyymmdd" Where: yyyy - is the year mm - is a two-digit month (01-12) dd - is a two-digit day (01-31) A "00" in the day field means that that level of precision is not known. A "0000" in the month AND day field means that the transaction occurred sometime prior to the start of the season. Such a transaction could have taken place in the latter part of the previous year as well. time - an optional one digit time indicator: empty (default) - transaction occurred before all games 1 - transaction occurred after the from-team's first or only game of the day and before the to-team's last or only game of the day. 2 - transaction occurred after all games this field may also be used in off-season transactions to establish an order between different transactions involving the same players. approximate-indicator - "@" if the date is approximate. This field is not set simply if the month or day is not known. It is only used if some information is provided (a non-zero month or day) which is only a guess. secondary-date - "yyyymmdd" Same format as above. At present this is used for "Da" types to indicate the player's signing date (the primary-date field for these transactions contains the date of the start of the draft). transaction-id - a number identifying the transaction player - One of the following: an eight character player ID a string containing the first and last name of players who haven't reached the major leagues empty (no player is associated with the record) type - one of the following A - assigned from one team to another without compensation C - conditional deal Cr - returned to original team after conditional deal D - rule 5 draft pick Da - amateur draft pick Df - first year draft pick Dm - minor league draft pick Dn - selected in amateur draft but did not sign Dr - returned to original team after draft selection Ds - special draft pick Dv - amateur draft pick voided F - free agent signing Fa - amateur free agent signing Fb - amateur free agent "bonus baby" signing under the 1953-57 rule requiring player to stay on ML roster Fc - free agent compensation pick Fg - free agent granted Fo - free agent signing with first ML team Fv - free agent signing voided Hb - went on the bereavement list Hbr - came off the bereavement list Hd - declared ineligible Hdr - reinistated from the ineligible list Hf - demoted to the minor league Hfr - promoted from the minor league Hh - held out Hhr - ended hold out Hi - went on the disabled list Hir - came off the disabled list Hm - went into military service Hmr - returned from military service Hs - suspended Hsr - reinstated after a suspension Hu - unavailable but not on DL Hur - returned from being unavailable Hv - voluntarity retired Hvr - unretired J - jumped teams Jr - returned to original team after jumping L - loaned to another team Lr - returned to original team after loan M - obtained rights when entering into working agreement with minor league team Mr - rights returned when working agreement with minor league team ended P - purchase Pr - returned to original team after purchase Pv - purchase voided R - release T - trade Tn - traded but refused to report Tp - added to trade (usually because one of the original players refused to report or retired) Tr - returned to original team after trade Tv - trade voided U - unknown (could have been two separate transactions) Vg - player assigned to league control V - player purchased or assigned to team from league W - waiver pick Wf - first year waiver pick Wr - returned to original team after waiver pick Wv - waiver pick voided X - expansion draft Xe - premium phase of expansion draft Xm - either the 1960 AL minor league expansion draft or the premium phase of the 1961 NL draft Xp - added as expansion pick at a later date Xr - returned to original team after expansion draft Z - voluntarily retired Zr - returned from voluntarily retired list from-team - either a three character major league team abbreviation or the name of an independent minor league team indicating where the player came from. Some transactions (for example, "Da" will not have a from-team (or league). from-league - either a two character major league abbreviation or the name of a minor league in parenthesis. to-team - either a three character major league team abbreviation or the name of an independent minor league team indicating where the player went to. Some transactions (for example, "Fg" will not have a to-team (or league). to-league - either a two character major league abbreviation or the name of a minor league in parenthesis. draft-type - (Da, Dn and Dv types only) the type of amateur draft The default is the regular draft S - secondary phase (or secondary phase delayed) A - secondary phase active L - American Legion D - Dominican draft draft-round - (Da, Dn and Dv types only) the round of the amateur draft that the player was selected in pick-number - For expansion drafts, this contain the number of the pick. For amateur drafts, this will contain the number of the selection for first round picks. info - This contain information associated with the transaction. For trades, this field could contain money sent in addition to players. For player sales, this could contain the sale amount. If a "F" transaction has both a from and a to team, there will be no corresponding "Fg" transactions. These two-team "F" transactions are used in eras where players were not reserved and so were free to sign with whoever those at the end of each contract.