The Best of FanGraphs: April 25-29, 2016
Each week, we publish north of 100 posts on our various blogs. With this post, we hope to highlight 10 to 15 of them. You can read more on it here. The links below are color coded — green for FanGraphs, brown for RotoGraphs, dark red for The Hardball Times and blue for Community Research.
MONDAY
The Cubs Are the Best Base-Running Team, Too, by August Fagerstrom
It’s going to be pretty disappointing when the Cubs find a way to blow it again, since they’re actually really good this time.
Estimated TV Revenues for All 30 MLB Teams, by Craig Edwards
We can never know for sure, of course, but Craig puts in the work to get us a baseline. Also, should baseball be played in Florida outside of March?
Drew Smyly Is a Strikeout Machine, by Jeff Sullivan
It’s not as good as being a sex machine, but you should never let good be the enemy of great.
TUESDAY
Staten Island Yankees Sabermetric Day Event on June 19th, by Carson Cistulli
Join us!
Corey Dickerson on Hitting: Goodbye Coors, Hello Trop, by David Laurila
Dickerson makes a pretty good case for the AL East being a better hitting environment overall than the NL West.
What Pitchers (and Numbers) Say About Pitching in the Cold, by Eno Sarris
Like many of us, Eno piggybacks off some research from Jeff Zimmerman.
Fun with Triple Plays of the Past, Present and Future, by August Fagerstrom
WEDNESDAY
Tipping Pitches: Cutting Bait on Three Top-60 Arms, by Paul Sporer
A clear anti-Yankees bias and a Simpsons video clip — it’s like this article was speaking to me!
The Case For Jake Arrieta as the Most Dominant Pitcher of All Time, by dodski85
Once the shock of the provocative title gives way, there is some good analysis here.
THURSDAY
DFS Stacking: A Data-Driven Approach, by Matt Hunter
Using science for fantasy glory.
FRIDAY
The Unfathomable Reality of a (Temporarily) Awful Joey Votto, by Owen Watson
Last year at this time, there was a lot of hand wringing about Joey Votto, but then he went out and had perhaps the best season of his career. Was the hand wringing simply a year early? Owen investigates.
The Fringe Five: Baseball’s Most Compelling Fringe Prospects, by Carson Cistulli
The Fringe Five actually returned last week, but I didn’t notice it. So I’m pretending it came back this week! Welcome back, Fringe Five! Looking forward to finding out who the next Mookie Betts is.
How Your Biggest Strength Could Be Hurting You, by Tanner Bell
Tanner goes all Inception on us, and to great effect.
Let’s Build a Rotation, by Joe Douglas
You’re relying on some unknowns here, but this rotation would keep you competitive if all the pitchers in it stay healthy.
The Doug Mirabelli Trade: An Oral History, by Tim Healey
For this fantastic piece, Tim spoke to three GMs, three players a traveling secretary and the state police. The absolute must read of the week.
Paul Swydan used to be the managing editor of The Hardball Times, a writer and editor for FanGraphs and a writer for Boston.com and The Boston Globe. Now, he owns The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Acton, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @Swydan. Follow the store @SilUnicornActon.
The Cubs have only played 3 games this year against a team with a winning record. Might be worth mentioning that they’ve also had a lot of help in their start instead of using their start as evidence for the accuracy of preseason predictions.
The Cubs have an actual .773 win %. If you look at their 3rd Order Win-Pct at Baseball Prospectus, which factors in difficulty of schedule, along with underlying statistics, their win% ***increases*** to .852. Also, in another article from this week written by Jeff Sullivan (a snub IMO), he examined to difficulty of schedules so far, and found that the Cubs have had a neutral effect from schedule strength so far compared to their schedule going forward. (They still have a lot of games to play against the Reds and Brewers!)
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