The Best of FanGraphs: April 6-10, 2015

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, orange for TechGraphs and blue for Community Research.

MONDAY
Masahiro Tanaka Abandons the Fastball, by Jeff Sullivan
There were encouraging and discouraging signs from the right-hander’s 2015 debut.

Differences in Daily Scoring Systems, by Brett Talley
Great stuff here from Brett. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but it’s a must-read if you play DraftKings or FanDuel.

Shane Greene, Late Round and Waiver Wire Monster, by Ben Duronio
When you’re trying to find this season’s breakout pitcher, you have to be willing to pick up someone who has blemishes or a thin track record, etc.

TUESDAY
Five Things I Believe About the 2015 Season, by Dave Cameron
Number four is my favorite, though I’m also partial to number two as well.

The Change: My Team Names, My Guys, by Eno Sarris
Congrats to Eno for only being in 12 leagues this year. Some day we’ll get him into single digits!

A List of Grievances for MLB.tv and MLB At Bat, by Bradley Woodrum

WEDNESDAY
Xander and Hanley: Wunderkinds at 22, by David Laurila
Some great insight here on how hitters mature, and how one year can make all the difference.

GUIDE: Every Baseball Movie on Netflix, by Seth Keichline
I’m not sure I’m ready to acknowledge the existence of The Sandlot 2.

Z-Scores in Sports (a Supporting Argument for zDefense), by Walter King
Walter lays out part three in his series.

THURSDAY
What Have New Pace Rules Meant for Troy Tulowitzki?, by Jeff Sullivan
Gotta tighten them tourniquets.

Shin-Soo Choo, on His Injury, by Eno Sarris
Shin-Soo Choo was a bit of a mystery last season. Eno digs in to see if he can solve it.

Using Zone% to Find Breakout Minor Leaguers, by Chris Mitchell
Richard Shaffer looks like the biggest potential breakout player here, though I’m partial to any metric that paints Quintin Berry in a positive light.

Examining Potential MLB Expansion Cities, Part 1, by Chris Mitchell
Chris did a fantastic job with this objective look at what cities could be the best fits for expansion. As the headline infers, this was a two-part piece, and you can find part two here.

Are Two Opening-Day Homers Merely Dust-in the Wind?, by jacaissie
Using Bayes’ Theorem to see if Dustin Pedroia’s Opening Day home run binge was proof his power is back.

FRIDAY
Five Interesting Things from the First Five Days, by Adam McFadden
Evan Gattis finally broke his strikeout streak last night, but he still hasn’t reached base. This would be an anonymous four games in June, but in April, it’s only natural for it to cause concern.