The Best of FanGraphs: August 10-14, 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
Alex Wood Is Finding His Strikeouts Again, by Dave Cameron
Dude, where’s my strikeouts? Oh, there they are. Thanks, Yasmani.

Catcher Framing: Does Size Matter, And Is Age Just a Number?, by Shane Tourtellotte
A great first stab from Shane, though as evidenced by the comments, he does have some work to do.

TUESDAY
Little League Home Runs in MLB History, Part I, by Chuck Hildebrandt
This excellent three-part series was a welcome addition to the site this week. Here are parts two and three.

Everybody Shut Up and Pay Attention to Jung-ho Kang, by Jeff Sullivan
Do what the man says.

The Change: Kang, Yelich and Batted Ball Changers, by Eno Sarris
Eno’s weekly deep dive looks at some guys who hit the ball in a different fashion during July.

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How Michael Taylor Compares to His Contemporaries, by Alex Chamberlain
Pretty well, actually, as long as you’re nor worried about batting average.

Brandon Belt as Joey Votto, by Mike Podhorzer
At least in terms of batted ball profile.

WEDNESDAY
How To Run Sports Data Regressions in Microsoft Excel, by Bradley Woodrum
Bradley dusts off his wizard hat.

Matt Shoemaker’s Need For Speed, by Brian Reiff

THURSDAY
Inside Hisashi Iwakuma’s No-Hitter, by Jeff Sullivan
No-hitters are outstanding!

The Winding Road to a Normal Carlos Gonzalez Season, by Owen Watson
He may not be the player he once was, but his hot streak puts his season statistics in line with what we expect from the Venezuelan native.

Beyond Charboneau: The Curious Cases of Baseball Burnouts, by Alex Remington
Sometimes, young players coming off great seasons go on to have great careers. And sometimes, they don’t.

FRIDAY
Nelson Cruz: A Late Bloomer Exceeds Expectations, by David Laurila
“I don’t see any reason to change.”

Trevor Bauer: Towards Better Pitching Through Science, by Eno Sarris
Warning: This article has pictures of a pitcher holding a baseball.

Forecasting Pitcher Platoon Splits, by Jared Cross
This incredibly detailed research turns up a number of interesting results.





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.

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Well-Beered Englishman
10 years ago

The Best of NotGraphs in Exile

Giants Recreate Intro to Full House – by Dayn Perry – http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25269865/watch-giants-recreate-intro-to-full-house

FanGraphs Audio – NotGraphs Reunion Extravaganza – David G. Temple with a cast of many – http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/fangraphs-audio-the-notgraphs-reunion-extravaganza/

Real Advanced Statistics – by Casey Singer – http://www.banknotesindustries.com/expert-like-analysis/real-advanced-statistics/