The Best of FanGraphs: August 27-31, 2018

Each week, we publish in the neighborhood of 75 articles across 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, 8/27
Pitch Movement, Spin Efficiency, and All That, by Alan Nathan
An excerpt: “The concept is simple: For a given total spin rate, a larger spin efficiency means more movement. The primary goal of this article is a critical examination of two different techniques for extracting the movement and transverse spin from the trajectory. One of these techniques is the one actually used by Trackman; the other is an alternate. As we shall see, the latter produces more accurate results than the former.”

The Mets Freed Brandon Nimmo, by Riann Watt
Real tough missed opportunity here to call this Finding Nimmo.

The Most Important Thing About Clutch, by Jeff Sullivan
We know Clutch is no crystal ball, but what else do we know about it?

TUESDAY, 8/28
The Pyramid Rating System’s All-Time Washington Nationals, by Paul Moehringer
Mike Rizzo read this article and then traded all of the mentioned players after the non-waiver deadline.

Harrison Bader: Rookie of the Year?, by Jeff Sullivan
Now hear him out…

WEDNESDAY, 8/29
Bartolo Colon’s Forebears: The Previous Winningest Latin Pitchers of All Time, by Alex Remington
An excerpt: “There was even a Cuban player in the early 1870s, Steve Bellán, a Fordham University graduate who spent a couple of years in the National Association before the founding of the National League. But before Luque, there were no Cuban stars; he was the first.”

Things Aren’t Going Well for Greg Bird, by Jay Jaffe
Could be better. Could be better, indeed.

THURSDAY, 8/30
Run Home? Run Home!, by Wes Jenkins
An excerpt: “I think about Marvin at least once a week. Not because Angels in the Outfield is a perfect movie and not even because his name is Marvin, which makes me think of Drake and the incongruity of a five-year old boy running home to listen to Marvin’s Room in Marvin’s literal room.

No, I think about Marvin because I’ve often wondered: How many current baseball players can say they’ve run the distance between their present home ballpark and their birthplace over their baseball career? One? 10? All of them? How many bases equal a mile anyway?”

The Daily Grind: Automatic Wins, by Brad Johnson
If there’s one thing baseball is sure of, it’s that there’s definitely such a thing as an automatic win.

David Wright, the Mets, and the Cost of Goodwill, by Jay Jaffe
Ah, the saga of David Wright and the Mets, one might call it the beginning of the Mets’ outlandish injury woes.

What Do You See?, by Jeff Sullivan
Would like to petition for this to be the new standard eyesight test.

FRIDAY, 8/31
Zero WAR Hitters, by Chris Bouton
An excerpt: “Generating a zero fWAR season rests on two factors: poor individual performance and a team willing to pencil you into the lineup every day. Some teams, in the midst of a poor season or a significant financial commitment, had no other choice. Others likely wanted to give players a chance to play because they were highly regarded prospects or had previously been productive major leaguers.”

The Return of Shohei Ohtani, Pitcher, by Jay Jaffe
OH, BABY. Buckle your seatbelts.





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