The Best of FanGraphs: December 1 – December 5, 2014

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
2015 ZiPS Projections – Atlanta Braves, by Carson Cistulli
They’re baaaaaaaaaccck! Carson kicked off the week with the Braves, and then followed up with the Rays and Marlins.

Do Hitters Wear Down Over a Season?, by Jeff Zimmerman
This data comes with an interesting twist.

A Gif-tastic Review of Arizona Fall League Pitching Prospects, by Ben414
The last two from Tyler Glasnow are especially choice.

A Potential Anti-Bacterial Implant, by David Wiers
Deadly infections could be a thing of the past.

TUESDAY
Handicapping Justin Verlander, by Nicholas Minnix
Nicholas isn’t ready to write off Kate Upton’s boyfriend just yet.

Searching for Under-Used Breaking Pitches with PITCHf/x, by Chris Mitchell
There is a group of pitchers, a number of them Red Sox pitchers, who may see marked improvement if they throw their breaking pitches more frequently.

WEDNESDAY
Rico Brogna: Quality Control in Anaheim, by David Laurila
My friend and I got last minute bleacher tickets to the August 14, 2000 game at Fenway because Pedro Martinez was pitching. Pedro wasn’t his vintage self that night, but the game ended on a Rico Brogna walk-off grand slam. The ball landed like four rows in front of us. It was awesome. I just thought you should know. Oh, and read this article.

What Are We Missing About Nick Markakis?, by Mike Petriello
Not much, as it turns out. And the news that the Braves knew that Markakis needs neck surgery just makes his new deal with Atlanta all the more baffling.

Drew Hutchison, 2015 Breakout Candidate, by Mike Podhorzer
Mike is on board, and Mike is usually right.

Geographic Biases in the MLB Draft, by Dan Meyer and Alex Smith
There are specific regions and types of amateur players who are continually undervalued.

THURSDAY
Josh Willingham: Honoring the Hammer, by David Brown
Welcome Dave to the FanGraphs family! We’re one step closer to cornering the market on baseball analysts named Dave or David!

The Hardest Things About Drafting Starting Pitchers, by Brad Johnson
Opening the floor on an important discussion.

2015 Starting Pitcher DL Projections, by Jeff Zimmerman
Which ace pitcher has the lowest odds for hitting the disabled list? Click through to find out!

FRIDAY
2014 Trade Value: An Offseason Update, by Dave Cameron
Here, Dave modestly admits here that he’s just throwing darts, but this is actually a pretty great list.

Yankees Get Help, Tigers Get Help, D-Backs Get Projects, by Jeff Sullivan
I vote for starting every weekend with a three-way trade.