The Best of FanGraphs: February 5-9, 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, 2/5
2018 Top 100 Prospects, by Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel
Happy Prospects Week, y’all. The celebration is kicked off with Eric and Kiley’s 2018 rankings.

Memories From the Game’s Faded Pages, by Sarah Wexler
We’re all lucky that a scrapbook that chronicles bits and pieces of baseball’s past ended up in the hands of this historian.

The Nationals’ Lack of Urgency Is a Problem for the Marlins, by Jeff Sullivan
The Washington Nationals baseball team has weaknesses to be improved upon. But the Washington Nationals baseball team also just won the NL East by 20 games. The Marlins gave the Nationals leverage in catcher trade talks by being bad in 2017.

TUESDAY, 2/6
Baseball Prospectus’ New Metric Has a Bartolo Colon Problem, by John Edwards
Don’t we all?

This Is the Slowest Offseason Ever, by Travis Sawchik
To soothe the crushing boredom brought on by this historically uneventful offseason, Travis has some fun graphs in here about just how little has happened in the winter months.

WEDNESDAY, 2/7
What’s in a Name? A Brief History of Baseball’s Sobriquets, by Cliff Corcoran
Motivated by recent news that the Cleveland Indians will be rid of the Chief Wahoo logo in 2019, Cliff looks into the origins of each of the 30 MLB team names.

Here’s Some Lower-Ranked Prospects We Love, by Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel
Not everyone can be a top prospect, but here are the ones with the best chance to climb the ranks and make it in 2019.

Who Got (Un)lucky, Starting Pitcher Edition, by The Birchwood Brothers
In baseball, luck is often the elephant in the room. Using 2017’s Hard-Hit Percentage, Batting Average on Balls in Play, and Home Run to Fly Ball Ratio, The Birchwood Brothers identify which starting pitchers couldn’t catch a break and which starting pitchers caught them all.

THURSDAY, 2/8
Some Kind of Headline About Not Being Stupid, by Brad Johnson
The best kind of headline. This is an article about the downside of a well-liked player.

Ranking 2017’s Graduated Prospects, by Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel
Please play “Taps” in the background while reading this list.

The DH Just Had Its Worst Season, by Jeff Sullivan
National League designated hitters out-hit American League designated hitters in 2017 despite the lack of specialization of the role in the latter league. Just a little something for the National League faithful out there.

FRIDAY, 2/9
Four-Finger Ernie, a Baseball Van Gogh, by Steven Goldman
An excerpt: “That was redemptive, perhaps. While a life without pain is undoubtedly superior to a life with it, while it would be morally wrong to suggest that self-inflicted pain is not generally synonymous with self-harm, what the greatest minds among us have always seemed able to do is transmute their suffering into art.”

The Cubs Might Be a Problem for Jake Arrieta, by Jeff Sullivan
When someone who’s already had a bite of the pie doesn’t go back for more, what signal does it send?

The Top MLB Prospects of Asia, by Sung Min Kim
In his first piece during his February residency with FanGraphs, Sung Min writes up the top MLB prospects of Asia.