The Best of FanGraphs: February 9-13, 2015

by
February 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
FanGraphs+ Is Back for 2015, by Eno Sarris
Buy it, please!

The 2014 xBB% Underachievers, AKA: The Upsiders, by Mike Podhorzer
Mike continued his excellent looks at guys who should be better or worse than they were last season. Four very interesting names in this post, and five more in the downsiders post.

Question for the Ages: Who’s Your Least Favorite Player? (Part 1), by John Paschal
Part 2 is here. Read them both. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you.

The Giants’ Offense Doesn’t Care About the Platoon Advantage, by Tim Livingston
The Giants are a creative bunch.

TUESDAY
Piggybacking with the Giants Starters, by Eno Sarris
The Giants are a creative bunch.

Meet the Surprisingly Dominant Back End of the Cubs Bullpen, by August Fagerstrom
Last year, I wouldn’t shut up about Neil Ramirez on Twitter. Now, he could be part of a dominant bullpen. Which is nice.

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Henderson Alvarez Almost Has Felix’s Changeup, by Jeff Sullivan
This one set Jeff off on a beautiful tangent for the rest of the week.

WEDNESDAY
(Imperfectly Calculated) Minor-League WAR Leaders, 2006-14, by Carson Cistulli
Carson is so modest, isn’t he?

Breaking Down Jung Ho-Kang, by Dan Farnsworth
This excellent post here from Dan is just one of 13 that you’ll have access to if you purchase FanGraphs+ this year. That and a whole convoy of player caps, of course.

My LABR Mixed Review – The First 10 Rounds, by Paul Sporer
Paul recounts his draft with teammate Jason Collette, in which they drafted two AL East starting pitchers. It’s a bold strategy, let’s see if it pays off for them. Paul also recounted the final 19 rounds later in the week as well.

THURSDAY
The Best Transactions of the 2015 Off-Season, by Dave Cameron
Dave also broke down his least-favorite transactions, in case you’re curious.

FRIDAY
Yadier Alvarez Emerges While Other Cubans Move Closer to Deals, by Kiley McDaniel
Kiley took a trip to the Dominican, then came home and wrote things about it.

The Astros Bullpen: Depth Acquired, Closer to be Determined, by Alan Harrison
The Astros bullpen might not be the tire fire it has been, but the picture remains muddy as we move closer to spring training.

Rotographs Positional Rankings, by Paul Sporer
Rankings are outstanding!

The NBA All-Star Game Will Be Filmed with VR Cameras, by David G. Temple
The NBA is always trying new things during All-Star Weekend, and this is the latest example.





 

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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