The Best of FanGraphs: January 25-29, 2016

by
January 30, 2016

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
Tanking: Does MLB Really Have a Problem?, by Dave Cameron
Dave makes his case.

A Minor Review of 2015: Kansas City Royals, by Marc Hulet
It wasn’t that long ago that the Royals were the sad sacks with the best farm system but nothing to show for it in the majors. Now, we’re looking to see if their system can help them sustain their excellent run the past two seasons.

Faking It, by Kyla Wall-Polin
Sometimes, people get bored on the internet.

TUESDAY
The Beginning of the End for Pitch-Framing?, by Jeff Sullivan
Jeff makes his case.

WEDNESDAY
The Biggest Hypothetical Losers of a Raised Strike Zone, by August Fagerstrom
There could be some pitchers who have to make a lot of adjustments this season.

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

The Anomalous Offensive Outcomes of the 2015 Season, by Owen Watson
I never realized Yunel Escobar was so slow before.

More Keeper Questions Answered, by Trey Baughn
Trey wants you to send him questions. You should oblige him.

THURSDAY
The Weird Rumor is Now a Weird Trade, by Dave Cameron
The Rockies and Rays made a trade on Thursday evening. Dave doesn’t like it for the Rockies.

When (and why) to Ignore Projections, by Chad Young
You have to know when to go off page, and when to trust the projections. Chad offers advice on how to decide.

Birchwood Brothers 2.1: We’ll Never Be Royals, by The Birchwood Brothers
The brothers are in a new league this year, and they have some advice on how to pick out sleeper pitchers.

The Record Underperformance of 2015, by Emma Baccellieri
Not all teams that underperform are just unlucky, as Emma shows here in her THT debut.

MLB and Match.com Team Up for Some Dumb Reason, by David G. Temple
This reminds me of that dating show the Red Sox ran on NESN a few years back. Hopefully this service isn’t as awkward as that show was.

Coors Field: Blessing or Curse?, by Juan Pablo Zubillaga
Don’t decide until you read this excellent piece.

FRIDAY
KATOH’s Top 100 List: Now Incorporating Multiple Years, by Chris Mitchell
Chris has made some changes. You’re going to want to check this one out.

Taking a Second Look at Defensive Analysis, by Michael Tampellini
It’s always good to take a second look at things.





 

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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