The Best of FanGraphs: January 26 – January 30, 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
Revisiting How Devin Mesoraco Got Good, by Jeff Sullivan
This comment may be in jest, but it is still accurate.

Current Steamer Fantasy Rankings and Auction Values, by Zach Sanders
This article has “current” in the title, but even though it was published on Monday, it still is current — mainly because the season hasn’t started yet.

Card Corner Plus: The Redemption of Lenny Randle, by Bruce Markusen
One act doesn’t define a man.

TUESDAY
Does MLB Need More Offense In the Modern Game?, by Dave Cameron
This article has polls! Oh, and some good writing from Dave too.

Wily Peralta and the Case of the Missing Whiffs, by August Fagerstrom
August wanted to search out why Peralta doesn’t strike out more batters. He didn’t quite succeed in this piece, but he may have in his follow-up post on Wednesday that focused more on the Brewers as a whole.

The Boston Infield: Change is Here, by Eno Sarris
Depth chart discussions are back!

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.
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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.

WEDNESDAY
Substitution Rules, by Tangotiger
Tango casually dropped by with his first article since 2012, and it was a good one.

Hello, I’m Paul Sporer, by Paul Sporer
He’s Paul Sporer.

4th Down Bot is a Super Bowl Must-Have, by Seth Keichline
On Sunday, you’ll want to enjoy yourself. Let the bot think for you.

THURSDAY
An (Admittedly Crazy) Rule Change Proposal, by Dave Cameron
Tango wasn’t the only one drumming up new proposals this week.

The Three Declines of Sammy Sosa, by Bradley Woodrum
Here within, find three stories, all of which may be true, and all of which may be false.

Complete Outfield Dimensions, by Andrew Fox
Often times, article titles can be misleading. This one is not. This is excellent work and an excellent resource.

FRIDAY
Estimating ERA: A Simulated Approach, by Jonah Pernstein
Jonah has something new to share with the group.

Yankees Bullpen: Deller Betandrew, by Robert J. Baumann
Robert J. Baumann doesn’t always write for RotoGraphs, but when he does he combines the name of relievers into a new name that sounds like a prospect that you should really read up on. Probably.





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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