The Best of FanGraphs: July 31-August 4, 2017

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 and blue for Community Research.

THROUGHOUT JULY
Trade Deadline 2017 Omnibus Post, by Paul Swydan
In this post, you’ll find links to all of our work analyzing trades made during July, including Eric’s and Chris’ rankings of all the prospects traded during the month.

MONDAY
Trade Deadline Breakdown, by Paul Sporer
Paul had you covered on the fantasy impact of deadline-day trades.

Jonathan Lucroy Moves a Mile Higher, Owners Rejoice, by Mike Podhorzer
Mike is encouraged. Read on to decide if you are as well.

TUESDAY
The Unofficial Scorer, by Frank Jackson
An eloquent ode to keeping score at the ballpark.

WEDNESDAY
Projecting Amed Rosario, by Chris Mitchell
One of the best prospects in the majors debuted this week, and Chris told us what KATOH thought. Oh, and then another one of the best prospects in the majors came up in the person of Ozzie Albies, and Chris was all over that as well.

Masahiro Tanaka’s Daylight Problem, by Eno Sarris
If, as first commenter LHPSU suggested, Masahiro Tanaka is a vampire, then we really need to make sure he only starts during the day, in order to neutralize his powers.

A Surprisingly Close 18-4 Game by Mario Paciuc
Things are not always as they seem.

THURSDAY
Summary of Free Agent Market Trends, by Matt Swartz
Matt ended up writing nine pieces for his FanGraphs Residency, making him the belt holder for most Residency articles thus far. This particular piece was his final one, and serves as a summary of his work throughout the month. Well, month-plus. Thanks to the deluge of trade-deadline content, we weren’t able to fit them in all in his designated month. Our August Resident will start next week.

Mid-Season Park Factor Update, by Tony Blengino
Good stuff as always from Tony, who then took you behind the curtain of his process on Friday.

Beware of Launch Angle, by Andrew Perpetua
To quote Andrew, “Launch angle is a very complicated and nuanced topic, and in all likelihood focusing on launch angle will lead you to make ill informed decisions.” Use with caution.

Baseball Needs to Do More About Sexual Violence, by Jen Mac Ramos
A thought-provoking article from Jen that they put a great deal of time and effort into.

FRIDAY
We Need to Talk About Rafael Devers, by Dave Cameron
I know, I know, it’s not much of a sample. But as Dave points out, and as anyone who is watching the young man hit can tell you, something feels special about him.

Jose Altuve’s Historic July and His MVP Momentum, by Craig Edwards
As Craig breaks down, Houston’s prolific second baseman is both a traditional and non-traditional MVP candidate.

Ottoneu Prospect Report: August 4, 2017, by Justin Vibber
Will Ryan McMahon be the next prospect to graduate to the majors? Because he’s certainly at the top of the MiLB class…