The Best of FanGraphs: March 13-17, 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.

MONDAY
2017 Top 100 Prospects, by Eric Longenhagen
One’s work is never done, but for Eric, the initial mountain has been climbed. Eric has done a great job this offseason.

Valuing the 2017 Top 100 Prospects, by Dave Cameron
Monday was a double dip of exciting prospect news!

Dick Williams on Innovation, Infrastructure, and a Reds Rebuild, by David Laurila
A lot of interesting topics covered in this one.

Service Time, Salaries, and the Reliance on Free Agents, by Craig Edwards
Reading this post, one wonders just how long the MLBPA will be content to let 69% of payroll be paid to 32% of the players.

pERA Update From SABR Analytics Presentation, by Jeff Zimmerman
Jeff has made some good progress, and has some ideas on how to make pERA even better in the future.

TUESDAY
Man’s Search for Meaning in Spring Training, by Kate Preusser
Birds are birding, indeed. Even in the snow.

Let’s Play With New Defensive Data, by Jeff Sullivan
More data equals more fun!

Miguel Sano, Defensive Superstar, by Dave Cameron
Do you think he is who Dave says he is?

March Rankings Update – Outfield, by Paul Sporer
There were a few rankings updates this week. In addition to outfield here, there was also starting pitcher, first base, shortstop, second base, third base and catcher.

WEDNESDAY
Nelson Cruz Wasn’t Out by a Mile, by Nicolas Stellini
Javier Baez did a Javier Baez thing, and Nick was there to break it down in painstaking detail.

The Pyramid Rating System’s All-Time Los Angeles Dodgers, by Paul Moehringer
It’s going to be pretty tough to find a better pitching staff than this one.

Hitters Who Reached Base When They Shouldn’t Have by Tim Jackson
Quantifying things that we don’t usually quantify is always a winner.

THURSDAY
The Tools of Baseball’s Fly-Ball Revolution, by Eno Sarris
Don’t miss this highly informative piece from Eno.

FRIDAY
Let’s Build a Searchable Baseball-Text Archive, by Neil Weinberg
Neil has a habit of making big requests. This one might be his biggest, and most important.

Roto Riteup March 17, 2017, by Jessica Kleinschmidt
In her first post for RotoGraphs, Jessica wrote the first Roto Riteup of the new season. Welcome, Jessica!